The Venom has always been the Winning Poker Network's flagship swing-for-the-fences tournament. This August, ACR is running two of them side by side.
From August 13th through September 2nd, WPN is firing a dual Mystery Bounty Venom with $15 million guaranteed across the two events combined. The split is a $12 million NLH main and a $3 million PLO version, both at a $2,650 buy-in, both running on parallel schedules. It's the biggest Venom package the network has put up.
What "Mystery Bounty" actually changes
The Venom is normally a straight guaranteed prize pool. This one grafts a Mystery Bounty layer on top, and the mechanic matters more than the marketing does.
Here's how it works: bounties don't activate on Day 1. You have to survive to Day 2 first. Once you're there, every player you knock out unlocks a random bounty from the pool. Most are small. A few are enormous. On the NLH side the top bounty is $500,000. On PLO it's $250,000. That means a single well-timed elimination on Day 2 can be worth more than winning the whole tournament.
The design does something subtle to how the money moves. In a normal Venom, the value is concentrated at the final table. Here, a chunk of the prize pool gets redistributed into the Day 2 knockout phase, so a mid-field player who busts in 40th but happens to draw the half-million bounty walks away with a life-changing score they never sniffed under standard payout structure. It rewards aggression and variance in a way flat Venoms don't, and it's why these events pull the numbers they do.
Every player who reaches Day 2 is already in the money before the bounty hunt even starts, so the survival milestone is the real gate. Clear it and you're guaranteed a cash plus a shot at the lottery.
Eight Day 1 flights and stack combining
The structure is built to give recreational players multiple bites. There are eight Day 1 flights per event, spread across three weeks:
- Day 1A: Thursday, August 13th, 12:05pm ET
- Day 1B: Sunday, August 16th, 12:05pm ET
- Day 1C: Monday, August 17th, 12:05pm ET
- Day 1D: Thursday, August 20th, 12:05pm ET
- Day 1E: Sunday, August 23rd, 12:05pm ET
- Day 1F: Monday, August 24th, 12:05pm ET
- Day 1G: Thursday, August 27th, 12:05pm ET
- Day 1H: Sunday, August 30th, 12:05pm ET
Day 2 runs Monday, August 31st at 1:05pm ET for both events. NLH gets a Day 3 on Tuesday, September 1st. PLO does not, it goes straight from Day 2 toward the finish. The final table is Wednesday, September 2nd at 4:05pm ET.
The flight glut isn't just about convenience. WPN allows you to play multiple Day 1s and combine your surviving stacks going into Day 2. Bag in three separate flights and you can consolidate all three into one Day 2 stack, which is a meaningful edge for anyone willing to put in the volume. The catch: once you've qualified for Day 2, you can't register a fresh Day 1 on a different WPN account to take another run. Same account, extra Day 1s to build the stack, is fine. Different account is a disqualification.
Getting in for less than $2,650
The buy-in is steep, and WPN knows most of its player base isn't buying in direct. That's what the Venom Fever satellite ecosystem is for. The network is guaranteeing 1,500+ seats through a full ladder of qualifiers, Direct Satellites, Mega Satellites, Beast Tourneys, Survivor Flips, and Steps, with entry points starting at $0.
Realistically, this is how the field gets built. A $2,650 tournament with a huge overlay-proof guarantee needs volume, and the satellite pipeline is what converts a $5 micro-stakes reg into a Venom seat. The complete qualification schedule lives on ACR's Venom Fever promotion page.
Added-value specials stacked around the flights
Starting Monday, August 17th, every remaining Venom flight date carries a slate of Venom Special tournaments, with more than $10 million in total added-value guarantees layered on top of the main events. It's a reasonable hedge for the field: if the $500,000 bounty doesn't come home, there's a full schedule of other tournaments running the same nights to chase instead.
The terms worth reading before you fire
A few rules carry real consequences, so read them once:
You can only play the Venom from a single WPN account. Anyone caught playing from multiple accounts forfeits all winnings, full stop. If you've collected Venom tickets across several accounts, you have to contact customer service to consolidate them onto one account before Day 1A kicks off on August 13th.
Only $2,650 Venom tickets are transferable, and only extras, your primary ticket can't be sold. If you're holding multiples and want to sell, both buyer and seller have to email [email protected] from their registered account addresses to confirm the price. Unused extra entries expire at the end of late registration on the final Day 1 (August 30th) and roll to no future event, so don't hoard tickets you won't fire.
Deal-making at the final table is permitted. ACR also reserves the right to adjust the terms within a reasonable window before the event, which is standard boilerplate but worth noting.
