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WSOP Online Underway at GGPoker – Problems Abound On Day 1

James Guill

The 2020 World Series of Poker Online has been running for over a week over at WSOP.com in America. Now, the GGPoker and Natural8 leg of the series has kicked off.

On Sunday, the first events kicked off over on GGPoker. Unfortunately, technical glitches and a DDOS attack force a delay for two of the first three events. However, two big names are already winners, including one an elite European high stakes pro.

GGPoker Series Underway – Problems Plague Day 1

The majority of the world eagerly awaited the start of the WSOP Online at GGPoker. Starting on Sunday, players from outside the United States can compete for WSOP bracelets with buy-ins starting as low as $50.

Anticipation was high and crowds massive for the first day. So much so that GGPoker’s servers were overloaded between players and railbirds. This caused lagging and client disconnects. To try and help make the tournament accessible for all players having problems, organizers went into the software to extend the late registration period.

This caused additional issues, causing client-server mismatches and forcing more players disconnects. Things didn’t stop there as the site then suffered a Distributed Denial of Service, or DDOS attack which cause more chaos.

Ultimately, the first two events, Event #32 and #33, had to be delayed. Both events will resume on Sunday and play to conclusion.

Daniel Negreanu took to Twitter to apologize for the incident. Negreanu is a sponsored player for the online poker room and stated that players would be compensated for the problems.

Two WSOP Events Play to Conclusion

While the first two events were postponed on Sunday, the third event managed to play out without a hitch. That’s because Event #34, the $525 Super Turbo NL Hold’em Event, played out in a mere 3 hours and 15 minutes. This makes the event the fastest WSOP event in poker history.

A field of 2,214 entries took to the table to create a prize pool of $1.1 million. While many people at the final table of this event were unknown, there was one WSOP bracelet winner playing. Daniel Strelitz made the final, ultimately finishing in fourth place.

The eventual winner was Shoma Ishikawa. Playing as “pp_syon,” he defeated Diego “El Motron” Ostrovich heads-up for the title. Ishikawa won his first career bracelet along with $117,650 in prize money and $35,225 in bounties.

The other event to play out was Event #35, the $5k PLO Championship. European high stakes poker superstar Juha Helppi is now a two-time WSOP bracelet winner. Helppi has played high stake poker and online casino games for decades and finally broke through for his first WSOP bracelet last year.

This time around, Helppi outlasted a field of 328 players to take down his second WSOP bracelet. The final table included Jesus Cortes, Mike Watson, Sergi Reixach, and another high stakes superstar in Jens Kyllonen.

Helppi eventually faced Cortes for the title and won the title in short order. He was in control for much of the final table and won his second bracelet in convincing fashion. Helppi won his second bracelet along with $290,286 in prize money.

Plenty of Opportunities to Win at GGPoker and Natural8

Australian online casino players will have plenty of chances to win a WSOP this summer at GGPoker and Natural8. The WSOP Online will continue through early September and will feature a variety of Limit Hold’em, NL Hold’em, PL Omaha, and Omaha Hi-Lo events.

Buy-ins range from as little as $500 up to $25,000. While GGPoker doesn’t offer online pokies, blackjack, or other casino games, they do offer a quality online poker experience. Head over to their website to learn more or to register for the 2020 WSOP online.