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Online Poker: TOP 7 most important events of 2023
The year 2023 will come to an end very soon. We have collected in one article all the most important events that took place in the leading poker rooms during this time.
- Mystery Bounty tournaments
- Winning Poker Network 2.0Record tournament series
- GTO Wizard collaboration with poker rooms
- Satellites to live events
- The revival of reload bonuses
- GGNetwork Traffic Record
Bonus!
Mystery Bounty tournaments
In 2023, three poker networks added Mystery Bounty tournaments to their clients. However, in the case of Chico Poker, a very creative approach to the format was demonstrated: 6-max SnG and MTT in which only a maximum of 25% of the buy-ins goes to the regular prizes and the rest of the money is collected in a common jackpot for each limit (MBJ). All Mystery Bounty tournaments in Tigergaming, BetOnline, and SportsBetting combine jackpots into one endless event with a progressive prize pool.
In another US-friendly network, Winning Poker, Mystery Bounty was launched in September with two MTTs with flights running for a month:
- Sunday Squeeze $200,000 GTD for $16.5
- The Dime $75,000 for $2.5
About iPoker Network, since the fall of 2023, Mystery Bounty has been played only as part of a series and has a classic structure. The only novelty is the announcement of the size and number of bounties only after the end of all flights and the formation of the MTT prize pool.
Winning Poker Network 2.0
Exactly four years after switching to another client's software engine, the Winning Poker Network launched a lobby based on it with a completely new interface and structure. The main changes include:
- The new aspect ratio of the client window. By default, it is 1600 x 900 pixels.
- Horizontal single-level game menu (it used to be multi-level and was oversaturated with elements).
- A player's account bar with several buttons.
- A carousel with banners of Daily Double jackpot races and tournaments.
- The list of cash tables is divided into blocks by betting levels and has only 4 separate lobbies.
You can read more about the update in our article: WPN launches its 2.0 poker client.
Of course, the network's client updates didn't end after that. Of the other new products in 2023, it is worth highlighting two-factor authentication, a ban on the use of virtual machines, the end of support for Windows versions older than “dozens,” and the addition of the entire range of games to the mobile application.
Record tournament series
Four poker sites held the biggest tournament festivals last year. Moreover, four fell on New Year's holidays and captured part of January 2024. Let's recall that In modern online poker, only three poker networks can afford to run a series with an eight-figure prize pool.
- $200M GTD GGPoker World Festival.
- $50M GTD Online Super Series XL on Winning Poker Network.
- €7,000,000 GTD Elite Series Winter Edition.
- $4,000,000 GTD WPT Global Winter Festival.
- €2,000,000 GTD WinterFall Series on the Stretch network.
GTO Wizard collaboration with poker rooms
The GTO Wizard software development team, the Winning Poker Network, and WPT Global decided to fight against unfair play. Phil Nagy and Alex Scott have announced that their rooms will participate in supporting new products from GTO Wizard.
The first was the Fair Play Check option built into GTO Wizard. With its help, the player can check whether someone was looking for a solution for a particular board when the same hand was being played at the table online. You can complain to the support room regarding the software readings if confirmed.
The joint development of GTO Wizard and WPN resulted in the new reshuffle at the Omaha tables.
The essence of the option is to reshuffle the deck of cards in one hand. Each subsequent player sees his closed cards only when his turn comes. Previously discarded cards can come into his hand and onto the board.
Satellites to live events
In 2023, thousands of players qualified for live events via online satellites:
- GGPoker sent players to different series: Partnered with WSOP to send more than 600 players to the $10k Main Event and the WSOP Paradise, breaking records in the last one. Held satellites for KSOP (King Series of Poker) in Brazil. Sent players to other important events like WSOP London
- WPT Global awarded several packages to play the WPT World Championship and sent several players to play the WPT500 in Mexico
- Winning Poker Network held High Stakes Adventure, giving Triton Poker Super High Roller all-inclusive packages. They also sent several players to play Las Vegas Main Event, to Latin American with Punta del Este Takedown (Uruguay), and revived The Cage.
- KKPoker held the Vegas Dream promotion, giving free trips to the year's most important event.
The revival of reload bonuses
In modern online poker, promotions that are aimed at amateur players are considered mainstream, that is, non-volume-based.
In 2023, three American networks began to offer their players reload bonuses more actively, which was already considered almost “extinct."
- Since June, Chico Poker Network has been announcing several codes for reload bonuses almost every week. Prizes are tickets to top tournaments and cash with 40-50% rakeback.
- The Winning Poker Network twice a year encouraged players to use Bitcoin for deposits with a large reload of $1,000. Another such bonus became part of the Mo Mo Mo PLO promotion.
- The Horizon network has been giving 100% bonuses up to $200-$500 monthly for almost the entire year.
Interestingly, this year, two poker rooms decided to return a different kind of classic poker bonus to their players:
- CoinPoker: 100% on the first three deposits totaling up to ₮1,100. The rakeback of this bonus is the biggest in modern online poker - 50%!
- Pokerdom: 100% welcome bonus up to ₽50,000.
We hope that in 2024, poker rooms will not forget about regular players and will continue to offer them new wagered bonuses.
GGNetwork Traffic Record
For the first time, the GGNetwork became a world leader in cash game traffic in the summer of 2021. Since then, it has only increased the gap from PokerStars, starting in January with 6,600 connections.
In December 2023, the average weekly traffic reached 11,500 connections. GGPoker's leading position is more visible if you know that almost 60% of the global player pool is currently playing here!
All other major poker sites (WPN, iPoker, Pokerdom, PokerStars, WPT Global), even demonstrating good growth in the number of games, together occupy just over 30% of the market in 2023.
Having a monopolist in any industry is not a good sign for its development, but in modern online poker, GGNetwork's leadership is not in danger.
Bonus: new games and bonuses in 2023
New games and formats:
- Chico Network: PLO6 (5-max), Chinese Poker (OFC) cash and Spins.
- Winning Poker Network: nosebleeed from $100/$200, 4-max cash tables, daily MTT with Daily Double jackpot.
- iPoker network: PLO5 with bets from €0.02/€0.04 to €2/€4 and 5 Card Draw.
- Coin Poker: Action Games – it is impossible to muck cards on the showdown. Hart Poker – tables with a bonus hand. For a win with 72 or any hand with 9 (showdown is not required), all participants in the distribution are discounted to the winner by 5BB, and another 5BB is paid by the room. 7-max tables became the primary type of tables in the room.
- WPT Global: Global Spins and Omaha cash tables (including PLO5).
New bonuses:
- Chico Network: Bad Beat Jackpot 2.0. It extended to all Hold'em and Omaha games with separate prize pools for different betting levels.
- CoinPoker: Daily Cosmic Spins Leaderboard (in addition to cash and MTT races)
- WPT Global: cash games and MTT leaderboards, including a massive Triple Crown jackpot
- The Next Moneymaker from Winning Poker Network
As a bonus track, we would like to remind you that Worldpokerdeals was shortlisted again as Best Poker Affiliate in the iGB Awards 2024!
Thank you all for playing with us. Let's break records in 2024!
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