Super-Detailed Review of the Best New Poker Site: GGPoker
Compared to other online poker sites, there is a ton going on at GGPoker. From the moment you see the lobby, the fresh ideas jump out. There are ‘Rush and Cash,’ ‘Battle Royale’ and ‘Spin and Gold’ games. Add in the tournament events, short-deck poker, and regular cash games.
Head to the tables for more innovations. All-in insurance, run it twice and colourful animations and 3D emojis give GGPoker an entertaining feel.
This site is attracting recreational players from around the world. If you have any level of poker skills, there is plenty of potential for profit.
My super-detailed review of GGPoker covers the games, software, deposits, and events. First below, information on how to get the best possible welcome bonus deal at GGPoker. You can check the latest and greatest promos, team pro news and tournament events over at www.ggpoker.com
GGPoker Welcome Bonus: Get $100 in Tokens and C$ Cash with Your First Deposit of Just $10+
You have a choice of two welcome bonuses at GGPoker. When you deposit $10 or more first time, you get to choose from:
- $100 in Tokens / Free Play
- A 100% Match, up to $600 Max
There is another $300 available for new players via the ‘Honeymoon’ missions-based promo.
Unless you are depositing a bigger sum, the GGPoker tokens deal is excellent. These are awarded over the first six days (it makes sense to deposit when you have a clear run of days to use them ahead). You get $11 all-in or fold SNG tokens on day one. These add up to $52.50c over six days.
By meeting hands played targets, which start at just one hundred hands, you can get up to $48.50c in ‘C$’. This is promotional money which is used for buying in to cash games.
There are terms and conditions as always. The tokens will expire after 24 hours. Only one bonus per household, person, and IP address. Please don’t sign up the entire family – this is easy to spot and will get your account blocked fast.
100% to $600 Matched Bonus
This bonus is better for experienced players looking to jump in and grind. This matched bonus pays in increments of $5 every time you pay $20 in rake / fees. This is the equivalent of 25% rakeback at GGPoker. Cash game hands and tournament fees all contribute. Note that tournament overlays and promotions will reduce the contribution of those fees.
You will earn loyalty points and can participate in cash game / tournament leader boards while you are clearing this bonus. It lasts for a generous 90 days.
GGPoker Review: $300 Rewards via the Honeymoon Promo for New Players
New players get a list of missions under the ‘Honeymoon’ icon. Each one you complete will get you additional rewards. Some are specific to types of poker (for example play Omaha), or different formats. There are instant rewards. These are smaller buy-ins for the different games, or $T for any tournament.
After the 30 days are over, you get extra rewards based on how many missions were completed. If you did all 30, this is $150. That takes the total available via this new player promo to $300. When you consider that this is unlocked for a $10+ deposit, this is a super-generous welcome deal.
Loyalty Rewards at GGPoker: Fish Buffet
Underneath the colourful icons and fish-themed tier names, GGPoker have a generous loyalty reward scheme.
What I like about this is that the rewards are randomised via a wheel spin. If you hit the top levels, you get flat cash back of up to 60%. In the middle, you could be looking at anything from $20 to $360 each time you hit your points target, depending on how lucky you get.
After 30 days, a wheel spin at the level you reached will happen automatically.
The levels are more complicated that those at other sites, with levels-within-levels. Here are the main tiers, starting at the bottom:
- Plankton: 750 points – spin for 25c to $2
- Goldfish: 1500 points – spin for $1.50c to $5
- Shrimp: 6000 points – spin for $6 to $30
- Crab: 12000 points – spin for $15 to $60
- Octopus: 60000 points – spin for $60 to $360
- Whale: 120000 points – spin for $120 to $1200
- Shark: 5,000,000 points – flat cashback
- GGPlatinum: 5,000,000 points to maintain – flat cashback
Within the loyalty scheme are ‘Platinum’ levels. These are reached by maintaining your status (for example, ‘Platinum Octopus’) over 365 days.
Points are easy to accumulate. You get 100 for every $1 in rake or fees. Things get more complex when you exchange points for cash at the highest levels. GGPoker do a fantastic job with tables and charts on their promotions page – check it out now via www.ggpoker.com
GGPoker Detailed Review: Leader boards
Anyone playing regularly should check out the leader boards at GGPoker. What I like about these is that they not only cover multiple game variations, they also cover multiple buy-in levels.
Leader boards run daily. This means you won’t need to log on every day for a month like you do at other online poker sites. The prizes are worth winning too. Here are the current totals for the different boards:
- Spin and Gold: $50,000 per day
- All-In or Fold: $50,000 per day
- Rush and Cash: $40,000 per day
- Hold’em: $25,000 per day
- PLO / PLO-5: $25,000 per day
- Flip and Go: $10,000 per day
- Short Deck: $10,000 per day
- Battle Royale: $10,000 per day
GGPoker host ‘Happy Hour,’ where 1.5x the usual points are awarded. They are held at quieter times to boost traffic. Times are listed on the pages covering the individual leader boards via the ‘Promotions’ tab.
Player Promotions at GGPoker
New promotions appear all the time at GGPoker. This section will give you a flavour of the offers. To catch the latest deals, make sure you keep an eye on the www.ggpoker.com website regularly.
For small stakes players the ‘Daily Freebie’ will give you real money entry to Spin and Gold or Battle Royale games. There are jackpots for big hands in multiple games. You need use both hole-cards, and make a Royal Flush, Straight Flush or Quads to win instant prizes.
Promotions are themed on tournament events. Examples include WSOP give-aways, Millions themed offers and more.
Finally, look out for the regular cash giveaways – the amounts given away are huge!
GGPoker Review: Huge Variety of Poker Games
GGPoker have unique features like all-in insurance and run it twice (and three times) options. These are covered in detail in the ‘Software’ section below. This section covers the wide variety of formats. GG have the standard cash games and tournaments too. What makes this poker site stand out are the brand-new games.
Unique Poker Formats at GGPoker:
- Rush and Cash: This is like ‘Zoom’ poker, only with special pots where up to 20x the big blind is added to the pot pre flop.
- Spin and Gold: Think lottery / jackpot Sit and Go tournaments, with a choice of 3 or 6 handed tables.
- All in or Fold: No bet sizing tells in these entertaining games, you go all-in, or you fold your hand. Available as cash games or Sit and Goes.
- Battle Royale: These Dan Bilzerian themed games have three phases, combining a turbo fast-fold tournament with bounties.
- Flip and Go: Randomizing the early stages of a tournament takes you straight to the endgame, many buy-in levels are available.
Regular Game Formats at GGPoker:
- Short-Deck Poker: Cash game tables with 2 through 5 removed from the deck. This changes hand strengths and your strategy with draws.
- Hold’em: Cash games are busy, with a huge range of buy-ins from 1c/2c up to the nosebleeds at $500/$1000 for the high-rollers.
- Omaha: GGPoker recently added 5-card PLO to their line-up of PLO and PLO8 tables. Again, the range of buy-ins is huge.
- Tournaments: A super-busy tournament schedule, so many variations that I have written a whole section on them below.
GGPoker games are soft compared to the older sites. This will change over time as players get established, though for now the number of recreational players compared to pros is eye-opening.
I challenge anyone to fire up GG alongside PokerStars and see the skill difference for themselves. You’ll be super-happy you did it!
See www.ggpoker.com for more!
GGPoker Review: Poker Tournaments
$8,000,000 is guaranteed every week in the regular tournament schedule at GGPoker. This does not include the specials like the WSOP, Masters and one-off tournament events. The tournament lobby is crowded. Games can be viewed in chronological order, via tabs for the special events – or you can use filters to show only the games that appeal to you.
I’ll get to the WSOP / Masters and events below. First, here are the regular games:
- Guaranteed Tournaments: You will see the guarantees listed in the lobby. These are honoured even when there are not enough buy-ins to cover the guarantee. Overlays are displayed in the tournament lobbies. Messages also appear on other tables, alerting players to overlay opportunities.
- Freezeout: The standard tournament format, you buy-in once, and when your chips are gone there are no re-entry options. GGPoker offer long late registration options for their freezeout tournaments.
- Rebuy Tournaments: Here rebuys are allowed when you run out of chips during a set period. This will frequently lead to wild and loose play, as players take shots at hitting a big stack during the rebuy period.
- Turbo Tournaments: Games with faster blind increases cover freezeouts, rebuys, knockouts, satellites and more. The fast structure means plenty more action.
- Progressive Bounty Tournaments: You get a prize for every player you knock out in this format. At the same time, your own bounty increases – putting a target on your head. There is also a regular prize pool to aim for.
- Shootouts: Here each table plays down to a single winner. Those winners are then combined, ready for a second round or final table, depending on the number of players.
- N-Stack Tournaments: These are marked as ‘Coming Soon’ at the time of writing. You get to choose how many stacks to start the tournament with, and how many to keep for later.
- Satellite Qualifiers: These games are a fantastic way for smaller bankroll players to win entry into the big tournament events. GGPoker have a ‘Tournement Dollars’ (T$) system for accumulating qualifier wins.
- Private Tournaments: Play with friends, colleagues, or members of a forum by setting up private games. You set the game, speed, and structure.
Tournaments at GGPoker cover all the game formats spread. There are software features including staking, bubble protection, final table deal making and long late registration periods.
GGPoker Tournaments: World Series of Poker
Things changed with poker in recent years. In the past, you could win a seat in Las Vegas in either the WSOP Main Event or a side-event. These days, you can win a gold bracelet (and huge prize) online.
This seasonal special has two parts:
- The Online World Series of Poker (33 Gold Bracelet Events)
- The Road to Las Vegas (win seats at the live WSOP)
Online WSOP:
Whether this event survives after the lockdown restrictions are over remains to be seen. For 2021, it is a huge event – taking place during August and early September. 33 real gold bracelets are up for grabs. Alongside these, there are eye-watering prize pools, with buy-ins from $210 through to $10k.
GGPoker is not available in the USA. For this reason, the online WSOP is shared, with WSOP.com having events in Nevada and GG managing the international crowd.
If those buy-ins are outside of your usual bankroll, there are plenty of satellite qualifiers to get you a seat. You can also accumulate T$ in special events, then use those to buy-in to the WSOP tournaments.
Road to Vegas
On the far right of the games menu at GGPoker, you will see the ‘Road to Vegas’ listed. This gives you a shot at winning entry to the Main Event. This is held at the Rio in Las Vegas starting in early November 2021.
On offer is a $10k entry, $1250 for flights / expenses and 7 nights at the Rio. If you need any more nights due to a deep run, I’m sure there will be plenty of sponsors lining up pay!
The satellites are arranged in ‘Steps’ format. They start at $8, with $80 and $250 stages leading to $1050 tournaments. Those are the ones which award the entries. There are also $108 games, which award seats in the $1050’s.
If you are worried about travel restrictions, there is a welcome offer from GGPoker. In the event you are not able to attend, they will credit you with T$10,000 instead.
You can find out more via the ‘Tournaments’ tab at www.ggpoker.com
Other Tournament Events at GGPoker
There is a lot more than just the World Series at GG Poker. Headline tournament events include the GG Masters, Million$, Chinese Zodiac and Battle of Malta. Here is an overview of each:
- Million$: These are big weekly poker tournaments with combined guarantees of $5 million. There is a high-roller ($10,300 buy-in), bounty event ($105 buy-in), zodiac millions and global millions.
- GGMasters: This is another weekly series, this time featuring bigger buy-ins for high-rollers alongside smaller buy-ins in different time-zones. The guaranteed prize pools are worth $2,5 million. The biggest (Sunday) event has a $1 million guarantee and $100 buy-in.
- Chinese Zodiac: Win custom avatars as well as big prizes with these Asian time specials. They are themed on animals from the Chinese years, including Ox, Pig, and Dragon. Win them all to get a special White Tiger avatar.
- Bounty Hunters: With $1 million in daily guarantees and a $1 million Sunday major, there are plenty of bounties to hunt at GGPoker. This series of tournaments are Progressive Knockout formats.
- Battle of Malta: This special event is based on medieval knights. There are $25 million in guarantees, a wide range of game formats and satellite qualifiers for smaller bankroll players to take a shot at the big money games.
- Omaholics Tournaments: As well as regular PLO tournaments, there are PLO-NL games in this series. These have pot limit betting before the flop, and no-limit betting after the flop. Omaholics run at 40 minutes past the hour, 24/7.
GGPoker Review: Dan Bilzerian Battle Royale Tournaments
I’m covering the Battle Royale games separately from the poker tournaments at GGPoker. These games are limited to 30 players. They have three separate rounds, all in turbo format. Buy-ins are small. They start at 25c and top out at $10.
Here are the rounds:
- Rush Zone: A fast-fold format, where you get recombined with players every hand. This lasts 5 minutes, and your aim is to be in the top 15 spots based on chip-count. Players outside the top 15 are out, and their bounties pooled in the prize pool.
- Shootout Zone: Three handed tables, where only one player makes it through. After 5 minutes, you go all-in every hand.
- Final Table: This is played like a regular bounty tournament, only by now the blinds are huge relative to stacks. Everyone made the money, with the last player getting the progressive bounties on top.
This is a super-entertaining format. It is not somewhere you will find poker pros, with the short timeframe making it a viable alternative to regular sit and go tournaments.
Check out these innovative games for yourself now over at www.ggpoker.com
GGPoker Detailed Review: Software with Multiple Extras
GGPoker has a unique client. There are a lot of features and extras you simply won’t find elsewhere. If anything, there are too many options and pop-ups – making things overly hectic if you play at multiple tables.
Here are some highlights, the exact mix of features will depend on which game you play:
- Run it Twice / Three Times: If you are all-in before the river in a cash game, an option will come up to run it once, twice or three times. The caller will then have the option to accept or decline. This is a useful way to reduce the variance of flips.
- Insurance: Insurance against draws when you are all in will list the outs and give you a price for insuring against your opponent hitting them. Whether you insure or not, the number of outs for underdog hands are displayed, along with your percentage chance of winning the pot.
- Mood Emojis: By the side of your seat / avatar are some emojis, you can click to bring up a big list. There is everything from ‘haha’ to ‘running cold.’ On top of this you get dancing avatars / emojis for that special hand. You can also record a ‘Snap Cam’ video of up to 15 seconds to show at the tables.
- Player Statistics: GGPoker give you the stats that used to need a 3rd party HUD on every table. You will see a box with a number next to every player (your own avatar too), this shows VPIP stats (the percentage of hands you voluntarily put money into the pot with). This can be regular, flaming (running hot) or iced for running cold. If you hover your mouse over a player, you will see more stats. They include attempt to steal, three bet percentage and went to showdown.
- Staking: Players can ask to be staked for tournaments inside the tournament lobbies. This gives you the option to buy part of the action of another player. Their track record will determine the price.
- Bubble Protection: This is another type of insurance offered by GGPoker. You might want to consider it if the prizes are worth hitting, especially if you have a small stack.
- EV Graphs: You can see how well you did in terms of wins / losses over time and compare this to the expected returns based on the hands you were dealt. With any luck, this graph will be going up and to the right.
- Overlay Pop Ups: If you are playing in tournaments, boxes will appear at the top when a tournament with a significant overlay is running. This gives you the chance to enter late to take advantage of the extra cash added by GGPoker.
There is a lot more to the software… with missions, social elements and even casino games. Each player has a profile, where you can see the number of hands played and more. This detailed GGPoker review is plenty long enough, so I will leave you to discover those for yourself.
One final thought: The GG poker client updates frequently. You should always log in a few minutes early if you want to start a tournament on time. On the plus side, this will get you the most recent promotions and features. There are apps covering both Android and Apple phones. The iOS app is availble via the regular app store. To get the Android app, go to the GGPoker website, and download it from there. You will need to approve NUSS as a safe download (no worries about security, as long as you make sure it is the correct ggpoker domain, millions of downloads so far - with no issues).
Detailed Review of GGPoker: How to Deposit and Withdraw
When you have signed into GGPoker, the cashier button is displayed as a big poker chip on the right- hand side. You can deposit in your local currency. Your payment will be exchanged for dollars, getting switched back when you withdraw.
While debit cards are welcomed, credit cards are not accepted by GGPoker UK. All the major electronic wallets can also be used. Note that the deposit methods available are geo-targeted to comply with local laws in each country.
Here is a core list of the poker payment methods available:
- Debit Cards: Regular bank cards from both Visa and MasterCard are welcomed at GGPoker.
- PayPal: This is the most popular electronic wallet, which comes with robust buyer protection.
- Skrill: A popular electronic wallet, which provides a bridge between your bank and online gambling sites.
- Neteller: This e-wallet works just like PayPal, with low fees making it a popular choice.
- EcoPayz: A combination of wallet and virtual card, which keeps you safe spending money online.
- Much Better: This app has been specifically designed with online gaming payments in mind.
- Luxon Pay: Available in 120 countries, this wallet has low fees and allows peer-to-peer payments.
- Yandex / Webmoney: These electronic wallets are popular in Russia and Eastern Europe. Both have been reliable ways to fund poker accounts for many years.
- Qiwi Wallet: Again, a popular way to pay online from Russia. This service is different, as it works with kiosks found in convenience stores around the country.
- Bitcoin: This is not available in every country, though the low fees and high security make for a great way to send larger amounts. You can deposit up to $50,000 each time with BTC.
As with all gambling sites, you will need to verify your Id before withdrawals can be made. This will not stop you playing after that first deposit. You will also need to withdraw to the same payment method you deposited with. Again, this is standard for all reputable sites – and helps keep everyone safe from organised money laundering. For more on the many ways to pay safely online, check my poker deposit methods section.
GGPoker Review: Team Pros
GG Poker have been working hard to put together a team of pros to represent their brand. The biggest names are Daniel Negreanu, Dan Bilzerian and Elky. This team is still growing. There are separate teams for Brazil, Russia, and China. It is great to see GGPoker moving away from the usual US / Canada / Euro-centric pro teams.
Here are the highlights:
- Daniel Negreanu: One of the biggest names in poker and winner at the highest stakes. Negreanu is Canadian. He was previously a pro for Stars, making signing him a coup for GGPoker.
- Dan Bilzerian: With 32+ million Instagram followers, Bilzerian is as much as a social media celebrity as a poker player. He is a live high stakes crusher. GG have special ‘Battle Royale’ games themed on this pro.
- Elky: Bertrand ‘Elky’ Grospellier is a French poker celebrity with a long list of live tournament wins under his belt. I always think of the picture (below) of Elky mass multi-tabling at another site when his name is mentioned.
- Fedor Holz: With so much success both live and online, it might come as a surprize that Holz is only 26 years old (at the time of writing). This German poker pro has more than $30 million in prizes and 2x WSOP bracelets.
- Team China: While not recognisable to most of us in the West, there are some serious poker talents coming out of China. The team include Guo Dong, Anzi, Mumu, 17Katrina and Andystacks – all high stakes players with formidable talent.
- Team Brazil: This team is being formed, with a new announcement due soon. Currently, high stakes Brazilian legend Felipe Ramos, known as ‘Mojave’ is representing this country.
- Team Russia: This team has three members, all of them high rollers. You can play against Mikhail Semin, Anatoly Fliatov and Mikhail Shalamov. With the high number of Russian players at the GGPoker tables, I’m sure this team will grow.
You will also find many Twitch streaming players representing GGPoker. My pick (from YouTube more than Twitch) is cash game crusher Richard Sheils (GingePoker). Another rec is to check out Fernando Harbegger – known as the PLO crusher ‘JNandezPoker’.
Your best shot at playing with them (unless you are a high-stakes player) is to enter one of the big tournament events. You never know, you could end up knocking Daniel Negreanu out on a big money final table!
Super Detailed GGPoker Review: Wrapping Up
GGPoker came from nowhere to be the second biggest poker site online. After seeing the difference between their games and those at rivals like Stars and 888, I’m going to make a prediction. GGPoker will beat Stars to the #1 spot within a year (from Mid-2021) and will have a significant lead by the end of 2022.
Many things make this site stand out. You could pick the novel games, rewards, and promotions – or the satellites to WSOP glory. The software is fresh (if a little busy), with features that used to cost money from 3rd parties to use. Add in an international reach, plenty of guarantees and regular promotions and it is hard to see how the legacy sites will complete.
Best of all, the number of recreational players is huge. Seeing those games full of friendly fish will take you back to the poker boom years.
See for GGPoker yourself - and grab $100 in tokens and up to $300 from missions for a tiny $10+ deposit now at www.ggpoker.com!
More on GGPoker: