GG Spring Festival on Natural8: Asia-Friendly Timezone Events
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The record-setting GG Spring Festival (GGSF) caters to players all over the world, and there are some events specifically dedicated to those located in the Asia timezone. There were twelve tournaments in total that took place over the last two Saturdays, and another six are scheduled for the final Saturday of the festival (April 24).
Below is a summary of these events and what Asia’s poker enthusiasts can look forward to in the tail end of this exciting festival.
Bounty Hunters Asia (April 10)
The three-tier system - High (H), Medium (M) and Low (L) - introduced during GGSF saw three bounty tournaments offered to bounty hunter enthusiasts on April 10. Buy-ins were at $210 (H), $52.50 (M) and $10.50 (L).
The bargain tournament was Event L-31: $10.50 Bounty Hunters Asia, which came with a guarantee of $25,000. Thanks to 2,780 entries in total, the prize pool was boosted to $27,800. $5 of each entry went to the cash prize pool, while the other $5 was shared in the progressive knockout pool.
Two players received their buy-in back thanks to Natural8’s Early Bird Bubble Protection feature, and the top 368 finishers earned a cash prize. No featured player made it into the money in this event, and the final table also featured three non-Asia players. Among those were Russia's “Horovar1” who finished in 2nd place for a total of $1,558.64 and Hong Kong's “Fireball” who scored a combined payday of $2,407.47.
Event M-31 came with a price tag of $52.50, and a total of 1,508 entries emerged. It came up shy of covering its $100,000 guarantee, thus providing additional value for each participant. $25 from each entry went to the cash and bounty pools respectively, and the top 206 finishers secured a portion of the cash pool.
Natural8 Team Hot ambassador Pete Chen bowed out in 184th place for $131.28 and was the only featured player to make the money. The final table was an almost exclusive European affair with just two players from China making the cut. Ukraine's “Yuratom” finished in 2nd place for $5,781.92 while Canada’s “pokepwr” earned $10,569.34 for their victory.
Another overlay emerged in Event H-31, which came with a price tag of $210. Only 670 entries battled for a share of the $200,000 guarantee, with $100 from each entry going to the cash and bounty prize pools respectively. Among the notable finalists were WSOP Online Winter Circuit ring winner Aleksey "ImLuckPads" Savenkov ($4,700.47) and Neel “Neel” Joshi (9,586.64). A battle in heads-up between China’s “gokchinees!” and dajingjing saw the former settling for $15,220.27, while the latter earned the top prize of $24,715.30.
Asia Major Events (April 10)
The stakes were then raised on the same day for the three-tiered editions of the Asia Major with buy-ins of $25, $125 and $525. Only two events reached their guarantee, with the other providing players with value once more. All three events concluded after approximately nine-and-a-half hours.
In the bargain Event L-32 with the $25 price tag, a total of 2,478 entries resulted in a $56,994 prize pool. No players from Asia reached the nine-handed final table, which saw Germany’s “MacGG” take 2nd place and Ukraine’s “mikuseni” scoring the top prize of $6,884.14.
Two players from Israel reached the final table in Event M-32: $125 Asia Major, which drew a field of 1,322 entries and paid out $152,030 in prize money. WSOP bracelet winner Barak Wisbrod finished in 6th place for $4,839.37 and fellow countryperson Ran "Pearblossom" Koller ended up in 2nd place for $15,303.47. Poland’s “Insktinkt” was crowned the champion and took home $20,408.64.
The most expensive Asia Major event of the day came with a buy-in of $525. 592 entries in total battled for their share of the $300,000 guarantee. Several notables reached the nine-handed final table, including Francisco Gonzalez, Xin Lee, Arnaud Enselme, Gabriel Moura and “Apowers1968”. The latter finished in 3rd place for $28,603.58, while Timothy Ulmer ($38,143.49) lost in heads-up against Brazil's “morgota” ($50,865.62).
Asia Major Events (April 17)
The schedule for April 17 saw the set of Asia Major events kicking things off, followed two hours later by the Bounty Hunters events.
In Event L-65 $15 Asia Major, a total of 1,883 entries boosted the prize pool to $25,985.40. The last Asian player was Vietnam's “steventhinh”, who fell in 10th place for $200.55 and thus setting up an international final table. Finland’s “lesgou22” earned $2,471.56 for their 2nd place finish, while Russia’s “PlaymateZ” took the event down for $3,297.62.
The M-65 tier with a buy-in of $50 attracted a field of 1,424 entries and paid out $65,504 in prize money. Two players from China and one from Singapore made the cut for the nine-handed final table. The one who went the furthest was “Sabra”, who finished in 3rd place for $4,880.54. This set up a South American duel, with Lucas Bassa walking away with a payday of $6,508.30 while “cayao_aju” claimed the win for $8,680.17.
In the H-65 tier with a buy-in of $250, 580 entries emerged which resulted in a prize pool of $133,400. Russian rising star Artur Martirosian was among the finalists and turned a third bullet into 7th place for $3,930.07. “GoldFishKing” from Hong Kong was the most successful Asian player in 3rd place for $11,792.79. Brazilian poker pro Alexandre “SexyBaldGuy” Mantovani had to settle for 2nd place and $15,511.17, while “MikeAllingelo” from Belarus claimed victory with a $20,402.47 win.
Bounty Hunters Asia (April 17)
Event L-66 Bounty Hunters Asia came with a price tag of $21 and attracted a field of 2,689 entries. The usual split of $10 to the cash pool and $10 for the progressive knockout bounty pool resulted in plenty of action, and the event took just over eight hours to conclude.
“Yuratom” made another final table and finished in 8th place for $357.02. Mongolia's “77city77” dominated the action and ended it with a payday of $4,914.81. Their PKO bounty prize of $2,737.09 was almost as big as the total prize of runner-up “Rimskiy87” ($2,910.50).
The M-66 tier with a buy-in of $105 gathered 1,245 entries for a $124,500 prize pool and “Yuratom” was right in the mix again. This player from Ukraine made it to 7th place for $2,924.50 in prizes.
Notable finalists included “sosickpl” ($1,984.70), Rajat "Oye Como Va" Sharma ($2,566.48), Natural8 player Jung Chou "DragonChou" Chen ($2,631.59) and Jacopo "JESUSYAAZY" Achille ($7,871.04). The only five-figure payout was awarded to Tunisia’s “MonkeyD93”, who earned $11,059.69 for their efforts.
Last but not least was Event H-66 $525 Bounty Hunters Asia, which took just over eight hours to determine a champion. There were a total of 467 entries, creating a prize pool of $233,500. The first three casualties were all players from Brazil, while some well-known High Rollers such as Andrii Derzhypilskyi ($12,968.53) and “iownumind” ($14,802.23) were among the finalists.
Jacopo "JESUSYAAZY" Achille came up short of victory once more, as he fired four bullets and finished in 2nd place for a combined cash of $17,266.03. Aram Oganyan only needed one entry and scored a massive PKO bounty to earn $33,609.99 in total.
Which Asia Events Are Up Next?
Nearly $1.5 million in guaranteed prize pools will be up for grabs across the six GGSF Asia Events on April 24. Buy-ins range between $5 and $1,500 and there will be three Bounty Events and three three Superstack Classic events at 10:05 (UTC) and 12:05 (UTC) respectively.
Satellites for each tournament will be available, giving players from all over the world the chance to get in for a fraction of the original cost. No matter where a player is located, these events will certainly provide plenty of value for everyone!
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