News ACR Poker’s $2.5 Million Anniversary Tournament Keeps Building as Regular Day 1s Join the Schedule Owen Gaines Owen Gaines is a professional poker player and author who has played an estimated ten million hands and written four poker strategy books. August 26, 2026 Six completed Saturday Turbos have generated 1,236 entries, with 421 unique players already through to Day 2 as Regular Day 1s join the tournament’s ongoing schedule. ACR Poker’s 25th Anniversary Tournament was built to last longer than a single weekend. The $250 event opened on July 18 with a $2.5 million guarantee, runs through September 29 and uses a cumulative-stack format that lets players keep adding chips every time they qualify through another Day 1. The field is already taking shape. As of August 26, 2,484 entries have produced 421 unique Day 2 qualifiers, with $583,740 contributed to the prize pool so far. Regular Day 1s are now joining the schedule, adding more opportunities alongside the Turbo flights that continue into September. That creates two different races at once. Players who are not yet through still have time to qualify. Players already holding a Day 2 stack can keep returning and try to make that stack bigger before September 28. Six Saturday Turbos Account for Nearly Half the Entries As of August 26, six Saturday Turbo flights have been completed: July 18, July 25, August 1, August 8, August 15 and August 22. Together, they produced 1,236 entries – 49.8% of the tournament’s 2,484 entries so far. The July 25 flight remains the biggest Saturday Turbo of the opening stretch with 269 entries. The other completed Saturday fields drew 197, 227, 208, 180 and 155 entries. More Saturday Turbos remain on the calendar, but these first six give the clearest snapshot of how the event built its field before Regular Day 1s join the mix. Qualifying Once Isn’t the Finish Line The defining mechanic is simple: survive a Day 1 and that stack advances. Qualify again and the new qualifying stack is added to the first one for Day 2. The later stack does not replace the earlier one. That is already happening. Twenty-three unique players have qualified more than once. Among them, mugggggy has the largest current stack at 7,196,441 chips. The player has four total entries and currently sits second overall. The headline numbers count different things. 2,484 is the number of entries, while 421 is the number of unique players who have qualified for Day 2. Repeat entries are part of the tournament, so those two figures should not be treated as a simple qualification percentage. In practical terms, the cumulative rule means a later qualifying stack is added to the chips already secured. A player who advances 1.5 million chips in one flight and another 800,000 in a later flight would take 2.3 million forward to Day 2. That is why returning after qualification can still change a player’s starting position. For an already-qualified player, another Day 1 can therefore do more than provide insurance. A second successful flight adds chips directly to the stack that will be waiting on Day 2. Regular Day 1s Join the Mix Turbo flights have driven much of the action so far, and now Regular Day 1s are joining them. Both formats remain part of the road to Day 2, giving players more opportunities to qualify or add to a stack they have already secured. The objective stays the same in either format: finish the Day 1 with chips, carry that stack forward and, if you qualify again later, add the new stack to what you already have. Day 1 opportunities continue into late September. Day 2 is Monday, September 28, and the Final Table is Tuesday, September 29. RazvyQQ Sets the Number to Catch The current leaderboard has a clear front-runner. RazvyQQ leads with 9,357,194 chips, more than 2.1 million ahead of second-place mugggggy. AAnoob is third with 6,980,312. Because qualifying stacks can still be added before Day 2, the order is not locked. A player already on this list can return, qualify again and increase the stack shown below. Current Day 2 Leaderboard RankPlayerCurrent Stack 1RazvyQQ9,357,194 2mugggggy7,196,441 3AAnoob6,980,312 4Minimahl5,863,990 5EndlessJew5,697,358 6krissyb24!5,588,504 7Pokerdawgs20205,472,279 8JeffHardy5,246,622 9JJoom4,941,968 The Guarantee Is the Anniversary StatementThe tournament exists to mark 25 years of ACR Poker. Its headline numbers are a $2.5 million guarantee and a $250 buy-in, with a qualification period stretching from July into late September.The opening flight was July 18, but the field does not come together for Day 2 until September 28. Instead of one anniversary weekend, players get repeated opportunities to qualify – and, because the stacks accumulate, repeated opportunities to improve the position they will carry into Day 2.The current $583,740 in prize-pool contributions is only an August 26 snapshot. The guarantee remains $2.5 million, and the schedule still has weeks of Day 1 action left.The long runway also gives the cumulative-stack format room to matter. A player can qualify early, return later and potentially arrive on September 28 with a much larger stack than the one first secured.A Saturday Turbo Seat Can Start at $1.05Players who do not want to post the full $250 directly also have a current satellite route into the Saturday Turbo flights. On Thursday and Friday, a $1.05 Super Satellite at 5:05pm ET guarantees 25 seats to an $11 Mega Satellite at 6:35pm ET. That Mega guarantees 25 seats to the $250 Saturday Turbo.On Saturday, the same path starts earlier: the $1.05 Super runs at 9:05am ET and feeds an $11 Mega at 10:45am ET, with 25 guaranteed seats at each step.Everything Points to September 28The 421 players already qualified have chips waiting. Twenty-three have already shown what multiple qualifications can do. RazvyQQ has set the current target at 9,357,194, and more Day 1s remain before those stacks finally meet.Day 2 begins Monday, September 28, with the Final Table following on Tuesday, September 29. Until then, the goal is straightforward: qualify once, come back if you want more, and keep building.View the 25th Anniversary Tournament and the latest ACR Poker tournament lineup for current playing options.