WPN Smashes Guarantee in $5 Million Venom, Schedules November Repeat WPN Smashes Guarantee in $5 Million Venom, Schedules November Repeat
Key Takeaways
  • The Venom was the biggest online poker tournament to be hosted by US-facing site since Black Friday.
  • In total, the $2650 buy-in tournament attracted 2553 total entries to produce a prize pool well in excess of its original guarantee.
  • WPN has scheduled another edition, this time with an even bigger guaranteed prize pool of $6 million.

US-facing offshore online poker network WPN, which operates Americas Cardroom and Black Chip Poker, successfully hosted its most ambitious online poker tournament to date, The Venom.

It was an unqualified success for the offshore operator. Indeed, it has become the biggest online poker tournament to be hosted by a US-facing site since Black Friday.

Boasting a massive $5 million guaranteed prize pool, the $2650 buy-in tournament attracted 2553 total entries to build a prize pool of $6.3 million.

The winner of the tournament walked away with a $1 million prize, the largest ever to be awarded by WPN. As promised by the network, the winner also had the option to be paid the first placed prize via the Bitcoin cryptocurrency.

According to the operator, the winner, a Brazilian, took them up on this alternative payment option, and the $1,050,559.50 was sent via Bitcoin “shortly after the final hand was played—all in one shot,” it was stated.

This apparently set a “Guinness World Record for the largest cryptocurrency winning jackpot in an online poker tournament,” a spokesperson said.

Although not officially announced, WPN has scheduled another edition of The Venom, this time with an even bigger guaranteed prize pool of $6 million. The tournament can be found in the tournament lobby carrying the same buy-in of $2650.