Daniel Negreanu can keep his hair. After weeks of hype and plenty of satellite action, GGPoker’s GGMasters Overlay Edition wrapped up on Tuesday.
The $150 freezeout guaranteed a $5 million prize pool and Negreanu promised to shave his head if the event met that sum. Despite getting close, the event came up short guaranteeing players some nice six figures in extra cash.
In the end, Albania’s “Sr_Duck” came out on top and took home $343,564.
“We were thrilled with the GGMasters Overlay Edition,” GG head of public relations Paul Burke saud, “and are so happy that more than 33,000 players got to experience this unique freezeout tournament and take aim at $5 million in prizes for a $150 buy-in.”
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Big numbers, but misses guarantee
From the beginning, GGPoker officials admitted it seemed unlikely the event would meet such a massive guarantee. Hence, the name of the tournament.
Negreanu believed there was no chance the prize pool would reach $5 million. He even planned to shave his head on video if he was wrong.
“I’ve never seen an online site be this aggressive with a guarantee they can’t really think is going to hit,” he told PokerScout. “It’s a unique way to give back to the players.”
Despite that, the site made a real run at actually meeting the guarantee. Because the tournament is a freezeout, there needed to be more than 36,000 distinct players.
The Overlay Edition came up just short by about 3,000 players. In total, the tournament brought in 33,133 players. With $138 from each buy-in going into the prize pool, that total produced a prize pool of almost $4.6 million.
The $12 tournament fee then helped make up much of the shortfall for another $397,596. GG had to kick in about another $30,000 to reach the guarantee.
However, some players won freerolls to get into the action, so that number may actually be a bit higher.
While the event didn’t quite get to the $5 million mark, the tournament certainly was large.
We condone this! #GGMasters https://t.co/ooURW7Vcta
— GGPoker (@GGPoker) March 22, 2022
Massive player pool at GGPoker
The Overlay Edition certainly produced large numbers and brought GG some extra headlines over the last few months. The event attracted online poker players from around the world and across the poker spectrum.
A few more of the interesting names finding a cash included:
- Niv Malach (Israel) – 5th, $108,645
- Wellington “ZaaKiiu” Oliveira (Brazil) – 7th, $61,096
- Jessica Teusl (Austria) – 2,746th, $401
- Niklas Astedt (Sweden) – 2,249th, $460
- Rebecca Rebuitti (Brazil) – 1,937th, $527
- Mark “Weazel_1991” Rubbathan (England) – 754th, $1,049
- Christophe “ChrisDM” De Meulder (Germany) – 584th, $1,204
- Johan “YoHViraL” Guilbert (France) – 206th, $2,746
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Dan Bilzerian is staying put
In other news, rumors began swirling on Tuesday that ambassador Dan Bilzerian had been removed from the GGPoker roster. This was fueled by a report from an online poker news site.
That news came after GG removed the Instagram star’s image from the site. The company apparently also removed some other Bilzerian-related aspects.
On Wednesday, GGPoker squashed those rumors and even announced that more was in the works with Bilzerian.
“GGPoker would like to confirm that Dan Bilzerian remains a partner,” the site noted in a Tweet.
“We will continue to work closely with Dan to engage with new player communities and grow our favorite game. Expect to hear about some new and exciting partnership activities in the coming months.”