ACR Displays New Look as Venom Welcomes Players
Winning Poker Network has been busy this summer. Of course, it sent its Americas Cardroom sponsored pros and quite a few of satellite winners to the 2023 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. Several of the pros lived in a house together and filmed the latest season of the Punter’s Pad for YouTube. And with all of that barely over, several pros headed to London for the latest Triton high-stakes adventure.
The poker never stops.
Meanwhile, online at Americas Cardroom and its sister sites at WPN, players have seen a software upgrade, just as the latest Venom tournament got underway.
New Software
At the beginning of July, Winning Poker Network sites began rolling out the new software. There was an entirely new look to the site, with changes across nearly every aspect of the site.
One of the main goals was to make the site more user-friendly for new players and regulars alike. Eliminating the banners and pop-ups was a key part of that, so all information is displayed more clearly in the lobby and pull-down menus.
Players can now find their intended game variations, stakes and buy-ins, and open tables much easier than in the past. The filters were upgraded, and players can easily sort and search for what they want. For example, a player can search by multi-table tournaments only, game types, freerolls, and even events with livestreamed final tables.
The new configuration of the site also introduced and strengthened some restrictions. Players can only start one table at a time, and they cannot start a new table if there is an empty seat in that cash game group. In addition, the waiting list is no longer available for all tables, and players are seated on a first-come, first-served basis.
$10M Venom
The latest iteration of the WPN flagship tournament – The Venom – offered its standard $10M guarantee on the prize pool. The $2,650 buy-in tournament offered numerous starting flights throughout most of July, with satellites around the clock all month long.
Venom started its flights on July 20 and July 23, and it will wrap with three additional starting days – Thursday, July 27; Saturday, July 29; and Sunday, July 30. From there, the tournament will play out as follows:
-Monday, July 31 (Day 2): All first-flight survivors will return to play approximately 11 hours
-Tuesday, August 1 (Day 3): All remaining players will thin the field down to the final table
-Wednesday, August 2 (Day 4): The final table will play to a winner with a delayed livestream
Speaking of those satellites, players can get into the Venom at great discounts via freerolls all the way up to mega satellites with guaranteed Venom seats in the mix. Venom Fever runs through the final starting flight on Sunday, July 30.
The Cage Returns
Newer players might not be familiar with The Cage Live, but it is back, and they’ll get to know it soon enough.
The Cage Live is a cash game played at the Sheraton Hotel’s poker room in San Jose, Costa Rica. The days-long event will run live August 16-19 with free drinks and wild cash game action. The best part is that the players win their way in via online poker satellites.
Those satellites have been running through most of July, with the final ones set for July 30 and August 6 – both Sundays. The primary online satellites will each award nine prize packages. And each package is worth $8,700 and includes the following:
-$5,250 entry to The Cage Live (for 5K chips)
-$400 for other cash games
-!800 for airfare
-$1K for expenses
-Free stay for five nights at the Sheraton in San Jose
-Free airport transportation
-Free daily breakfasts
The uniqueness of The Cage Live stems from its big action and its play resembling a tournament more so than a cash game. Players buy in for $5,250 and receive 5K worth of chips. Blinds increase throughout the action. If a player busts, they can rebuy once. Players can also play more than one flight and combine their finishing stacks for Day 2. While that all sounds like a tournament, the kicker is that players can cash out their chips at the end of Day 2, collecting cash for the chips they present.
August High Five
Normally, Americas Cardroom and other WPN sites offer an annual High Five poker tournament series each April. The entire premise is based on weed, with everything from multiple references to 420 to special “Wake and Bake” tournaments each morning to start the day.
The series offers 10 tournaments per day for 22 days. The August 6-27 series will offer $14.4M in prize pool guarantees. Buy-ins start as low as $1.10 and max out at $2,650, but the vast majority of buy-ins remain near or below $100.
Of course, there will be several featured events:
-August 6: $630 buy-in Kickoff NLHE ($1M GTD)
-August 27: $630 buy-in NLHE Main Event ($1M GTD)
-August 27-28: $2,650 High Stakes NLHE Special ($1M GTD)
-August 6-27: $16.50 NLHE Mystery Bounty – multiple flights ($300K GTD)
-August 6-27: $2.50 NLHE Mystery Bounty – multiple flights ($75K GTD)
The full schedule is listed on the ACR website. And there will be many satellites opportunities throughout the August series.
