As we come to the end of the first week of the 2024 GGPoker World Festival, it is time to update on all of the excitement thus far. To date, players have played tournaments with guarantees just under $40 million and have won even more. And with over $200 Million still guaranteed, there is a massive amount of action to be had. On average, players have earned a combined over $315,000 per hour throughout the event. 

Since our last recap, around 120 events have been completed. We’ll focus on the major events, selecting two from each tier, but let’s first review the four leaderboards, offering a total of $2,500,000 in prizes.

Tournament Results

At the highest stakes, the Super High Leaderboard has $1,000,000 in prizes to be given to the top 100 players. Sitting atop this leaderboard is ‘R Romanovskyi’ with 764.94 points, many of which were earned after an incredible showing in the GGMillion$ which finished after the previous update was completed. You can watch all of the action from the final table here with regular GGMillion$ host Jeff Gross. Over 140 points behind him is well-known pro Niklas Astedt, a GGPoker Team Champion, while David Peters trails by an additional 80 points to round out the podium. Despite massive point differentials, there are still hundreds of events still to play, keeping the competition open.

The High Stakes Leaderboard presents a more condensed race between 2nd and 4th while ‘Chicharito14’ has built a nearly 200 point gap atop the leaderboard with 1,077.52 points. Second through fourth position are separated by a mere 12 points ranging from 894.02 down to 882.92 with ‘Iambeggar’, Jacopo Olivieri, and Martin Pineiro filling those spots. The race has barely begun as players chase down one of the top 300 spots on this leaderboard to share the $750,000 prize.

The $500,000 Medium leaderboard is paying out the top 500 players a share of $500,000. Currently ‘TheTrueNiceGuy’ has jumped out to a significant lead with 1,620.82 points, almost 400 ahead of second place ‘Kirch’ with 1,256.50. Rustem Kozlov sits in third with 1,207.83 points, having possession of the last podium position by just 24 points. 

The Low Stakes Leaderboard, rewarding $250,000 to the top 1,000 players, is currently led by ‘Stayson’ who has accumulated 2,188.42 points. Sitting 250 points back with 1,932.13 is ‘maruzzz’ in second while ‘HaENfinDag’ sits third with 1,914.31.

Super High Stakes

Event 33, the $10,300 Tuesday Classic Super HR (High Rollers), held on May 7th, saw 68 competitors create a $680,000 prize pool. The event, concluding in just under eight hours, showcased a dominant performance by Simon Mattsson. The victory earned him $159,770.13 while runner-up, Leonard Maue, settled for $126,482.97.

The next Super High event we are highlighting was #54: Thursday Titans SHR (Deepstack). This event offered a $400,000 guarantee but carried a $25,500 buy-in. Twenty-three players eventually signed up and created a total prize pool of $575.000. It was the high-stakes crusher, Ottomar Ladva who eventually took the win earning $290,143.66.

High Stakes

In the High tier, Event 52: $1,050 Thursday Throwdown [Bounty], took place on May 9th with 789 entrants generating a $789,000 prize pool. After more than 11.25 hours, Martin Pineiro emerged victorious, earning both the top prize of $52,142.65 and bounties totaling $51,478.56.

Event 33-H: $1,050 Tuesday Classic HR, another High Tier event, offered a $550,000 guarantee and drew 612 participants. After 11 hours and 6 minutes, ‘FelipeAA23’ beat Eduardo Pires to the top prize of $89,643.72.

Medium Stakes

The Medium tier featured a significant jump in field size. Event 52-M: $150 Throwdown Thursday [Bounty] on May 9th exceeded its $400,000 guarantee with 4,189 entries. Roman Hrabec took the top prize of $26,461.15 after nearly 11.25 hours of play. He collected $14,829.43 in bounties along the way.

Another Medium tier tournament of note was 32M: $54 Bounty Hunters Daily Deepstack [Bounty]. This $300,000 guaranteed event proved to be bigger than expected with 8,815 players putting up the money to play. When the tournament ended it was ‘Skarb25-win’ taking the victory worth $30,828.41 including $12,886.29 in bounties

Low Stakes

For the Low tier, the May 9th 52-L: $25 Thursday Mini Throwdown [Bounty] event drew 9,331 players creating a prize pool of $216,479.20, well over the $150,000 guarantee. When the last hand was completed it was ‘arccc-’ who claimed the top prize of $8,281.67 and $7,110.14 in bounties.

Event 33-L: $25 Tuesday Mini Classic on May 7th exceeded the $100,000 guarantee with a total prize pool of $134,435 after 5,845 players joined the field. ‘spidercerdo21’ took the top prize of $14,066.75 after over 9 hours of play. 

Where's My Seat for the Next Poker Tournament?

There are a lot more tournaments and action still to come until the end of the series as we come up to the 25% mark. Not to mention the record setting total series guarantee. Be sure to keep an eye out for some of the big upcoming highlights and maybe we’ll see your name here next week.

Sunday, May 12th 18:00 UTC Event 80-S: $10,300 GGMillion$ High Rollers $2,000,000 GTD

Sunday, May 12th 16:30 UTC Event 79-H: $525 Bounty Hunters HR Main Event $1.5M GTD

Sunday, May 12th 16:30 UTC Event 79-M: $54 Bounty Hunters Sunday Main Event $1M GTD

Saturday, May 11th 18:00 UTC Event 68-L: $25 Saturday Mini Secret KO [Mystery Bounty] $250K GTD

Log in and check out the World Festival tab in the GGPoker client to find which tournaments are best for you.