The biggest spectacle of the summer – the $5000 WSOP Main Event – on GGPoker concluded its Day 2 last Sunday, exceeding expectations and smashing multiple records including the largest prize pool for an online poker tournament.
The event with a record-setting guarantee of $25 million, attracted 5802 entrants across all of its Day 1 flights to build a prize pool of $27,559,500.
It breaks the previous record set by partypoker when the operator hosted MILLIONS Online in 2018 which generated close to $22 million in prize money.
“GGPoker is thrilled that the WSOP Online 2020 Main Event prize pool smashed through the $25M guarantee and reached a world-record total of $27,559,500, the richest online poker tournament ever,” said Paul Burke, Head of Marketing, UK & Ireland at GGPoker to pokerfuse. “The final four players will each win over $1M, with the eventual Main Event champion taking home $3.9M.”
Top Five Largest Online Poker Tournaments in History
| Tournament | Operator | When | Guarantee | Prize Pool | Buy-in | Entrants |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GG WSOP Main Event | GGPoker | August 2020 | $25,000,000 | $27,559,500 | $5,000 | 5802 |
| MILLIONS Online | partypoker | December 2018 | $20,000,000 | $21,835,000 | $5,300 | 4367 |
| MILLIONS Online | partypoker | December 2019 | $20,000,000 | $21,090,000 | $10,300 | 2109 |
| Sunday Million 14th Anniversary | PokerStars | March 2020 | $12,500,000 | $18,603,200 | $215 | 93016 |
| Sunday Million 10th Birthday | PokerStars | December 2011 | $10,000,000 | $12,432,200 | $215 | 62116 |
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38 players remain in the tournament with Day 3 set to resume on September 6, the final day of the two-month-long WSOP online 2020 bracelet series.
The winner of the Main Event will walk away with a payout of $3,904,686 which will be another record for the biggest individual prize in the history of online poker. In addition, the winner will also receive a $15,000 package to WSOP Europe and of course, a gold bracelet.
Besides the eventual winner, three more players will split up a combined $6 million, with the runner-up taking home $2.7 million while third and fourth place finishers will be pocketing $1.9 million and $1.3 million respectively.
A total of 728 places were paid out of 1171 players from all over the globe that made to Day 2. The min-cash was worth close to $12,000.
Some elite names entered the tournament including Brazilian Football star Neymar Jr, former heavyweight boxing champion Riddick Bowe, and Cricket star Shane Warne. And of course, the big names in the poker world such as Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Fedor Holz, and Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier were also among some of the participants.
Having kicked off two weeks ago, a total of 23 starting flights were scheduled for the $5000 buy-in Main Event with a cap of three-entries per player and each flight structured as a freezeout.
The operator did everything to ensure that the tournament covered its audacious $25 million guarantee. It ran a myriad of satellites and qualifiers, promoted it aggressively on social media and gave away tickets to non-poker Twitch streamers.
Although the tournament started off well with the first flight covering nearly 10% of the guarantee, the turnout slowed down a bit thereafter. Through the first 15 starting flights, only $11.3 million in prize money could be collected.
It still needed over $13 million in its remaining eight Day 1 flights. At one stage, it appeared that the tournament was heading for an overlay but a huge influx of players over the weekend not only helped GGPoker avoid the overlay, but it also ended up surpassing its guarantee by more than 10%.
The last four flights alone generated over $12 million in prize money, with the final flight seeing the biggest turnout: 858 players joined Flight W to add over $4 million to the prize pool.
GGWSOP Main Event Overview:
- Guarantee: $25,000,000
- Final Prize Pool: $27,559,500
- Total Entrants: 5802
- Day 1 Flights: 23
- Buy-in: $4750+$250
- Places Paid: 728
- First-Place Prize: $3,904,685.63 + a $15,000 package to WSOP Europe
- Tournament Ends: September 6
List of Records Which GG WSOP Main Event 2020 created:
- Largest Online Tournament Prize Pool ($27,559,500)
- First-Place Prize will be the Largest Payout in the History of Online Poker ($3,904,685)
- Ties with partypoker’s MILLIONS Online to Create Four Millionaires in a Single Online Poker Tournament
- Beats partypoker’s MILLION Online for the Biggest Turnout for a $5K+ buy-in Online Poker Tournament (5802 entrants)
Only Seven Bracelet Events Remain on the GG WSOP Schedule
The international segment of the WSOP Online 2020 bracelet series is in its final week and only seven bracelet events remain on the schedule.
The series has thus far been a spectacular hit, producing extravagant performances throughout the series.
GGPoker’s hope ahead of this series was to bring the magic of WSOP tournaments to as many players as possible across the world.
To date, 47 bracelet events have taken place, creating a jaw-dropping $125 million prize pool, an average of $2.65 million per event.
As per pokerfuse players’ nationalities rankings stats, players from 26 different countries have won a 2020 WSOP Gold Bracelet and at least 50 nations have reached a final table in the series.
To know, how your country is doing in terms of winning 2020 WSOP bracelets, check out the rankings here.
“GGPoker’s hope ahead of this series was to bring the magic of WSOP tournaments to as many players as possible across the world. We feel proud in achieving that, particularly when you take a look at the range of nationalities represented by the remaining 38 players in the Main Event,” Burke added.
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But not all is over as there are still some big events lined up including the $100 WSOP MILLION$ boasting $2 million in guarantees. Its Day 1 flights are already underway and continue to run throughout this week.
On Tuesday, Event #79: a $25,000 Heads-Up tournament with a cap of 128 players will run. It is followed by Event #80, a $600 NLH 6-Handed tournament on Wednesday September 2 and a couple of $1050 buy-in NLHE events towards the end of the week.
There is also a $10k buy-in WSOP Super MILLION$ event scheduled on the final day of the series with a guaranteed prize pool of $5 million.
Finally to cap off the series, Event #85: a $500 buy-in The Closer runs with unlimited entries.
GG WSOP 2020: Final Week Events
| Event | Date | Tournament | Buy-in | Guarantee | Re-Entries | Total Flights | Bubble Protection |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #79 | Sep 1 | Heads-Up NLHE | $25,000 | - | - | - | No |
| #80 | Sep 2 | NLH 6-Handed | $600 | - | 2 | - | Yes |
| #81 | Sep 3 | Bounty NLH 6-Handed | $1,050 | - | 2 | - | No |
| #82 | Sep 5 | Beat the Pros [Bounty] | $1,050 | - | 2 | - | No |
| #83 | Sep 6 | WSOP Super MILLION$ | $10,000 | $5M | 2 | - | No |
| #84 | Aug 31-Sep 6 | WSOP MILLION$ | $100 | $2M | 1 per flight | 26 | No |
| #85 | Sep 6 | The Closer | $500 | - | Unlimited | - | Yes |
