ACR Poker set a lofty goal when it raised the guarantee from $10,000,000 to $12,500,000 on its flagship Venom tournament. The 25% increase meant that meeting the guarantee this time around was no sure thing, but the tournament's final Day 1 starting flight on Sunday saw the prize pool break through the guarantee, ballooning to a total of $12,612,500.
The five starting flights saw the field draw 5,045 entrants, of which only 1,012 advanced to Day 2.
The Venom Fever prevailed as ACR Poker cruised past the guaranteeToday, Day 2 action kicks off at 1:00pm ET and ACR Team Pros Monika Zukowicz and Chris Moneymaker will both start the proceedings with top ten chip counts.
However, there was late controversy after ACR Poker suspended the account with the second-biggest stack on suspicion of it being a bot.
The MTT Database Review account on X posted the allegation earlier on Monday, saying, "Second largest stack in day 2 of the Venom is a bot. Bot that I reported to ACR over a month ago. Including directly to Head of Security and to @WPN_CEO. Bot that I reported together with another 50 MTT bots, out of which majority is still active."
ACR Poker replied directly to that post ahead of the restart, stating that it had suspended the 'Withia' account and that the stack would be blinded away. Should 'Withia' make the money, as seems likely, payouts would be adjusted.
An announcement from WPN's security department states: "In line with our security protocols and following a review of suspicious playing patterns, we have suspended the account of the player under the username 'Withia,' who currently holds the second position in chips during the ongoing multi-day tournament, The Venom $12.5 Million GTD Tourney. Should this player cash in the $12.5 Million Tournament while being blinded out, we will adhere strictly to our terms and conditions, including laddering payouts accordingly."
It's embarrassing for ACR Poker, which has had to deal with lots of accusations of bots running on its site. However, the decisive action does leave it with some credit from the incident. Critics will ask, however, that if this account was reported over a month ago, why has it taken this long, and for such a high-profile incident, before any action was taken?
Players react to ACR statement
Reactions to the breaking story have been mixed. Ryan 'Beriuzy' Chamas pointed out that he lost a huge pot to 'Withia' at the tail-end of Day 1.
Faraz Jaka took a more conciliatory approach, saying that all sites suffer from bots and that expecting no bots in a tournament is a "pipe dream". He went on to say that the real issue to focus on is how well the sites deal with the problem.
ACR Poker will be hoping that some of its own in-house star power, including Moneymaker and Zukowicz can turn the Venom story back onto the positive.
With the guarantee broken, the tournament will make instant millionaires out of the top-three finishers and provide each of the other top-ten finishers with a six-figure score. Check out the top ten payouts below.
- 1st - $1,818,044
- 2nd - $1,345,186
- 3rd - $1,013,515
- 4th - $716,844
- 5th - $523,292
- 6th - $382,007
- 7th - $278,862
- 8th - $203,565
- 9th - $148,600
- 10th - $108,480
Venom Day 2 top ten stacks
| Place | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | BussJuggs | 6,885,864 |
| 2 | Withia | 6,837,048 |
| 3 | TIKITAKA11 | 6,491,871 |
| 4 | PatrickStar5 | 6,010,136 |
| 5 | HeyMonia | 5,768,925 |
| 6 | mrbigdick | 5,477,406 |
| 7 | LappyPoker | 5,285,292 |
| 8 | Kraskata85 | 5,179,813 |
| 9 | diegowushu | 5,105,281 |
