WPN Makes Significant Changes to Venom Steps Promotion

Having allegedly given away almost $500,000 in free tickets, the Winning Poker Network has made significant changes to its Venom Steps promotion.

One of the biggest online events of the y,ear will undoubtedly be the Winning Poker Network´s Venom tournament starting on Tuesday July 16th. The event has a $5 million guaranteed prize pool and a buy-in of $2,650 – which makes it two and a half times more valuable than Party Poker´s High Roller KO Series Championship tournament at the end of May for about half the buy-in.

In order to turn a profit, the ambitious Venom tournament is going to have to attract 1,887 entries once fees are taken into account. This is a big ask, but there is a precedent for the Network achieving the unlikely. In May 2017, one of the Network´s Million Dollar Sunday tournaments attracted more than 2,700 entries, although this event had a more accessible direct buy-in of $540.

Consequently – to qualify as many players as possible into the Venom tournament as early as possible – sites on the Winning Poker Network have been running satellites for some months. The sites have also been running a Steps promotion starting at freeroll level that gives players the opportunity to qualify for the $5 million Venom tournament for free.

Venom Steps Promotion Costs Network Almost $½ Million

According to a post on the 2+2 forum by the Network´s representative, the Venom Steps promotion has cost the Network almost $500,000 to date. This is due to the freeroll stage of the promotion previously giving away 113 Step 2 tickets every four hours. Each Step 2 ticket is worth $6.61, so the daily cost of the promotion amounts to almost $4,500. No wonder it has been so popular!

The Network is keen to continue offering a freeroll route to the Venom tournament; but, with still more than two months to go until the target event, it is unable to maintain the promotion in its current format – especially as there will be several more Venom promotions in the run-up to the Venom event. Therefore, the Network has made some significant changes to the Venom Steps promotion, including:

• The freeroll Steps are now “On Demand” tournaments that start when three hundred players are registered.
• Each Step 1 freeroll tournament now awards 12 Step 2 tickets, rather than the previous 113 tickets.
• The required number of players to start On Demand tournaments in later Steps has been reduced.
• New “Skip Steps” tournaments have been introduced enabling players to ladder up two Steps at a time.

There is also a new “paid-for” Step 1 On Demand tournament that costs $0.25 to enter and starts when just six players are registered. The concept of the promotion remains the same – you can still qualify for the $5 million Venom tournament for free – it´s just got a little harder for freerollers, and a little easier for players who buy-in directly into the higher stages.

Where to Find the Venom Steps Promotion

If you are not yet familiar with the Venom Steps promotion, the easiest way to find it is to open the poker client for Americas Cardroom or Black Chip Poker and click on the Sit & Go tab, and then on the Steps tab. All the “On Demand” steps and “Skip Steps” are listed on this page, as well as the WSOP Steps feeding into the Network´s WSOP Takedown event at the beginning of June.

Finally, if you are not yet registered at Americas Cardroom or Black Chip Poker, and you would like to be part of one of the biggest online events of the year, the two sites are running a special first deposit bonus offer whereby if you fund your account with cryptocurrency you will receive a 200% bonus up to $1,000. Please note this offer is only temporary, and we request you use the bonus code “[bonuscode room=”americascardroom”][/bonuscode]” when creating your account to ensure the enhanced bonus is applied.