ACR Poker Rolls Out Skip-It MTT AI Poker Tournaments

By Pessi Lamm

15 Apr 2026

Pessi Lamm 15 Apr 2026

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ACR Poker unveils Skip-It MTTs using AI to rapidly cut the field.
Survivors enter Day 2 already guaranteed a payout.
Aims to attract players who favor faster, meaningful play stages.

ACR Poker Skip It AI poker tournaments lobby. Buy-ins $1,05, $5,25 and $10,50. Direct buy-in to $10K GTD $26,25 (credit: ACR Poker)

ACR Poker has introduced a new beta tournament format called Skip-It MTTs, built to cut out the long early stages of large-field online tournaments and move players closer to the meaningful part of the event much faster.

According to reported details, the format launched on March 20 and uses AI during an opening race phase to eliminate roughly 80 percent of the field in a matter of minutes.

How Skip-It MTTs Work

The concept is straightforward. Instead of every player grinding through the early levels by hand, the tournament begins with AI-controlled racers representing entrants in the opening segment. Once the field has been reduced, surviving players move into a more standard tournament phase and play from there in the usual way.

The beta has been reported at buy-ins of $1.05, $5.25 and $10.50, which suggests ACR is using lower stakes first while testing how players respond to the format.

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Sunday Day 2 Starts In the Money

One of the more unusual details in the format is how the later stages are handled. Players who survive down to 10 percent of the field move on to a Sunday Day 2, and every player who reaches that stage starts in the money.

That removes the usual bubble sweat from the restart and gives the format a very different feel compared with a standard online MTT. Instead of spending hours trying to reach a min-cash, players who make Day 2 are already guaranteed a payout.

This Did Not Come Out of Nowhere

Skip-It does not appear to be a random experiment. ACR had already tested similar ground with Poker Races, a format in which AI racers played the early part of a fast tournament before players took over near the money.

That makes Skip-It feel less like a novelty launch and more like the next step in a direction ACR has been exploring for some time. It also helps explain why the site seems comfortable pushing a format that leans so heavily on automation in the opening phase.

Why ACR Thinks This Can Work

From a player perspective, the pitch is obvious. Traditional online MTTs often require several hours of play before the prize pool becomes relevant.

Skip-It is aimed at players who enjoy tournaments but do not want to spend half their session navigating opening levels that rarely define the real outcome.

For recreational players and time-limited grinders, that will likely be the selling point. The format is not trying to replace classic MTT poker. It is trying to offer a faster route into the part of the event where stacks, payouts and decisions carry more immediate weight.

The Bigger Debate Around AI In Poker Formats

That said, Skip-It also opens the door to a wider discussion. Online poker has always been built around player agency and direct decision-making, so any format that inserts AI into tournament play is going to divide opinion.

Some players will see it as a clever structural shortcut. Others will argue that once software is playing meaningful hands on a player’s behalf, even in an opening phase, the format starts to drift away from what many players want tournament poker to be.

That debate is likely to stay attached to Skip-It throughout its beta period and beyond.

What Matters Most Right Now

For now, the key point is that ACR Poker Skip-It MTTs are live in beta, the opening phase uses AI to trim the field quickly, the buy-ins are currently set at lower levels, and players who reach Sunday Day 2 begin already in the money.

That alone makes it one of the more unusual online tournament launches of the year. Whether it becomes a genuine long-term format or remains a niche experiment will depend on how players react once the novelty wears off.

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