Another weekend that bites the dust on GGPoker

On the same day that GGNetwork set a new record with the largest WSOP tournament in history, its server had another failure that led to tournament cancellations and delayed sit-in.

WSOP #71: $50 The Big 50 delayed, and other tournaments canceled

After 15 flights, GGPoker managed to crush the record previously set in The Opener as the WSOP tournament with most participants:

Entries: 44,576
Prize pool: $2,050,496

Unfortunately, GGPoker paid the new record with a server crash. Let's recall that The Opener, previous record holder, was the event that last time caused a server failure last time.

GGPoker Server Crash

The problems started around 7:30 PM CET when GGNetwork confirmed that they were "aware of some load issues," arguing that tens of thousands of players sitting down caused the delay.

All tournaments were then paused for 20 minutes, but the problems for The Big 50 remained, and players were forced to restart the lobby and manually take their seats.

In the end, several tournaments were canceled:

GGMasters $150: 2,804 players affected;
Bounty Hunters Sunday Special $84: 422 players affected;
Bounty Hunters Main Event $210: 1,104 players affected.

The following compensations were announced:

Big50 day 2 participants, $50 in cash, 4,140 players, $207,000 cost to GGPoker;
Bounty Hunters Sunday Special $84, refund according to tournament policy + T$ equivalent to the buy-in;
Bounty Hunters Main Event $210, refund according to tournament policy + T$ equivalent to the buy-in.

GGPoker Compensations

In total, the 44,576 players who paid the $46 + $4 entry made $178,304 for the network, so the site lost nearly $30k today due to this issue.

Yes, this is nothing for a poker room hosting nosebleed cash games daily, but its image gets affected every time this happens.

WSOP #70: $25,000 NLH Poker Player Championship

One of the most expected tournaments by fans and pros. The high roller event drew the attention many grinders who paid 407 entries, including some famous players:

Jason Koon
Dario Sammartino
Issan Haxton (2 bullets)
Stephen Chidwick
Erik Seidel
Phil Hellmuth
Adrian Mateos (2 bullets)
Daniel Negreanu
ElkY (2 bullets)

Several players took advantage of the long late registration period. Minutes before the 300 minutes were up, the overlay was about $600k, but suddenly the number of paid entries boosted to 407, resulting in a small $28k overlay.

Players registered on late registration period