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ACR Sets Record with Venom and Plans Another

Written by Jennifer Newell
Last updated on
Jennifer Newell

It was a big win for Americas Cardroom, for the Winning Poker Network, and for a Brazilian poker pro named Rafael Moraes.

The tournament was called Venom and had been promoted for about six months. ACR wanted it to be the largest online poker tournament ever hosted for US players by an offshore site.

And it worked. They exceeded the $5 million guarantee by a wide margin, and by paying the winner in digital currency, ACR put itself into the Guinness World Records books.

Of course, Moraes is happy as well, having won a very large tournament for more than $1 million.

Slithering into the Record Books

Venom was an online NLHE tournament hosted by ACR with a $2,650 buy-in, though satellites had been running for months to offer discounted seats.

Players lined up to participate on three starting days, which produced these numbers:

Sunday, July 14:  785 entries with 117 players surviving

Tuesday, July 16:  439 entries with 52 players surviving

Sunday, July 21:  1,328 entries with 207 players surviving

And that put the total prize pool for the tournament at $6,382,500, far beyond the $5 million that ACR had originally guaranteed.

The three starting days resulted in ACR pro Thomas Cannuli holding the overall chip lead going into Day 2, though he ended up finishing the tournament in 105th place for $10,850.25. The top 351 players were paid in the end, but only eight players made the final table.

A Million Historic Dollars

The final table was reached on Tuesday, July 23, and those eight players returned on the 24th to play for the first-place prize of more than $1 million but were guaranteed at least $45K for eighth place.

Moraes played as “TheBigKid” and entered the final table in the middle of the pack, with IGotMilkBaby in the chip lead, followed by GinkgoBiloba and Alderberan90.

As play got underway, though, Moraes quickly jumped into the chip lead, and the former chip leader exited in sixth place. And as the action continued, Moraes climbed so far ahead of the other players that he eclipsed 600 million chips before heads-up play. GinkgoBiloba went into the final duel with only 145 million chips. And it didn’t take long for Moraes to finish the tournament for the win.

1st place:  Rafael “TheBigKid” Moraes – $1,050,559.50

2nd place:  GinkgoBiloba – $760,794

3rd place:  FatUSKid – $553,362.75

4th place:  Alderberan90 – $370,823.25

5th place:  BLEECKER_ST – $237,067.25

6th place:  IGotMilkBaby – $171,051.00

7th place:  ShameWizard – $110,417.25

8th place:  kreint – $73,398.75

https://www.instagram.com/p/B0UrgToltyF/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

With that win paid in Bitcoin, Moraes was paid immediately in Brazil, and ACR’s Venom tournament went into the record books as “Guinness World Record for Largest Cryptocurrency Winning Jackpot in an Online Poker Tournament.”

Another Venom in 2019?

The answer is yes.

Before the first Venom even reached its final table, ACR announced that another one was already set to take place after Thanksgiving this year.

And to make it better, it will guarantee at least $6 million for its prize pool. The schedule, which will include four starting days, will be as follows:

–November 27:  Day 1A

–December 1:  Day 1B

–December 4:  Day 1C

–December 8:  Day 1D

–December 9:  Day 2

–December 10:  Day 3

–December 11:  Final table

 

 

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