April is set to be the biggest month in online poker history. As reported on PRO, rivals GGPoker and PokerStars will be going head-to-head with two of the biggest series ever brought to the virtual felt.
GGPoker is the heavyweight on the April card as they are hosting the biggest online tournament series in history. The $150 million guaranteed GG Spring Festival is scheduled to run alongside PokerStars venerable flagship Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP), setting up the fight.
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2021 SCOOP is no slouch in the guarantee department. PokerStars is guaranteeing $100 million across the 25-day series, which would have been an astonishing sum in the pre-COVID online poker world.
In April 2021, it isn’t even the biggest series of the month. GGPoker is cramming a few more events into their 22 day schedule to justify the $150 million guarantee, but that still makes it the biggest online series in history.
Spring Series 2021 Comparison
| Series | SCOOP | GGPoker Series |
|---|---|---|
| Total Gtd | $100M | $150M |
| Tournaments | 306 | 335 |
| Series Duration (days) | 25 | 22 |
| Avg Gtd | $326,797 | $447,761 |
| Avg GTD Per Day | $4,000,000 | $6,818,182 |
| Largest Gtd | $5M | $10M |
| Tournaments with $1M Gtd Prize Money | 24 | 39 |
| Buy-ins Range | $2.20 – $25,000 | $5 – $25,000 |
The festival has massive guarantees scattered throughout the 22 days. There are 39 events with a guarantee of $1 million or more, and two events will feature $10 million prize pools. In contrast, SCOOP features just 24 tournaments with at least $1 million in prizes guaranteed.
Imitation Highest Form of Flattery
This is going to be the biggest online poker event of all time and will blow a lot of people’s minds.
This latest series from GGPoker seems designed to go head-to-head with SCOOP. Not only do the dates coincide, but GGPoker has adopted a few of PokerStars’ tricks for this one.
Included in the 335-game schedule are 110 events split into three buy-in levels. Both SCOOP and WCOOP have had low, medium, and high versions of events on their schedules for years, but this is the first time the concept will be part of a GG series.
The new buy-in levels should be a boon for the Spring Festival. In the past, GG series have been geared towards the high roller crowd with buy-ins generally set at the higher end of the range. By adding low and medium levels, GG should be able to increase participation by giving options to players with all sizes of bankroll.
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In addition to the new buy-in levels, GG is also running weekly leaderboards at all three levels, with $1 million in prizes on offer for weekly winners. Each week of the series will feature high, medium, and low leaderboards, with the first two weeks awarding $300,000 each and $400,000 on offer in the final week. The prizes per level break down as follows:
- Weeks 1 and 2
- High: $150,000
- Medium: $100,000
- Low: $50,000
- Week 3
- High: $200,000
- Medium: $125,000
- Low: $75,000
Despite giving low and medium bankrolls more chance to get into the game, GGPOker hasn’t forgotten the high rollers. The $25,000 buy-ins are still around, with nine events set at that price.
There will also be a special edition of the $10,300 Super MILLION$ with five starting days and a $10 million guarantee, as well as two smaller versions with $3 million guaranteed each. Another event to feature a $10 million prize pool will be $1500 Main Event. A similar event ran in 2020 as part of the 2020 WSOP Winter Circuit Online Series and collected $10,327,925 in prize money from 6,395 entries.
GGPoker ambassador Daniel Negreanu is very excited about the latest series. “This is going to be the biggest online poker event of all time and will blow a lot of people’s minds,” he said.
Huge Music Mix
That launch party is also the source of some serious buzz. GGPoker has just announced a partnership with legendary electronic music creator deadmau5 to DJ the opening night festivities.
Opening night parties are generally more common on the live circuit than online, but the last year has been anything but common. The huge launch party for the GG Spring Festival will include a featured music set from deadmau5, streamed on GGPoker.TV on April 3.
There will also be a $100,000 Freeroll Houseparty to go along with the EDM extravaganza, but the participation of the Canadian electronic music superstar does not stop on the opening night. GGPOker players will also have the chance to play with and bust deadmau5 in his very own $10,000 GG Legends Bounty on April 10.
This may well be the biggest collaboration between music and poker ever, and ambassador Negreanu is buzzing about it. “From the deadmau5-hosted launch partyand other festival elements to the massive headline event guarantees, it’s a true poker party from start to finish, and I can’t wait for it to get underway!”
