The $5,000 international World Series of Poker Online Main Event on GGPoker roared past its $25 million guarantee thanks to a whopping 5,742 entries, and it was Bert “girafganger7” Stevens who wound up with all the chips, the $2.7 million payday and his first bracelet.
The Belgian had $69,849 in WSOP cashes before locking up the victory, which he did in front of thousands of viewers sweating and cheering him on through his his popular Twitch stream.
Although enormous, it wasn’t the largest payout for an online poker tournament. That record is still held by Stoyan Madanzhiev who won the same event on GGPoker for $3.9 million in 2020. That prize pool of $27.5 million was the world-record holder, but was broken this year when when tournament registration closed with the prize pool at $28,609,250.
Yagen Li of China also took more than $2 million away from the tournament for finishing as runner-up. It’s their only result.
The final table with commentary and cards exposed is available for viewing on YouTube.
High roller event wraps up Series
A $10,300 high roller event wrapped-up this fall’s version of the World Series of Online bracelet series on GGPoker. A deal was made heads-up between New Zealand’s David Dong Ming Yan and Sweden’s Eric Mattsson, leaving a half-million and the hardware on top.
This meant both men would finish the tourney with at least a million-dollar cash, which would be the second for Mattsson, who won last year’s WSOP Online International Main Event champion for $2.7 million and his only bracelet.
But it was Yan who made his 10th WSOP.com cash count in a big way after he beat the former champion heads-up on Monday, good for $1,538,400 and his first bracelet.
Mattsson won $1,186,287 for coming close.
The high roller event beat its $10 million guarantee with 1,140 entries. The top 149 got a piece of the $11.4 million prize pool, and some of those who made the money include 2020 $1,500 WSOP.com Millionaire Maker Daniel Dvoress (101 for $24,662), Canada’s $33 million man Sam Greenwood (77th for $28,869), and four-time WSOP bracelet winner and 2017 GPI Player of the Year Adrian Mateos (68 for $33,797).
This year’s version of the WSOP Online International series started Aug. 20. GGPoker packed in 33 events that ran until Oct. 2., and with buy-ins starting at $108, it gave players around the globe (but not in the United States) chance after chance at a WSOP bracelet and the thousands of dollars that come with it.
The amateurs had to face many international poker superstars and champions like Russia’s Artur Martirosyan, who added $424,698 to his $11 million tournament winnings by become this year’s WSOP Online International $10,000 heads-up champ.
Fan-favorite and MMA fighter Terrence Chan also won his first bracelet in the $2,500 event, and he had to beat 2022 WSOP Main Event Champion Espen Jorstad heads-up to do it. Jorstad is showing that he’s not a flash in a pan: If he won, it would have been his third bracelet.
