The GG Spotlight – GGPoker World Festival Update #3
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Three and a half weeks have passed since the launch of the inaugural GGPoker World Festival. To date, 160 multi-tiered tournaments have been completed and 90 remain. Over $41 Million was won this past week and more than $60 Million is still guaranteed, you still have lots of time to jump in a join the fun. With these staggering amounts still to be won at every buy-in, we are proving that Bigger is Better.
Over 50 events have run since we last looked at the results, and just like last time, we will be only highlighting the bigger events, 2 from each tier, but first, let us take a glance at the 4 leaderboards, each worth $100,000 in prizes.
Starting with the Super High Leaderboard, which only pays the top 8, still has the top 2 pulling away from the rest of the field with the top spot holding a significant lead over second. Still sitting at the top of the board is GGPoker Team Champion Niklas Astedt and Matthew Stumpf remains in 2nd. The jump now between 1st and 2nd is hovering around 300 points, the same as what it is between 2nd and 3rd. The jump to 4th is only another 16 points. So while the top spots are looking close to locked up, the remainder of the leaderboard is still being fought over. Of course, with 90 events still to play, anything is possible. The 3rd spot has been taken by ‘R Romanovskyi’, while former number 3, Nicholas Maimone, has fallen to 4th.
The High Stakes Leaderboard has remained a bit of a tighter race than the Super High with players steadily decreasing instead of a sharp drop as you look down the list. Sitting atop the list continues to be Polands’ ‘WhoBeatsMe’, who has put a bit of room between himself and second place. Nicholas Maimone who fell on the Super High Leaderboard, has maintained his second place spot here as he chases ‘WhoBeatsMe’ for the leaderboard’s C$25,000 top prize. Last week’s number 3, Markus Prinz, fell to 10th while ‘TempoRuim’ climbed into the 3rd spot on the leaderboard that pays the top 20.
The Medium Stakes Leaderboard continues to see a significant amount of movement as the players at this stake level accumulate points in the race to get into the top 50 and climb their way to the #1 spot and its C$20,000 prize. Last week, sitting in 1st and 2nd on this leaderboard, were ‘mochalov13’ and ‘JESUISYAAZY’ respectively, who fell to 3rd and 7th while week 1’s top spot, ‘Hunter_Aze’, who had fallen to 17th, has continued to get passed, and is now sitting at 49th. Currently at the top of the leaderboard is ‘Bashka340’, who was in second place after the first week, and ‘WaterRabbit’ who is currently in second.
The last of the leaderboards, the Low Stakes which pays the top 100, also saw significant movement below the top spot. Week 1’s leader, ‘UFC@Poker’, who had fallen to 4th last week, now finds himself in 6th, while ‘duketoper’, still holds the top spot, has seen his lead cut in half with the top 6 all close on his tail, as everyone tries to claim the top reward of C$10,000.
The first Super High event since last week was event 137, the $10,300 Super MILLION$ High Roller, with a $1.5 Million guarantee, which ran on May 21st. The tournament saw 217 players join the fray, creating a prize pool of $2,170,000, with $438,733.27 set aside for the overall winner. The final table took over 3 hours to complete as Jo Jouhkimainen survived the battle and was the last player standing. If you want to watch the final table play out, you can here.
The other Super High event we are looking at is also a $10,300 Super MILLION$, which ran on Tuesday, May 23rd. This version of the tournament attracted 97 players creating a prize pool of $97,000. This tournament took nearly 7.5 hours to complete and at the end, it was ‘Tourmination’ took home the victory and earned $198,366 in the process after a 3-way chop with Michel Dattani and Bruno Volkmann who earned $166,834.41 and $167,701.94 respectively.
Of the High tier events, the first was Event 146: $525 Bounty Hunters HR Main Event with a $700,000 guarantee. This event, which ran on May 22nd, had a field of 2,008 players creating a prize pool of $1,004,000. It took just over 9.25 hours of play for the tournament to conclude with ‘Andre Marques’ taking down the event for $41,377.15 and an additional $65.290.99 in bounties.
The previous day, on May 21st, the High Tier ran an $850,000 guaranteed event. Event 137-H: $1,050 GGMasters High Rollers World Festival attracted 1,067 players, creating a total prize pool of $1,067,000, well over the guarantee. At the end of the tournament, 12 hours 30 minutes later, ‘buen juego’ beat ‘5450’ for the top spot and $148,288.33.
May 21st also brought us Event 136-M: $54 Bounty Hunters Sunday Main Event. This Medium tier tournament offered a $600,000 guarantee which was smashed as 15,459 players registered for the event, creating a total prize pool of $772,950. Taking just over 10 hours to complete, when the dust finally settled it was ‘Diabao’ taking top spot and the biggest share of the prize pool, earning $28,653.77 plus $23,200.70 in bounties.
The previous day, on May 20th, Event 129-M: $54 Saturday Secret KO Mystery Bounty ran. A total of 4,986 players came out for the event, trying to capture the top mystery prize. At the end of the event, it was ‘Malamut8’ who won the event, earning $33,361.86 in a 2-way chop with ‘BarPortal’, and an additional $34,592 in bounties. The big winner of the biggest bounties was ‘SoftKitten’ who finished 5th, but earned $50,802 in bounties, and ‘Tracyan’ who finished 176th for $294.14 with an additional $49,054 in bounties.
Finally, for the Low tier tournaments, the biggest event was the Sunday Hundred Grand. The May 21st edition, event 137, attracted 10,123 players to the $110,000 guaranteed tournament. When the event ended, it was ‘baxabaxa’ winning the event after a chop with ‘sleep1ess’, with both of them earning just under $11,500.
The next day saw the other big Low tier event. Event 147-L: $25 Mini Monday Monster Stack offered a $100,000 guarantee, enough to attract 4972 players to sign up for the tournament. It ran for just under 9 hours and ended with ‘Megechi Kham’ taking down the event, earning $12,405.91.
While we’d honestly enjoy showcasing all the victors in this limited space, we must acknowledge the constraints we face. But fear not! If you’re itching to discover who emerged victorious in each event, simply head over to PokerCraft in the GGPoker client. With over 10 days left and almost one hundred events yet to unfold, there’s ample opportunity for everyone to grab a slice of the action and etch their name into the annals of the grandest online tournament series to date. Here’s to hoping we spot your name in the limelight next week.
Hey, and keep your eyes open for what we have coming next…here’s a hint ‘What is tiny and huge at the same time?”
From the Desk of the Wordsmith
