New Lightning PKO Tournaments Running at ACR Poker

ACRPoker has experimented with new poker formats on many occasions, and there's now a new game that made its debut in March 2025. Called Lightning PKO, it aims to combine the currently popular progressive knockout tourneys with fast-paced gameplay reminiscent of lottery sit-n-gos. Lightning PKOs are available in the ACR Poker tournament lobby at the following buyin levels: $0.11, $0.53, $3.15, $10.50, and $31.50. They're also accessible from ACR's partner rooms, which include BlackChip Poker, True Poker, and Ya Poker.

Lightning PKO Overview

The way it works is that each of these tourneys begins at a specific time just like any other scheduled tournament. Tables are eight-handed. A minimum of six participants is required; otherwise, the tournament is cancelled.

Players start 10 big blinds deep, and there's 20 minutes of late registration with unlimited re-entries. Throughout the late registration period, the blinds remain at their starting level, but they then increase every two minutes.

Lightning PKO Game in Action

Half of each buyin is devoted to the normal prize pool while the other half goes to the bounty pool. Whenever a player is eliminated, the player who knocked them out receives a payment of half the bounty, and the other half is added to the bounty on that player's head.

Several Lightning PKOs start at the same time every 45 minutes past the hour. During busy evening periods, an additional set of them kicks off at 15 minutes past the hour. Most of them are NLHE contests, but there are some PLO8 and 5 Card PLO8 games too.

Each Lightning PKO comes with a guarantee; however, the amounts are not constant even within the same buyin level. It's likely that ACR adjusts the guarantees according to the time of day and day of the week.

Rake

The rake – or more properly, the house fee – in Lightning PKOs varies depending on the buyin level with the higher-stakes contests offering a fairer deal. The fee percentages by buyin level are:

• $0.11: 9.1%
• $0.53: 5.7%
• $3.15: 5%
• $10.50: 5%
• $31.50: 5%

Compared to another type of fast-paced poker, lottery SNGs, Lightnings offer a lower rake of 5% - 6% as opposed to the 7% generally found in the single-table format. The exception is the $0.11 games, which have higher fees.

Our Observations

We elected to observe the tournament lobby over time to tell you what these Lightning PKOs are really like without getting caught up in all the hype.

Though ACR Poker boasts that with Lighting PKOs, “Every tournament is done in 45 minutes flat,” the information we've gathered belies that claim. In fact, fewer than 10% of them concluded within 45 minutes. In our sample, the average length was 58 minutes, and one event took a full 80 minutes to end. The fact that these games feature standard synchronized breaks at 55 minutes past the hour no doubt contributes to these time overruns.

The average field size was 60 participants. Smaller tourneys tended to see bigger fields with an average of 80 players in the $0.11 games and just 38 in the $31.50 tourneys. Not only did the $31.50 contests attract fewer entrants, but there were fewer of them to begin with because the poker site only offers them during busier periods.

Overlays were relatively common appearing in about one-third of the MTTs we sampled. They were mostly found during off-peak hours.

Our Opinion

We've been critical of ACR's frequent attempts to add luck-based elements to poker while speeding up the gameplay significantly to the point where the skill in the game almost disappears entirely. This is why we were very critical of the room's Poker Races and Bounty Hunter scratch cards, which were introduced earlier this year.

However, Lightning PKOs may be a different story. Rather than inventing a bunch of new mechanics, this format merely tweaks existing tournament structures to deliver faster and more exciting games.

The fees too are reasonable being smaller than those found in Jackpot Poker: the variety of poker that most closely resembles Lightning PKO. With buyins at several different affordable levels and aggressive guarantees causing overlays to frequently materialize, we think Lightning PKO may be a winner at least in the short term.

We do advise you to commit more than 45 minutes of your time if you want to play; a more realistic target timeframe would be an hour. Also, the rake in the $0.11s is likely too high to beat, so we counsel you to play at the $0.53 level or higher.

Try Out Lightning PKO Today!

Lightning PKOs are running right now, so it's the perfect time to try them out if you have not done so already. Of course, you need to have a valid account to participate, so if you don't, today's the today to create your ACR Poker account. When you use our exclusive ACR Poker promo code PRB10FREE, you'll get a complimentary $10 no deposit bonus. That's enough to play 18 x $0.53 Lightning PKOs for free with a few $0.11s thrown in to boot! Then get a 100% up to $2,000 bonus on your first deposit. Click below to get started:

For further information about this poker room, check out this informative ACR Poker review. ACR is the flagship site on the Winning Poker Network and the one we recommend for new users, but you do have your choice of several sister sites that also spread Lightning PKOs: BlackChipPoker, True Poker, Ya Poker (non-US).