GGPoker’s $5 Ocean KO Sets Record With 420,084 Entries

By Mrinal Gujare

1 hour ago

Mrinal Gujare 1 hour ago

Share this article

GGPoker’s $5 Ocean KO Opener attracted a record 420,084 entries, surpassing PokerStars’ previous best.
The tournament generated a prize pool exceeding $1.9 million, with over $1.05 million in progressive knockout bounties.
Its jackpot-style PKO format has sparked debate over the role of random multipliers in online poker tournaments.

GGPoker’s $5 Ocean KO Opener attracted 420,084 entries, setting a record for the largest poker tournament and surpassing PokerStars’ 2015 mark. The event exceeded its $1 million guarantee, with a prize pool above $1.9 million and jackpot-style progressive knockout bounties.

GGPoker has set a new record for the largest poker tournament in history after its $5 Ocean KO Opener attracted 420,084 entries, surpassing the previous benchmark of 253,692 participants established by PokerStars in October 2015.

The record-breaking tournament, played across dozens of starting flights, has at least 24,134 players advancing to Day 2, scheduled for Monday. The event is a recent addition to GGPoker’s online tournament schedule and has exceeded its original $1 million guaranteed prize pool.

The previous record belonged to PokerStars’ October 2015 Common Cents tournament, which attracted 253,692 participants. Austrian-based player Simon "DaDumon" Grabenschweiger won that event, turning a one-cent entry into $10,000.

GGPoker’s $5 Ocean KO Opener has now moved ahead of that mark with 420,084 entries. The tournament’s entry count makes it the largest poker tournament ever recorded, according to the reported figures.

With at least 24,134 players progressing to Day 2, competition continues as the remaining field pursues the tournament’s substantial prize pool.

$1.9 Million Prize Pool and Progressive Knockout Bounties

The Ocean KO exceeded its initial $1 million guarantee, with the remaining competitors set to contest a prize pool worth more than $1.9 million.

The tournament features a first-place prize of $43,938, alongside total bounties worth more than $1.050 million. These bounty payments form part of its Progressive Knockout (PKO) structure.

Unlike a standard tournament format, a PKO event rewards players for eliminating opponents through bounties. Ocean KO tournaments add random jackpot multipliers of up to 400x, creating the possibility of significantly larger payouts from individual knockouts.

In the current record-setting event, a 400x multiplier could turn a routine elimination into a six-figure or even seven-figure bounty payout.

Although the tournament has attracted an enormous field, the format has also generated criticism online.

Some players have argued that random jackpot multipliers of up to 400x risk making online poker resemble a lottery more than the traditional tournament formats they are accustomed to playing.

Ocean KO tournaments are a new addition to GGPoker’s schedule, but jackpot-style knockout formats already have an established presence elsewhere. Winamax, for example, offers Space KO tournaments that use a similar jackpot-style approach.

The format combines the elimination-based rewards of progressive knockouts with random multipliers that can substantially increase individual bounty payments.

The potential scale of these payouts was demonstrated last month when a Winamax player using the screen name "oldepaso68" secured a record €838,000 bounty from a single knockout in a €100 Space KO tournament.

The player subsequently collected €922,104 in bounties and finished with total winnings of €927,783. The tournament’s regular first-place prize was worth just over €5,000.

The result illustrates how jackpot multipliers can make bounty payments substantially larger than the standard prize awarded for winning a tournament.

The Ocean KO’s record-breaking entry count places GGPoker’s latest tournament among the most significant participation milestones in online poker. Its combination of a $5 buy-in, a field of 420,084 entries and a prize pool exceeding $1.9 million has also brought greater attention to jackpot-style PKO tournaments.

The format’s growing presence on GGPoker and its established availability on other platforms point to its increasing visibility within online poker. However, the debate over random multipliers highlights differing views about how closely these tournaments should resemble traditional knockout competitions.

For now, GGPoker’s $5 Ocean KO Opener has surpassed PokerStars’ decade-old participation record, with the remaining players continuing their pursuit of the tournament’s prizes and bounty payouts.

News New Record Set