Winning Poker Network "The Cage" Tournament a Major Success
The Winning Poker Network has flopped the nuts with its latest promotion, "The Cage"
The Internet's Biggest Cash Game... On US Poker Sites?
We know it sounds odd, but it is in fact true tonight! The largest online poker cash game is being held not by PokerStars, Full Tilt, or iPoker, but by ACR Poker and company on The Winning Poker Network.
The Winning Poker Network is a US friendly poker network consisting mainly of ACR Poker (the network's flagship skin), Black Chip Poker, True Poker, YaPoker and BookMaker. According to Game Intel, the industry expert on all things cash game traffic related, WPN is currently the fourth largest US facing poker site and the twenty seventh largest poker platform in the world trailing just behind Ongame Network. How is it then that this network could possibly have the largest cash game on the Internet right now? The answer to that is simple, "The Cage."
What is The Cage?
The Cage is a new breed of poker game cooked up by the management team over at Winning Poker Network. Professional Rakeback would describe The Cage as a hybrid between a cash game and a multi-table tournament rolled into one. Imagine a high stakes cash game, played in a time-based tournament format with increasing blinds. However, instead of playing until the last man is standing like a traditional multi-table tournament, The Cage has a set time limit of 3 hours of play. When The Cage ends, unlike an MTT, the payouts are not based on who busted out when, in fact, anyone who busted out gets zero dollars! Everyone that survives the full three hour event wins a cash prize equivalent to their ending chip stack. All players start with 5,000 chips. If a player ends the tournament with 50,000 chips, that player will be paid out $50,000 USD. Lets look at some highlights of the structure of this unique event.
- $5,000 + 100 buyin (a low low 2% rake)
- No re-entry, no rebuys - one bullet and one bullet only
- 3 hours / 3 rounds of play, no more no less, with increasing blinds each hour
- 6max format with blinds and antes to guarantee action (no NITS allowed)
- Blinds start at 10/20 w/$2 ante, increase to 25/50 w/$5 ante, and end in the final round with 50/100 blinds and $10 antes
- Anyone left with chips at the end of the tournament will be paid out the equivalent of their chip stack in USD
- Direct buyin or satellite into the game with satellite entries starting at $1.65 and up to $600 buyin
- Easily accessible through ACR Poker, Black Chip Poker, True Poker & YaPoker
The Cage - Results
The inaugural run of The Cage was a smashing success. With a whopping 66 entrants, 24 of which made their way into the game via satellite (can you say fish pond!), the prize pool added up to an astounding $330,000 USD! 
According to Game Intel, there wasn't a single game on Internet that was as large as The Cage was tonight, October 8th 2014. Nothing even came close to having $330,000 USD in play. Of note, PROFRB spoke to Game Intel and due to the tournament format of this tournament, The Cage can not be tracked in their "High stakes games in progress" section, we did take a screenshot of what was active during the three hour span that The Cage ran though. Professional Rakeback staff actually had the pleasure of discussing this idea of The Cage with CEO of the Winning Poker Network, Phillip Nagy, back in February at the LSP Panama Millions poker tournament. We thought it was a great and innovative idea then, but it has far exceeded our expectations this first go round.
The Cage - The Winners
Of the original sixty six participants in the cage twenty seven of them, or forty one percent of the field was knocked out and suffered a loss of $5,100. Of the remaining thirty nine players, the smallest chip stack to cash was $1,297 (a loss of $3,803 for the player). The top fourteen players doubled up or better. Third and fourth place finishers, Fruits_of_Fib and vasya9 tripled up. Second place finisher, UpayformyKia quadruped up. The original King of The Cage, taking down first place was bestowed upon, bik6624235 ended up making six times his investment in three hours time! Here is a screenshot of the top winners:
You said this was a US friendly poker network, should I be worried about getting paid out? No, not at all, Winning Poker Network consistently scores very high marks in the industry's best Monthly Poker Payouts Report for US Poker Sites. Besides that, everyone who cashed in The Cage was eligible for a free bank wire payout from the Winning Poker Network owned skins (ACR, BCP, TP, Ya).
The Future of The Cage
It appears that the next iteration of The Cage is already available for early registration in the poker client. The Cage version 2, will run on November 12th, 2014 at 8pm Eastern Standard Time, which is currently GMT - 4 due to Daylight Savings Time in the USA & Canada. Professional Rakeback is quite excited with this, and we suspect our customers are as well. Although our strict privacy policy will not allow us to mention their names without their permission, PROFRB would like to tip our hat to the four PROFRB players who managed to cash in The Cage, and specially those of you in the top 10 *wink* You know who you are. Well played gentlemen, well played!
What Professional Rakeback really wants to know is... when can we get a Pot Limit Omaha version of The Cage?!
**UPDATE: October 9th 2014: Professional Rakeback just got word back from the Winning Poker Network, we have gotten our wish! A Pot Limit Omaha version of The Cage will be publicly announced today. It will take place on November 26th 2014!
Would you like to participate the next time "The Cage" runs? Join the professionals at Professional Rakeback and let us help you find the best of the Winning Poker Network skins, maximize your rewards or rakeback program, and assist you in all things online poker.