Massive GGPoker World Championship Payouts Awarded as Three Players Pass Million Mark

The GGPoker platform continues its streak of turning online poker players into millionaires. Earlier this week, three more customers of the online poker giant secured seven-figure payouts in the $1,500 GG World Championship event.

The $1,500 tournament was hosted as part of the $300 million guaranteed GG World Festival, drawing a massive field of 7,309 entrants across multiple starting flights. This high turnout generated a total prize pool of $10,415,325, which easily surpassed the advertised $10 million guarantee.

Day 2 of the event welcomed back 726 returning players to the virtual felt, with each player locking up a minimum cash of $3,087 for their efforts. A star-studded line-up of poker talent managed to cash in the event but fell short of reaching the final table. 

Among the notable players making deep runs were Lex Veldhuis, Kelvin Kerber, Daniel Petersen, Jans Arends, Martin Jacobson, Espen Jorstad, Jessica Teusl, Francisco Benitez, and Amit Ben Yacov.

Given the immense size of the prize pool, the nine finalists were all guaranteed to take home at least $174,213. Brazil's Rafael Loiola was the first casualty of the final table, busting out in ninth place to claim that minimum final table sum. 

Tobias Eichenseher was the next to depart, ending his run in eighth place for a payout of $225,886. He was followed out the door by Canada's "mofo0637," who crashed out in seventh place to collect $282,898.

Denys Chufarin saw his latest deep run end prematurely in sixth place, which was good for a $379,801 payday. Next, Mexico-based Spanish poker pro Sergi Reixach bowed out in fifth place, narrowly missing out on a half-million-dollar score with a prize of $492,500.

By the time play reached the final four competitors, each player had locked up nearly $640,000 from their original $1,500 buy-in. A Finnish player using the alias "SIR NAPKINS" eventually ran out of steam in fourth place, banking $638,653 directly into their GGPoker account.

Once "SIR NAPKINS" was eliminated, the remaining three players negotiated a deal to redistribute the remaining prize money, ensuring that all three walked away as millionaires. Ukraine's "filthiest" was eliminated in third place, taking home a prize of $1,109,637, which stood as the single largest payout of the entire tournament.

The exit of the Ukrainian player set up a heads-up battle between Max Rotko and Serbia's "Lord Given." In the final one-on-one showdown, "Lord Given" defeated Rotko to officially become the $1,500 GG World Championship champion, collecting a prize of $1,091,345. Rotko earned a runner-up payout of $1,094,691.

While "filthiest," Rotko, and "Lord Given" walked away with seven-figure scores, Elias Suhonen also secured a notable payout. Suhonen had purchased 10% of Rotko's tournament action using the GGPoker in-built staking software, turning his investment into a $109,469 win simply by monitoring the tournament lobby.

The wider GG World Festival is now entering its final stage and will run until June 9. Events with buy-ins ranging from $3 up to $1,050 remain on the schedule. Value-seeking players can look toward the $150 buy-in GGWF Mystery Closer, which carries a $5 million prize pool guarantee. 

Dozens of Day 1 flights are scheduled to feed into Day 2, which kicks off at 7:30 p.m. BST on June 8. Mystery bounties will be activated as soon as players reach the money on Day 2, with at least $2.5 million in total bounties waiting to be won.