GGMasters, the flagship Sunday freezeout tournament from GGPoker, has undoubtedly become one of the operator’s most successful and recognizable tournament brands. Launched more than five years ago, it now stands as GGPoker’s answer to PokerStars’ iconic Sunday Million tournament, matching it in terms of guaranteed prize pool.
What truly sets GGMasters apart is its unique format. It is a pure freezeout tournament, something increasingly rare in the modern online poker landscape. Every Sunday, participants get a single shot, with no rebuys or re-entries permitted.
The tournament features a $150 buy-in, which is slightly higher than the $109 buy-in of PokerStars’ Sunday Million. However, while the Sunday Million allows up to five re-entries per player, GGMasters maintains its strict freezeout policy, offering a level playing field for all participants.
Since its inception in 2020, GGMasters has awarded a staggering $185 million in prize money over 280 editions. Across these events, the tournament has attracted a remarkable 1.1 million entries.
- Or get up to $100 worth of rewards
- Available in many regulated markets
- Great MTT schedule including WSOP events
GGMasters All Time Stats:
- Total Editions: 280
- Total Prize Money: $185,245,166.40
- Total Players: 1,167,090
GGMasters debuted with a $250,000 guarantee, launching at a time when the popularity of re-entry tournaments had sparked debate about their long-term impact on the poker ecosystem. With increasing criticism directed at unlimited re-entry formats, GGMasters made a statement by embracing the purity of freezeout poker.
The format was championed by GGPoker’s global ambassador, Daniel Negreanu, and the tournament quickly became one of the most talked-about events of 2020, especially as it offered tremendous value to players during the early months of that year.
Even at launch, GGMasters was ambitious. Its $250,000 guarantee was a bold move, particularly given the absence of re-entries. The inaugural edition drew 1,610 players, forcing the operator to cover an overlay of nearly $28,000.
Despite the initial overlay, GGPoker increased the guarantee to $300,000. The tournament continued to fall short of its target for several weeks, until March 15, when it finally surpassed the $300,000 guarantee for the first time. Encouraged by this milestone, GGPoker further raised the guarantee to $400,000, and shortly thereafter to $500,000 once the $400,000 benchmark was hit.
What began as a $250,000 guaranteed event grew to a $500,000 tournament within just 12 weeks. This growth was driven by the room’s bold strategy of increasing prize pool guarantees in spite of frequent overlays, supported further by the mini online poker boom that accompanied the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Even as GGPoker tripled its overall traffic in the years that followed, GGMasters held firm at its $500,000 guarantee. While the operator expanded the brand with new variants such as GGMasters Bounty, Deepstack, Asia, and a Saturday edition, the core $150 Sunday freezeout event remained unchanged, until March 2025, when its guarantee was finally doubled to $1 million for the first time.
GGMasters Guarantee Doubles
Today, GGMasters plays a central role in GGPoker’s weekly tournament schedule. It runs daily with varying buy-ins, and collectively, GGMasters events now guarantee $4 million every week.
GGPoker has celebrated several GGMasters milestones with special anniversary editions featuring guarantees between $5 million and $10 million. These events have consistently drawn hundreds of thousands of participants.
Since the $1 million guarantee was introduced, GGMasters has awarded just over $20 million in prize money across 20 editions. These events have attracted a combined 145,945 entries, averaging 7,297 players per tournament.
In fact, the last four editions have each exceeded the $1 million guarantee without any overlays. The largest turnout came on March 9, immediately after the guarantee was raised, with 8,352 players generating a prize pool of $1,152,576. Most recently, the edition held on July 20 attracted 7,365 entries and built a prize pool of $1,016,370.
GGMasters Since $1M Guarantee:
- Total Editions: 20
- Total Prize Money: $20,574,336
- Avg Prize Money: $1,028,717
- Total Players: 145,945
- Avg Players: 7,297
- Overlays: $433,926 (9 out of 20)
- Rake Collected: $1,751,340
- Net Profit: $1,317,414
In many ways, GGMasters can be seen as the new Sunday Million. While it may not yet carry the same historic weight as PokerStars’ legendary tournament—the longest-running online poker tournament—GGMasters is quickly becoming a modern-day alternative. In fact, with PokerStars’ player traffic having declined in recent years, the operator has temporarily paused the Sunday Million. As of now, the event has not run for several weeks.
Nevertheless, the Sunday Million is expected to return in the near future. It will be interesting to observe how both seven-figure guaranteed tournaments perform side by side. For now, players have one $1 million guaranteed Sunday tournament available—and very well may soon have two.
