The GGMasters Overlay Edition returns to GGPoker this month, with two weekends of what has been a very lucrative tournament for players.
As the name implies, GGPoker knows full well that there is a high probability that it will be stuck paying an overlay. It certainly was in both 2022 and 2023. Why would a poker room do such a thing? Marketing. Call it a loss leader. Bring in players with the allure of an overlay on relatively inexpensive tournament and many of them might stay to play other games.
The $150 buy-in event is a freezeout tournament, which makes it much easier for an overlay to happen. And with a guaranteed prize pool of $10 million, it is going to take a lot of players for GGPoker to not be on the hook for at least a little something.
With $138 of the entry going toward the prize pool, that means there needs to be 72,464 players to avoid an overlay.
There are three Day 1A flights, all on Sunday, February 18. The Asia Day 1A starts at noon UTC, Europe is at 17:00 UTC, and Americas begins at 22:00 UTC.
Day 1B is at 17:00 UTC on Saturday, February 24, and then its back to regional play for Day 1C on February 25 at the same times as the previous week. Day 1D is on Monday, February 26 at noon UTC. There is also a Day 1D Last Chance flight at 15:00 UTC on February 26.
Day 2, the final day of the GGMasters Overlay Edition, is on February 26, as well starting at 19:00 UTC.
“There’s no other tournament like the GGMasters Overlay Edition – a freezeout with a reasonable buy-in, an enormous guarantee and the possibility of some major value!” said GGPoker Global Ambassador Daniel Negreanu in the tournament’s announcement. “Last year, we saw a $1M overlay; who knows what’s in the cards in 2024?”
Sarne Lightman, Managing Director of GGPoker, called the tournament “a cornerstone in GGPoker’s commitment to giving back to our community.”
As Negreanu mentioned, last year’s GGMasters Overlay Edition was boon for players. It drew 64,622 entries, which is amazing, but that was still miles short of the number it needed with the $10 million guarantee. As such, the overlay was $1,082,164.
Negreanu had guaranteed a $1 million overlay, offering up his own money if the prize pool went above $9 million. It didn’t, so he didn’t have to dip into his bankroll.
The 2022 edition of the GGMasters Overlay Edition was plagued with technical problems, but still made it to the end with a $334,772 on $5 million guarantee.
