As the first week of the 2024 GGPoker World Festival wraps up, let’s dive into the thrilling developments so far. To this point, tournaments have reached over $60 million in guarantees with $20+ million being won just over the weekend. With nearly $200 million more guaranteed, the excitement continues and the leaderboard races heat up.
Over 130 events have concluded since our last summary. We will again highlight key events across each tier, but first, let’s examine the action on four leaderboards worth a total of $2.5 Million.
Leaderboard Updates
The $1,000,000 Super High Leaderboard, which awards the top players, is still being led by ‘R Romanovskyi’ who added over 400 points to his score over the weekend. The rest of the podium did not change but seasoned pro Niklas Astedt, who is in second, and third place David Peters fell 20 and 40 points further back of the leader. Despite the widening gap, the numerous remaining events keep the competition wide open.
In the High Stakes Leaderboard, the competition remains fierce, particularly among the top four positions. The lead, held by ‘Chicharito14’, has taken a bit of a hit as 2nd place Jacopo Olivieri closed the gap a bit and is within 160 points, down from 200. He has also managed to put a bit of space between himself and the next 2 runners, ‘Iambegger’ with 1,345 points and ‘AyrtonSenn@’ with 1,341.75. Meanwhile, Martin Pineiro, who was previously in 4th, has slipped to ninth in the rankings. With a total prize pool of $750,000 and rewards extending to the top 300 participants, the race is just heating up.
On the Medium Stakes Leaderboard, ‘TheTrueNiceGuy’ has maintained his lead with a total of 2,001.46 points, but the field is hot on his tail ahead. Less than 200 points behind is ‘SzwamyChlapiec’ with 1,822.65 points, while ‘Kirch’, who was in second place has fallen to 6th. Rustem Kozlov remains in third with a lead of less than 9 points over 4th. The top 500 players on the Medium leaderboard will share a total of $500,000.
‘Stayson’, the previous Low Stakes Leaderboard leader fell to 4th while previous number 2, ‘maruzzz’ has taken the lead, building a 350+ point lead over the new second place, ‘TrebaKesaMoneys’. ‘HaENfinDag’ maintained the third spot on this leaderboard which will distribute $250,000 across the top 1,000 players.
Super High Stakes
Highlighting the Super High events, Event 83, the $25,500 Sunday Super High Roller, held on May 12th, saw ‘NuttyWolves’ excel among the 31 entrants to win $280,639.73. The $25,500 buy-in event surpassed the $500,000 guarantee with the 4 final players sharing the $775,000, prize pool.
Shifting our focus to another notable Super High event, #85-S: Sunday Showdown HR [Mystery Bounty, which featured a $1,050 buy-in and guaranteed $750,000. This event attracted 894 competitors who collectively generated a prize pool of $894,000. Damian Salas ended up securing the top spot in the event, earning a significant payout of $94,944.95 including $33,460 in bounties. The big winner in this Mystery Bounty was the 34th place finisher, Martin Finger, who ended up earning $161,200 in bounties plus $1,869.46 for the finish.
High Stakes
One of the biggest events of the past weekend was event #79-H: $525 Bounty Hunters HR Main Event. This tournament guaranteed $1,500,000 which was exceeded as the 3,600 players created a total prize pool of $1,800,000. The final 4 players arranged a chop for the prize pool, with each of them earning between $62,000 and $74,000, while they played it out for the victory and bounty prizes. At the end of play, ‘diamanto13!’ emerged victorious, earning the victory and the lion’s share of the bounties for a total of $166,472.
Turning to another High tier tournament, Event 80-H: $1,050 GGMasters High Rollers World Festival, attracted 1,164 contenders, offering a guaranteed prize pool of $1,000,000. The competition lasted 12 hours and 48 minutes while the players battled for the biggest share of the $1,164,000 total prize pool. The event came to an end shortly after a chop, ‘Crudo y Queso claimed the victory over Andaluzo as the players earned $138.892.30 and $137,035.29 respectively.
Medium Stakes
The Medium tier saw a considerable turnout for Event 79-M: $54 Bounty Hunters Sunday Main Event on May 12th, surpassing its $1,000,000 guarantee with 22,452 entries. It took just under 11 hours for ‘99CON’ to win the event and the biggest share of the $1,122,600 prize pool, earning $60,157.44 including $22,057.86 in bounties.
In the Medium tier, Event 80-M: $150 GGMasters Festival Edition, a total of 5,098 players joined the action to create a $703,524 prize pool, surpassing the $600,000 guarantee. The event concluded with ‘DeaDuction’ claiming the victory, earning $75,531.18 in the process.
Low Stakes
On the Low tier, Saturday, May 11th saw 68-L: $25 Saturday Mini Secret KO [Mystery Bounty] event take place. The $300,000 guarantee drew 15,185 players creating a total prize pool of $361,403. The event was won by ‘LaMayance’ who earned $14,839.04 for the victory and $918 in bounties. As incredible of an achievement as that is, the happiest player from the poker tournament was ‘SeaLevel’ who finished 485th but found the $30,000 top mystery bounty and earned a total of $30,067.97.
Lastly, the Low tier Event 83-L: $25 Sunday Mini Main drew an impressive 6,428 players, growing the $125,000 guarantee into a prize pool of $147,844. The tournament ended in just under 9 hours of gameplay with ‘LifAr’ emerging victorious after a chop with ‘itheboneless’. The two players earned $12,991.42 and $13,221.59, respectively, for their play.
Where’s My Seat for the Next Poker Tournament?
There is still plenty of action in the GG World Festival as we head into the second week of play. Looking at some of the upcoming major events to watch include:
Tuesday, May 14th, 18:00 UTC: Event 105-S, $10,300 Tuesday Classic Super HR, $700K GTD
Thursday, May 16th, 18:00 UTC: Event 124-H, $1,050 Thursday Throwdown [Bounty], $600K GTD
Thursday, May 16th, 18:00 UTC: Event 124-M, $150 Thursday Throwdown [Bounty], $400K GTD
Thursday, May 16th, 18:00 UTC: Event 124-L, $25 Thursday Mini Throwdown [Bounty], $125K GTD
And don’t forget to check out the final table of the Global MILLION$ World Festival streaming here!
