You won’t see a hot air balloon bearing the GGPoker brand name and the slogan “We Are The Home of High Stakes Poker.’ Still, a rooster is reminding high stakes players that frequent stormy games are ranging from $25/$50 to $200/$400 with No Limit Hold’em, Pot Limit Omaha and Short Deck on the menu.
Things are simple circumventing the high stakes poker scene. You sit down at a table, and you see a face. Unfortunately, it’s not the same in the online world, and for this reason, many top pros feel unsafe competing in games, and a few believe certain forms of online poker will die out due to integrity concerns.
GGPoker is not indolent about these threats.
In a bid to help foster a ‘live feel’ to their online product, GGPoker has reached out to their VIPs to advise them to change their pseudonyms to their real names, and provide proof in the shape of a passport or driving license or find somewhere else to play.
Here is the correspondence sent to VIP players from GGPoker.
“Thank you for being an active member of our VIP Games. We are contacting you to inform you of our new VIP Game policy. It has recently come to light that some players are creating multiple accounts to hide [sic] identity and target weaker players despite our effort to police it. This is affecting the safety of our VIPs and hurting the integrity of the game. As such, we plan on progressively converting players’ nicknames to their Real Names.
“Once we have received and verified the document, your Nickname will be converted to your Real Name. Subsequently, you will no longer be allowed to use any other multi-accounts on [sic] GGPoker Network, which includes all skins on the network.
“If you do not wish to comply, we regret to inform you that we can no longer accept your services. In this case, please cease playing and cash out your balance immediately.”
So far, the rules only cover high stakes cash games. GGPoker does have an extensive high stakes multi-table tournament (MTT) schedule, but currently, players can choose to use their real names or select an alias.
The use of real names in high stakes games began at partypoker, with the Poker Masters Online, Super High Roller Bowl Online and World Poker Tour Online Championships all making actual name participation mandatory.
WSOPC Online Series: The Numbers
The first foray into international online waters for the World Series of Poker (WSOP) was a resounding success. The $100m GTD WSOP Circuit Online Series generated $134,706.274 in prize money, 30% higher than the promise.
The 516 tournament structure attracted 485,851 entrants, and close to $50m of the generated prize money came from the 18 gold ring events that acted as the main attraction.
Every single tournament nailed its guarantee.
The biggest single prize came in the $1,000, $5m GTD Main Event where ‘schimmelgodx’ earned $1.2m for conquering the 9,779 entrant field.
Multi MILLION$
On the bread and butter front, GGPoker is rolling out a new initiative called Multi MILLION$. It’s a series of three weekly ‘Phased-Tournaments,’ with a combined $3,150,000 in guarantees.
Global MILLION$ – $100 buy-in, $1m GTD
High Roller MILLION$ – $500 buy-in, $2m GTD
Zodiac MILLION$ – 500 Yuan buy-in, 1m Yuan GTD
Day 1’s will run daily and around the clock with the Day 2 starting every Sunday at 18:00 (GMT).