Poker Writer
GGPoker set the online poker record for the largest overlay as the $150 GGMasters 6th Anniversary missed its $10 million target by almost $1.8 million, beating the previous largest overlay of $1.4 million.
There were seven opening flights available for players to register and meet the $10 million mark. Three happened on Feb. 1, three on Feb. 8, and one final chance flight took place on Feb. 9.
By the end of the registration period, the overlay totaled $1,791,760. That mark broke the record set by Indian online poker company PokerBaazi, which paid out a $1.4 million shortfall in its 2024 GOAT tournament.
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GGPoker Getting Too Ambitious?
GGPoker doubled last year’s $150 GGMasters anniversary from a $5 million guarantee to $10 million. That one also didn’t exactly go according to plan, as technical issues forced a pause and reschedule.
The operator kept the buy-in the same to maintain the original intent of this event: a massive prize pool for a low buy-in. The first edition of GGMasters, six years ago, had a comparatively tiny $300,000 guarantee.
GGPoker has grown considerably over the last six years, recently setting the record for most online poker users at the same time in 2025. The confidence to put a $10 million guarantee on such a small buy-in event shows GGPoker’s ambitions. But despite the growth, the $10 million mark proved to be a bridge too far, as the tournament did not reach the 72,464 entries needed to break even. It needed 66,667 entries to achieve the zero-rake threshold.
Beyond the $150 GGMasters event, there have been some recent overlays in other events as well. In a smaller event on Sunday, a $320 GGMasters Bounty event that boasted a $750,000 guarantee had a 10% overlay, coming $72,364 short of the guarantee.
While GGPoker has established itself as the premier online poker destination, it’s fair to wonder whether its ambition has exceeded its reach on some of these guarantees. The record overlay could simply be attributed to GGPoker getting a little too confident in its robust player base. Or perhaps the company was fine with the result and will simply chalk it up to a marketing expense.
Players may soon find out, depending on what the site does with future guarantees.
Image credit: Infrogmation/Wikimedia Commons (license)
