The GGPoker Super Millions Main Event will have a $10 million prize pool, but some of that will come from the poker site's pockets, sort of.
A total of 976 players entered the $10,300 event, making it the largest online poker tournament so far in 2021. That equals out to $10,052,800 in buy-ins, slightly above the guarantee. But if you factor in the $300 per player rake, there is technically only $9,760,000 in the pot from the players.
Still, the poker site guaranteed a $10,000,000 prize pool and that is what the players get. The remaining $240,000 for the prize pool will come out of the rake.
The GGPoker Super Millions Main Event is moving on to Day 2 with 121 players out of 976 left, all seeking that massive $1,242,332 payday for 1st place. The runner-up will also receive a seven-figure payout ($1,000,991).
Monday's Day 2 session is scheduled to play down to the final table of nine. The remaining players, all guaranteed at least $244,811, will then come back to battle it out for the title on Tuesday.
Vlad-Stefan "HaiFanFan" Lache, who hails from Romania, holds the chip lead at 2,818,433 through four Day 1 sessions. Luigi "shadinho94" Shehadeh of Italy sits in 2nd place with 2,705,791, while Isaac Baron from the United States is in 3rd place with 2,689,768. The three top chip leaders are quite a ways ahead of the competition at this point, but that will likely change early on Day 2.
It's no surprise that a $10 million guaranteed high-stakes event brought out some of the best players in the world. GGPoker has become one of the top global poker sites, thanks in large part to hiring on pros such as Daniel Negreanu to promote the site.
Over the past year, GGPoker has grown exponentially, with numerous major events such as the WSOP Online Bracelet Series last summer, and now the Super Millions Main Event.
Big name pros lurking
Superstar pros such as Alex Foxen, Jason Koon, Adrian Mateos, Kristen Bicknell, Luke Greenwood, Sam Greenwood, David Peters, Isaac Haxton, Connor Drinan, Dan Smith, and Fedor Holz all turned out for this big event.
Holz, a GGPoker ambassador, made it through to Day 2 on his second bullet, but with a relatively small stack (432,818). The German sensation is also busy focusing on his heads-up match against Wiktor "Limitless" Malinowski. Holz won the first session in that challenge on Friday by $37,000. The trash-talking poker pros will return to action Monday for another high-stakes session. Holz's heads-up opponent also made it to Day 2 with a bigger stack (1,117,850).
Most of the top stacks in the GGPoker Super Millions Main Event heading into Day 2 are relatively unknown players. But that very well could change, as some of the aforementioned big name pros aren't too far off the pace.
Foxen advanced to Day 2 with a healthy stack of 1,810,137. His long-time girlfriend, Kristen Bicknell, also bagged an above average stack at 1,213,252. Koon, who like Bicknell is a Partypoker ambassador, sits at a healthy 1,303,951.
The Greenwood brothers are also in the mix. Luke Greenwood enters Day 2 with 1,143,296, and Sam Greenwood has 770,337. Dario Sammartino, the 2019 WSOP Main Event runner-up, has a tiny stack at 130,032 and desperately needs a couple of double-ups to get back in this thing. Only David Yan, an Australian player, has a small stack (110,023).
The GGPoker Super Millions Main Event is currently on Level 23 with the blinds at 10,000/20,000 with a 2,500 ante. Only four players enter Day 2 with over 100 big blinds, so the field should narrow down quickly. But, like always when large sums of money are at stake, expect play to slow down as the final table bubble approaches during Monday's session.
You can watch the final table on Tuesday on GGPoker's YouTube channel.
Featured image source: Twitter
