GG Masters Earning Its Place Among The Sunday Majors
GG Masters Earning Its Place Among The Sunday Majors

Just weeks after GGPoker surprised the poker world with the signing of Daniel Negreanu as an ambassador, the six-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner flexed his influence by helping create a recreational player-friendly Sunday tournament.

The GG Masters features a $150 buy-in, a freezeout format, and a six-figure guarantee. Through eight weeks of play, the tournament has grown to become a key part of many players’ Sunday schedules.

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Since the inaugural event on January 5, the GG Masters has had an overlay each week while continuing to show moderate growth. That first offering of the GG Masters had a $250,000 guarantee and even though over 1,500 players showed up to play, when registration closed it had a $27,820 overlay.

Seemingly undeterred, the following week GGPoker responded by increasing the guarantee to $300,000 where it has remained since. That event drew 1,901 players and just 1,800 the following week. That attendance drop wasn’t a trend that continued, however. Over the following four weeks, the number of entries increased each week.

For the February 16 event, Negreanu flew to Toronto, Canada to play the GG Masters and stream it live on his Twitch channel. That level of help helped push the event to a high of 2,135 players.

Until a small dip last week, the GG Masters had shown steady week-over-week growth.

GG Masters Overlays

Each of the eight events has had an overly. The $150 buy-in ($138 + $12), means that the GG Masters needs 2,174 players to meet the $300,000 guarantee. The largest overlay came on January 19 when GG Poker had to cover a $51,600 shortfall in prize money while the smallest overlay, just $5,370, came on February 16.

Date Overlay W/W Growth
Jan 5 $27,820 N/A
Jan 12 $37,662 35.38%
Jan 19 $51,600 37.01%
Jan 26 $36,282 -29.69%
Feb 2 $32,280 -11.03%
Feb 9 $15,168 -53.01%
Feb 16 $5,370 -64.60%
Feb 23 $19,584 264.69%

Champions

The eight events have produced eight unique champions. The winner of the first event, ‘howardern’, won $32,654.63 – the smallest any winner has taken home to date. The biggest prize went to ‘mrbradleyy’ who earned $45,167.37 for winning the January 19 event.

Date Player Winnings
Jan 5 howardern $32,654.63
Jan 12 MwonderchilD $36,794.72
Jan 19 mrbradleyy $45,167.37
Jan 26 M@cacoCidadao $44,945.82
Feb 2 REPTAR $44,945.82
Feb 9 G0spRaf0 $39,962.89
Feb 16 mayKKz_ $44,710.89
Feb 23 br0keliving $41,277.05

The Leaderboard

Along with the freezeout format, the GG Masters also launched a GG Masters leaderboard that runs through the end of 2020. Only players who cash in an event and a pre-determined number of players who bubble the event, earn leaderboard points. The player at the end of the year sitting atop the leaderboard will become a GGPoker ambassador, a prize worth “up to $500,000”. Players finishing second through ninth each win tickets to 2021 GG Masters.

Thanks largely to a victory in the third week, British grinder ‘mrbradleyy‘ sits atop the leaderboard with 1,199.71 points – 996.79 of which came from that win. Sitting in second is Maltese player ‘MwonderchilD‘, winner of the Week 2 event, with 1,129.19 points. Third place belongs to week 4 winner Brazilian ‘M@cacoCidadao‘ with 1,101.4 points.

Another Brazilian, GGPoker ambassador Felipe Ramos sits at ninth with 626.5 points thanks to a

Top 25

Rank Screenname Points
1 mrbradleyy 1,199.71
2 MwonderchilD 1,129.19
3 M@cacoCidadao 1,101.40
4 G0spRaf0 1,098.81
5 br0keliving 1,095.48
6 mayKKz_ 1,085.59
7 REPTAR 1,034.83
8 howardern 942.71
9 Felipe Ramos 626.5
10 Bullet-proof 600.68
11 LUCKYFISH567 595.02
12 tripl3barr3l 587.92
13 scrimitzu 579.68
14 katoooo 575.72
15 call~call~allin 561.66
16 ppak 544.68
17 Specknacken 544.18
18 ruael 543.25
19 MaoZeDonk 538.98
20 fjhgs 499.95
21 FastActor 498.01
22 Joris Gruis 482.63
23 KittyAtTheCocobongo 470.07
24 IG0C0C0L0C0 462.43
25 vivaegipto 458.59