GG Online Championship Wrap Up

After an exhilarating 27 days, GGPoker’s GG Online Championship is finally completed. After what can only be described as one of the most intense and exciting online poker tournament series ever hosted unfortunately is completed. And while we are all saddened by the ending of this incredible series, knowing that whatever comes next will be miniature in comparison. After taking the necessary time to decompress, we have some impressive numbers to share with you, highlighting how big this series really was.

May 5th marked the launch of the inaugural GG Online Championship held exclusively at GGPoker. The tournament series which guaranteed $150 Million had over 130 scheduled events at various buy-ins for a total of 426 individual tournaments including a slew of Million dollar plus guaranteed events. When the last tournament of the series finally played its last hand, the GG Online Championship had well surpassed the guarantee and had seen players win $178,148,382.

As if the size of the total prize pools wasn’t amazing enough, there were a total of 977,493 total entries into the tournaments, an average of just over 1,120 per tournament. 

Biggest Field

The lead up and the size of some of these tournaments was quite impressive. While some of the Super High buy-in events had fields with less than 50 players, the biggest event of the series was Event #113-L. The smallest buy-in for this Mystery Bounty tournament, which was set at just $25, finished as the GG Online Championship event with the largest field. When late registration closed on this $1 Million guaranteed event, there were 43,443 players creating a total prize pool, including the bounties, of $1,086,075. When the last hand was completed, it was ‘LaPataDonald’ who stood out as the victor, having earned $35,257,70 for his efforts and $25 entry. While ‘LaPataDonald’ took home the victory, he was not the big winner of the tournament. Finishing in 4,173rd, barely in the money, it was ‘PRISt323’ who walked away with the biggest share of the prize pool with $100,061.60. Quite the reward for such a tiny entry.

Millionaires Club

As expected with so much money being guaranteed, even with as many tournaments as were run, GG Online Championship had 7 players win over $1,000,000 in prizes. These 7 players played well and ran well to finish atop the money leaderboard in this tournament series and should be applauded for their efforts.

Ole Schemion – $2,064,271.91
Simon Mattsson – $1,662,716.22
Rui Ferreira – $1,454,063.24
A Martirosian – $1,354,534.06
Arsenii Malinox – $1,141,689.59
Samuel Vousden – $1,094875.71
Andras Nemeth – $1,041,806.93

A hearty congratulations to these 7 who ended this tournament series at least a little bit wealthier than at the start.

More Impressive Than One Million

Walking away from the GG Online Championship with over $1,000,000 is impressive – only 7 players from the entire field were able to accomplish this feat. Those 7 players can certainly call themselves poker professionals and can likely add champion to their list of poker accolades. And while we all know that winning a poker tournament takes a fair amount of skill, some luck, and good fortune, particularly in larger tournaments, there is one feat that is arguably more impressive. The best players are not necessarily the ones who win the biggest tournaments, or earn the most in a single session. The best players are the ones who tend to finish in the money the most. Throughout the GG Online Championship, that award goes to a player who finished in the money an incredible 250 times. Many of the big tournaments only pay the top 10% of the field so finishing in the money over 28% of the time, assuming the player played in every GG Online Championship tournament, is an incredible achievement. So congratulations to ‘danludan’! You sir are a beast!

How Many Titles?

Winning one tournament is, as you are aware, quite the feat. And with 977,493 players competing in the 872 tournaments of the GG Online Championship, winning even a single tournament is a badge of honor. Winning more than one, well, that couldn’t happen, could it? Not only could it, it did. ‘Amichai Barer’, who ended the tournament series atop the High Tier leaderboard – earning a cool T$50K for his efforts – managed to win a grand total of 8 tournaments.

Speaking of Leaderboards…

The end of the GG Online Championship also marked the end of the chase for a share of the $500,000 Leaderboards. Just like the events were split into 3 tiers, the leaderboard was likewise split into a High, Middle and Low tier. As mentioned, ‘Amichi Barer’ took down the top prize on the High tier leaderboard, which includes both the High and Super High tournaments, securing top spot by a margin of 122 points.

The Medium tier leaderboard was never really in contention. Right from the start ‘Joao Simao’ jumped to the top. He managed to maintain his position throughout the series finishing with an almost 300 point lead over ‘Kostya_Jock’ in second and earning T$20,000 for his efforts.

On the Low tier leaderboard there was fairly consistent movement as the top spot changed week-to-week. By the end of the tournament series it was ‘goosbumps4’ who managed to secure top spot and a bonus T$15,000.

What Comes Next….

As we close the book on the first GG Online Championship, and reminisce over the amazing time that was had, we have to wonder what little thing could be next, maybe we can drop a tiny hint before we drive into the future….