Poker

GG Poker’s WSOP Main Event will feature $25m guarantee

By Paul Seaton
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With the GGPoker WSOP Main Event just around the corner, the schedule has been released in full and it’s the talk of the poker world.

gg-poker's-wsop-main-event-will-feature-$25m-guaranteeWith a total of 54 WSOP bracelets to be won in events including a massive $25,000 Poker Players Championship, with a half-price entry fee of the regular, live Las Vegas version. The lowest buy-in of the series is, of course, the lowest entry fee that will ever have been paid for a WSOP event – outright that is, with satellite value always having been the best way to play – is the $50-entry ‘BIG 50’.

The WSOP Main Event on GGPoker kicks off on August 16th, costing $5,000 to take part in rather than the $10,000 ‘stack of high society’ that it would do in Las Vegas. With a massive $25 million guarantee, however, the Main Event will require 5,000 entries to reach that guarantee, the biggest ever guarantee in the history of online tournaments.

Taking place across just three days, there are 22 ‘freezeout’ Day 1 flights, so in theory, a player could pay an incredible $110,000 to play the same event someone could satellite in for a relative pittance. This has led to an explosion of discussion on Twitter.

Ryan Laplante has thrown the loose accusation that GG Poker are ruining the ‘prestige of the series’…

…while ‘Spraggy’ is a lot more concerned about the amount of time Phil ‘The Poker Brat’ Hellmuth is going to spend in the changing room…

…and Matt Salsberg is, as ever, the voice of the cynical people, a.k.a. poker players.

With a dozen WSOP events having guarantees totalling $60 million, such as The Opener (guess where that is in the schedule), the Mini Main Event and The Colossus, there are a number of options for the ambitious poker pro, with the aspirational recreational not left out. As well as the WSOP events that are affordable for the poker player of a thin bankroll, there are a number of micro or low-stakes events that GGPoker are running in parallel with the series.

With events in no-limit hold’em, pot-limit omaha, short deck and limit hold’em – one for the oldies there – the World Series are excited about their blossoming partnership with GGPoker.

“We knew GGPoker would go BIG on the WSOP Online Series, but this is ridiculous,” said Ty Stewart, the WSOP’s Executive Director. “The single biggest guarantee in the history of online poker is exactly what this once-in-a-lifetime event deserves.”

With PokerGO an official partner of the World Series, events will be screened on their multi-platform portals throughout the series as well as on GGPoker’s own online streaming service. While PokerGO obviously costs to subscribe, the value is great in terms of what is on offer, with a lot of new documentaries and special features on the site. 

One feature that really pleases us here at Calvin Ayre is the fact that any players who make it to WSOP final tables during the forthcoming series will have to play it out from that point under their real name, rather than under aliases.

The hopes for players to win don’t begin and end with a bracelet either, with leaderboards offering a multitude of prizes to consistent performers. With the Pure Gold Mouse (overall leaderboard winner), Pure Gold Dragon (Asian Player of the Series) and Pure Gold Card on offer for players finishing between 2nd and 5th place, there’s a lot to be won outside of the millions of dollars that are guaranteed. 

With so many exciting events to come, you can check out the full WSOP schedule on GGPoker right here. If you intend to play in any of the events by qualifying via satellite events, then you can do so from July 1st. The World Series of Poker fun really is about to begin.