GGMasters 6th Anniversary: The Largest Overlay in Online Poker History

Author

Juan David Vargas Quiceno, aka Vargoso

Published

2/11/2026

Updated

2/11/2026

The sixth anniversary of GGMasters on GGPoker made history. The $10 million guaranteed tournament failed to attract the required number of participants, forcing the room to add nearly $1.8 million to the prize pool, the largest ever in online poker.

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One of the most beloved words for any poker tournament player is "overlay." After all, when the buy-ins in an MTT don't cover the guarantee, players receive a "bonus" in the form of a bonus from the poker room.

On February 9, 2026, Day 2 of the GGMasters 6th Anniversary tournament kicked off, bringing its participants the largest overlay in the history of online poker—$1,791,760, or almost 18% of the guarantee.

Previously, the largest overlay was approximately $1.4 million, recorded in 2024 at the GOAT tournament on the Indian poker room PokerBaazi.

The GGMasters series of tournaments at GGPoker is known as the "GGMasters" — their largest and most famous freezeouts. Tournaments without the option to rebuy are now a rarity among poker rooms.

The $150 GGMasters Anniversary Edition runs since 2022:

Year	GTD	Entries	Overlay
2022	$5M	33,806	$334,772
2023	$10M	64,622	$1,080,000
2024	$10M	66,894	$768,628
2026	$10M	59,480	$1,791,760

*In 2025, the tournament was cancelled due to technical difficulties on Day 2.

The Reason for the Overlay

The first and most obvious reason is the tournament structure. A $150 buy-in freezeout, which must attract 70,000+ entries to cover the guarantee, is a challenging task even for the top-tier of modern online poker. That's why all GGMasters Anniversary events were held with an overlay.

The tournament organizers also reduced the number of Day 1s from nine to seven, which significantly impacted the number of entries, even taking into account the huge number of satellites and tickets awarded at the cash tables.

It's also worth noting the marketing component of GGMasters Anniversary events as one of GGPoker's main brands. Large guarantees and subsequent overlays attract attention. Such news is actively discussed, and the tournament itself generates additional interest in the future.

The record-breaking overlay demonstrates two things.

On the one hand, even the largest platforms are not immune to such occurrences.
On the other hand, poker rooms are still willing to take risks and launch huge events because these are the tournaments that generate interest in online poker and attract new players.

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