The Winning Poker Network has recently announced the return of one of the largest online tournaments in the world of poker. The Venom is going to return to the WPN with a guaranteed prize pool of $10,000,000. The tournament series is kicking off on January 21st and will last until February 2nd, 2022. Once again, The Venom is set to be the biggest online poker tournament offered by a US-facing site. On top of that, the Winning Poker Network promises that the winner of the tournament is going to walk away with at least $1,000,000 in prize money. This is one of the reasons to be excited about the upcoming series. Another excellent feature of the Venom is going to be its grid of satellites. A $2,650 buy-in can be too expensive for some people, however, players have a real opportunity to get their seat for just pennies via Venom Blitz Satellites and Skip tourneys. You can even qualify for free through Step tourney and freerolls. Moreover, there are hundreds of seats available through Venom Fever and Mega Satellites. Read on to find out more details about the Venom return.
The Venom Structure
Like we mentioned previously, the Venom is going to take place from January 21st to February 2nd, 2022. This $10,000,000 GTD tournament will be available to all players of the Winning Poker Network, namely PokerKing, Black Chip Poker, and Americas Cardroom. The next edition of the Venom is going to be held in the first month of the year, even though the previous edition was held during summer. Unfortunately, the last edition of the Venom did not manage to escape an overlay as it was unable to collect enough entries. Here is what the tournament structure is going to look like:
- Day 1A: Friday, January 21st.
- Day 1B: Sunday, January 23rd.
- Day 1C: Friday, January 28th.
- Day 1D: Sunday, January 30th.
- Day 2: Monday, January 31st. (around 11 hours of play)
- Day 3: Tuesday, February 1st. (plays down until the final table)
- Final table: Wednesday, February 2nd.
As you can see, there are going to be four opportunities to participate in the Day 1 of the tournament, which makes it more flexible and lets more players enter the series.
Thanks to the newly introduced Staking feature of the WPN, players will have an opportunity to buy and sell shares in the Venom. This is going to be the first Venom tournament to have Staking available. The basic principle behind this feature is that you can buy a portion of another player’s tournament buy-in. This practically gets you into the action of the tournament without playing anything. What’s also interesting is that players can choose to get staked and therefore lower their cost and variance of participating in the Venom. WPN promises to eliminate all risks that are usually associated with staking, making it safer, easier, and of course, more fun.
The Venom Satellites
WPN has decided to improve its satellite grid for the upcoming Venom tournament. With this decision, they won’t have to rely on the winter increase in traffic. With satellites starting more than a month before the start of the festival, not only will WPN benefit from the player influx during the Christmas holidays, but it is also an excellent way to lower the risk of an overlay.
The first direct qualifiers for the Venom are going to be the Venom Fever MEGA satellites, which are available right now and run daily. The buy-ins range from $32 to $290 and the winner is guaranteed 3 to 10 tickets accordingly. You can have an opportunity to buy-in directly or qualify for cheaper through feeders. Most of the MEGA satellites have a 3-step approach to get in. This means that things kick off with a freeroll satellite that guarantees 10 seats to a Super satellite. If you can manage to win one of the 10 seats in the Super Satellite, then you’ll get to play in a Mega Satellite. If you win that as well, then you have a ticket to the Venom tournament.
Another type of satellite is called the Venom Blitz Steps (Cyclones). These types of satellites are a very unique mixture of the tournament and fast-fold poker divided into nine different levels. At the beginning of each level, the player starts with a stack of 1,112-1,719 chips and needs to get to 5,000 chips in order to move up to the next level. On top of that, each Cyclone satellite has a direct buy-in, which lets you add the required amount from the real money balance, instead of trying to get a stack of 5,000 chips. Here is the structure of the Venom Blitz Steps (Cyclones):
| Level | Players | Buy-in | Rake | Starting stack |
| 1 | 9 | $0,10 | $0,01 | 1.112 |
| 2 | 6 | $0,41 | $0,04 | 1,465 |
| 3 | 6 | $1,30 | $0,10 | 1,625 |
| 4 | 6 | $3,80 | $0,20 | 1,584 |
| 5 | 6 | $11 | $1 | 1,719 |
| 6 | 6 | $30 | $2 | 1,579 |
| 7 | 6 | $90 | $5 | 1,552 |
| 8 | 6 | $280 | $10 | 1,591 |
| 9 | 6 | $850 | $30 | 1,604 |
Venom On Demand Skip and Step Tournaments are another way to qualify for the Venom. You can start with as little as $0 and make your way up to the Venom ticket. These are the classic steps that start with a freeroll. The main feature of these satellites is that players can choose between 9 different Steps. There are also Skip Tournaments available, which start at only $0.25. These tournaments let you jump one or more of the steps. Here is the structure of the Venom On Demand Skip and Step Tournaments:
| Tournament | Buy-in | Rake | Players to Start |
| TheVenom OD Freeroll – x50 $0.11 tickets GTD | $0 | $0 | 125 |
| TheVenom Step 1/9 – 10 Seats GTD to Step 2/9 | $0.10 | $0.01 | 15 |
| TheVenom Step 2/9 – 8 Seats GTD to Step 3/9 | $0.41 | $0.04 | 12 |
| TheVenom Step 3/9 – 7 Seats GTD to Step 4/9 | $1.30 | $0.10 | 10 |
| TheVenom Step 4/9 – 6 Seats GTD to Step 5/9 | $3.80 | $0.20 | 10 |
| TheVenom Step 5/9 – 5 Seats GTD to Step 6/9 | $11 | $1 | 8 |
| TheVenom Step 6/9 – 4 Seats GTD to Step 7/9 | $30 | $2 | 8 |
| TheVenom Step 7/9 – 3 Seats GTD to Step 8/9 | $90 | $5 | 6 |
| TheVenom Step 8/9 – 2 Seats GTD to Step 9/9 | $280 | $10 | 4 |
| TheVenom Step 9/9 – 2 Tickets GTD – On Demand | $850 | $30 | 5 |
And here is the structure for the Skip tournaments:
| Tournament | Buy-in | Rake | Players to Start |
| TheVenom Skip 1 – 2 Seats GTD to Step 3/9 | $0.23 | $0.02 | 6 |
| TheVenom Skip 2 – 2 Seats GTD to Step 5/9 | $1.30 | $0.10 | 8 |
| TheVenom Skip 3 – 2 Seats GTD to Step 7/9 | $11 | $1 | 8 |
| TheVenom Skip 4 – 2 Seats GTD to Step 9/9 | $90 | $5 | 10 |
Final Thoughts
Not only does the Winning Poker Network provide its players with an opportunity to win life-changing money, but it also generates more interest in its new tournament mainly through the innovative staking feature. This year has been excellent for the Winning Poker Network as Venom’s $10,000,000 GTD was the biggest prize pool ever generated by an American-facing poker site. On top of that, Americas Cardroom has also managed to sign Chris Moneymaker and Vanessa Kade, which has further increased its popularity and player base. It is fair to say that the next Venom tournament is going to be a PKO tournament full of exciting action and huge winnings.
