News From ESPN Hero Calls to Venom Fever: ACR Poker’s July Had Everything—and August Is Bigger August 3, 2026 Posted by David Parker David Parker URL has been copied successfully! Alex Foxen found a call under the ESPN lights, Chris Moneymaker turned a stone-bubble exit into a ten-cent sequel, and August brings two Venoms, three Run Up Main Events and a lot less free time.July gave ACR Poker two very different Main Event moments. Alex Foxen stared down a shove worth nearly 56 big blinds and found the call with ace-jack. Chris Moneymaker reached the stone bubble, called on a board that was already a full house, and watched pocket aces send him out. Both hands got the cameras. Both gave poker players something to argue about.Back online, the Run Up Series opened with 163 events, the 25th Anniversary Tournament introduced cumulative stacks, and Venom Fever started feeding more than 1,500 seats toward August. Then the Venom Vault arrived with a free key, while the $15 million Dual Mystery Bounty Venoms waited at the other end of the calendar. Quiet month? Not really. July Hook, Oddest Sequel and Next Up July Hook ESPN + Main Event Oddest Sequel $0.10 Bubble Event Next Up $15M Dual Venoms July Started Under the ESPN LightsESPN brought the Main Event back to its platforms with more than 100 hours of coverage scheduled across July and August. For ACR Poker, the opening episodes quickly became a Foxen story.The cameras kept finding him at the feature table. The hand everyone remembered came on Day 2D, when Vinh Nguyen moved all in for 67,100 and Foxen had A♠J♣.Alex Foxen Found the CallNguyen opened to 2,700 with J♥10♥. Foxen called. Yoshitaka Hayasaki then made a tiny three-bet to 6,500 from the big blind, and Nguyen shoved.Foxen did not have a monster. He had a good hand, a strange betting pattern and several hours of table history. The decision was for 64,400 more. He took his time, listened to Nguyen talk and eventually put in the chips. Alex Foxen Found the Call Stage What Happened Result Setup Blinds 600/1,200/1,200. Foxen starts with 340,400; Nguyen has 67,100. Foxen covers comfortably. Preflop Nguyen 2,700. Foxen calls. Hayasaki makes it 6,500. Nguyen shoves 67,100. Foxen calls; Hayasaki folds. A♠J♣ vs. J♥10♥ Board 6♦ K♥ 5♣ A♥ 6♠ Foxen stays ahead, then pairs his ace. Finish Nguyen misses the river. Foxen wins 142,500 and climbs to roughly 416,000. The useful part was not that ace-jack happened to be ahead. It was how Foxen got there. Nguyen had played loose, the tiny three-bet created an obvious spot to attack, and Foxen believed his own flat-call made him look capped. Then the table talk changed. “It looked like he wanted to say something but didn’t know what to say. That very clearly screamed weakness to me.” That was the final nudge, not a magic tell. Foxen had already done the poker work. The reaction simply made the shove’s story harder to believe. Chris Moneymaker Hit the Bubble the Hard WayFoxen’s call worked. Moneymaker’s most talked-about decision did not.Moneymaker began Day 4 with 221,000 chips, a little under 28 big blinds at 4,000/8,000/8,000. There were 1,389 players left and 1,382 would be paid. Seven eliminations. That was the gap between another Main Event cash and a very public walk away from the table.About 15 minutes into the day, Moneymaker opened to 17,000 from the hijack with J♥9♦. Antonio Vargas three-bet to 42,000 with A♥A♠, and Moneymaker called.The board ran 8♥ 7♠ 7♦ 7♣ 8♠. Vargas bet 20,000 on the flop, 45,000 on the turn and shoved the river. The final board already showed sevens full of eights. Against many bluffs, the two players would chop. Against pocket nines or better, an eight or the case seven, Moneymaker would lose.He called. Vargas showed the aces. Moneymaker was one of three players eliminated during the same hand-for-hand sequence, so two normal $15,000 minimum payouts were split three ways. Each player received $10,000. “He may be the only player I make that call against.” That sentence keeps the hand honest. Moneymaker was not saying that playing the board is an automatic call. He was saying the opponent mattered. Change the player, and the chips probably stay in his stack. The bubble has burst in the 2026 WSOP main event!2003 champion @CMONEYMAKER was one of three players eliminated during the final round of hand-for-hand.Moneymaker called off with a full house on board and was shown pocket aces by Antonio Vargas for a higher full house. pic.twitter.com/eYtMlzhTWk— Card Player: The Poker & Gambling Authority (@CardPlayerMedia) July 9, 2026 Then ACR Poker Turned the Bubble Into a Ten-Cent TournamentPoker sites are very good at turning pain into another tournament. This one practically named itself.On July 28, ACR Poker hosted a watch party with Moneymaker during the ESPN broadcast. At 8:30pm ET, The Moneymaker Bubble Effect began with a $0.10 buy-in and a $10,000 guarantee.The twist was waiting one place outside the money. The player eliminated directly on the bubble received a $2,650 Venom seat. Everybody still wanted to win. But for one night, the most annoying finish in poker came with a very useful consolation prize.The promotion worked because it did not need a long explanation. Moneymaker bubbled the Main Event. ACR Poker created a tournament where the bubble paid more than sympathy. Done. Poker, High Times and a World Cup Road TripJuly also got a little less buttoned-up away from the tables.Americas Cardroom announced that it had become an official sponsor of High Times’ Kicking Back, a World Cup docuseries hosted by Ethan Zohn. The announced production schedule moved through Los Angeles, Dallas and Miami, following the people and fan culture around the tournament rather than only the matches.High-stakes pro Martin Zamani was also set to appear in sponsored segments about poker and cannabis culture. It was a different kind of ACR appearance: no feature table, no mystery bounty envelope, and probably fewer people asking for a clock. Run Up Kept the Schedule FullThe Run Up Series began July 12 with 163 events and more than $10 million guaranteed through August 17. The schedule covered plenty of buy-ins, but the easiest headliner to spot was the $66, $1 million GTD Mystery Bounty Multi-Flight with a $100,000 top bounty.The series saved its biggest pile-up for Sunday, August 16. At 11:05am ET, three two-day Main Events begin: $750,000 GTD for $1,050, $400,000 GTD for $215 and $200,000 GTD for $33. Day 2 follows on August 17.In other words, the same Sunday offers a Main Event for three very different bankrolls. Nobody has to pretend the $1,050 is the only one that counts.Aruba Put a Beach at the End of the SatelliteTwo special July Beast satellites put 20 Moneymaker Poker Tour Aruba packages on the line. Each package was worth $5,000 and included a $1,700 Main Event seat, five nights at the TRYP by Wyndham Aruba, $1,000 toward airfare and $1,000 in spending money.The direct satellite buy-in was $95, with a free route available through The Beast weekly leaderboard. It gave the July grind a very simple possible ending: chips first, beach later. The Anniversary Tournament Lets You Keep Every BagThe $2.5 million guaranteed 25th Anniversary Tournament began July 18 with a $250 buy-in and 21 Day 1 flights. The format is the part players need to know.Stacks are cumulative. Qualify once and the stack goes to Day 2. Qualify again and the second stack gets added. Nothing replaces the first bag. You are literally stacking your stacks.The schedule includes 11 Saturday Turbo flights through September 26, followed by ten regular-speed flights beginning August 30. Day 2 is September 28 and the final table is September 29. A $27.50 Mega Satellite runs at 10:45am ET before each Saturday Turbo.That creates a rare reason to come back after qualifying. A bag is not the finish line. It is permission to try to bring more chips.Venom Fever Starts at One Cent. Seriously.Venom Fever is built around more than 1,500 guaranteed seats into the two $2,650 Mystery Bounty Venoms. The routes are intentionally all over the bankroll map. Venom Fever Qualification Routes Route Starting Point What It Does Spin to Get In $0.01 A one-cent entry point into the qualification ladder. Survivor Flips $0.80 Short flip steps that can climb toward a full Venom seat. Venom Madness $16.50 Weekly multi-flight qualification with Sunday Day 2 finals. Direct Satellites $109 / $290 Direct routes that began August 3. Venom Vault One free key Every eligible player starts with a free key; prizes range from step tickets to a $2,650 Venom seat. The Vault runs August 3–30. Every eligible player receives one free key, and every key wins. Extra keys can be purchased for $2.99, redeemed for 300 Combat Points or earned through promotional challenges.The best possible unlock is a $2,650 Venom seat. Vault seats are initially issued for Day 1B on August 16 and can be used in a later Day 1 if they remain unused. The Destination: Two Venoms, $15 Million GuaranteedThe two Mystery Bounty Venoms begin August 13 and share the same eight-flight schedule.The NLH Venom carries $12 million GTD and a $500,000 top bounty. The PLO Venom carries $3 million GTD and a $250,000 top bounty. Both cost $2,650, both have a $5,000 minimum Mystery Bounty, and every player who reaches Day 2 is already in the money.The buy-ins are serious. So are the qualification options. That is the entire point of Venom Fever: give players more than one way to get to the same very large table.The August Dates Worth Circling The August Dates Worth Circling Date What Is Happening Why It Matters Aug. 3 Venom Vault and Direct Satellites begin. ESPN’s three-night Main Event final-table coverage starts at 9pm ET on ESPN2. The road into the Venoms gets wider while the Main Event returns to television. Aug. 13 NLH and PLO Venom Day 1A at 12:05pm ET. $15 million in combined guarantees officially gets moving. Aug. 16 Three Run Up Main Events at 11:05am ET, followed by Venom Day 1B at 12:05pm ET. Choose your buy-in, clear the afternoon and probably warn the family. Aug. 17 Run Up Day 2s, the $1M Mystery Bounty Day 2, Venom Day 1C and the start of the Venom Specials. A lot of players will be carrying bags from Sunday. Aug. 30 Venom Day 1H, the end of Venom Fever and Venom Vault, and the first regular Anniversary Day 1. Last call for the Venoms meets the next phase of the Anniversary event. Aug. 31 Both Venoms move to Day 2 at 1:05pm ET. Everyone left is in the money, and the Mystery Bounties are live. July Gave Us the Stories. August Gets the Chips in the Middle.July had two hands built for television. Foxen found the call. Moneymaker found the wrong end of the bubble and then helped turn it into a ten-cent tournament. The month also opened Run Up, started the Anniversary stack-building, sent Aruba packages into the schedule and put Americas Cardroom beside High Times and the World Cup.August is less interested in buildup. The Main Event final table returns to ESPN. The Vault is open. Three Run Up Main Events land on the same Sunday as Venom Day 1B. Then the two Venoms put $15 million guaranteed and two huge top bounties on the table.Pick a route. Win a seat. Build a stack. Just do not say there was nothing to play.For current schedules, qualification routes and more player stories, follow ACR Poker News and review the Dual Mystery Bounty Venom schedule.