GGPoker, the world’s largest online poker room, has scheduled a mouth-watering $200 million guaranteed tournament series that may sound implausible at first glance.
The series sets another milestone for the room, raising the bar even higher and eclipsing its already record-shattering $150 million series held twice.
“This is the biggest single online tournament [series] in history,” Daniel Negreanu, GGPoker global ambassador, quotes. “What’s more, it’s the most accessible, with tiers for any bankroll.”
The operator has revealed little details about the series. The GGPoker World Festival (GGWF) is spread over a month, kicking off on May 1 and scheduled to overlap with PokerStars’ venerable Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP), which promises $75 million in prize money.
Notably, the series will feature four buy-in tiers: Low ($2.50+), Medium ($25+), High ($150+), and Super ($1000+). Despite the difference in the price points, each of the four tiers will offer $100,000 in leaderboard prize money for a combined $400k. The operator says the signature events on the schedule will offer “life-changing prizes.”
- Or get up to $100 worth of rewards
- Available in many regulated markets
- Great MTT schedule including WSOP events
GGPoker World Festival 2023: First Details
- Scheduled to run from May 1 to June 6
- Guarantees $200 million — the biggest tournament series ever
- “All-Inclusive” series featuring four tiers to suit all bankrolls
- Buy-ins start at $2.50
- Signature events with “life-changing” prizes
- $400k in leaderboard prizes — $100k for each tier
- Will coincide wholly with PokerStars’ SCOOP series
What to Expect from the GGPoker World Festival 2023
While the officials have not revealed the full schedule, we can only make an assumption based on the last two year’s series. With $200 million in guarantees, the series will feature at least 500 tournaments. There could be at least two $10 million guaranteed events — a multi-million guaranteed Mystery Bounty event and possibly a $2.50 buy-in with six-figure guarantees.
Three to four dozen events will likely carry a guaranteed prize pool of $1 million or more, including PL-NL Omaha events and multiple high-stakes tournaments.
The guarantees could range from $15,000 to $10 million, and buy-ins from $2.50 to $25,500. The average guarantee per tournament across the series could be from $350,000 to $400,000.
GGPoker World Festival will Shatter Multiple Record
The GGPoker World Festival creates a record for the largest guaranteed tournament series and will also become the largest in prize money generated.
The current record for the largest payout is PokerStars’ SCOOP, which produced $185 million over 371 tournaments in 2020.
GGPoker came close to beating that record in 2021 and 2022 but only fell short of just a few million. The GG Spring Festival 2021, with $150 million guaranteed prize money, awarded $176.7 million over 335 tournaments. The operator hosted the GGPoker Online Championship a year later with the same advertised guaranteed prize money. It eventually paid out $178 million.
With the GGWF promising to award $200 million, it will finally beat PokerStars’ SCOOP series to become the world’s largest tournament series in prize money awarded. In 2020, it was unthinkable that any operator would come near that figure.
- Or get up to $100 worth of rewards
- Available in many regulated markets
- Great MTT schedule including WSOP events
Top Five Largest Online Tournament Series
| Event | Operator | Prize Pool Awarded | Total Gtd | Tournaments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SCOOP 2020 | PokerStars | $185M | $135M | 371 |
| GGOC 2022 | GGPoker | $178.1M | $170M | 426 |
| GGSF 2021 | GGPoker | $176.7M | $150M | 335 |
| WSOP Online Bracelet Series | GGPoker | $147.7M | $66M | 54 |
| WSOP Super Circuit Online Series | GGPoker | $134.7M | $100M | 515 |
The GGWF will be the operator’s fifth major tournament series this year and the second with nine-figure guarantees. It is twice as big as the mammoth $100 million guaranteed WSOP Spring Circuit Series that was held last month and four times bigger than the recently concluded knockout-exclusive Bounty Hunters Series.
The GGPoker World Festival is scheduled to run from May 1 to June 6. The full schedule is expected to be revealed this week.
