GGpoker have potential to become the new PokerStars

DS3 said:

Come on...look at the figures they did with the WSOP. One could argue PokerStars could have done big figures...but they were not in the picture were they? Which is the point some of us are trying to make.

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Yes it was a scoop for GG Poker to host the wsop. But it was also a 1-off, since WSOP will obviously move back to being held live if not in 2021 then at least in 2022, when the pandemic is finally over.

DS3 said:

I think you egg up the 'problems'. Some players got banned in a rather clumsy manner but it appeared with reason. It's not happening every five minutes.

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I am just trying to add a bit of balance to the debate really. I think, people are being overly critical of PokerStars, because they are dissapointed, the site is not like, it was 15 years ago. At the same time I think, people are turning a blind eye to the shortcomings of a site like GG Poker, just because they are still relatively new in the business.

To give another example GG Poker has recently launched a form of MTT, where the first phase in an all-in shoot-out, and only when that is finished and 8 out of 9 people eliminated, does normal play begin. If this had been done by PokerStars, then Youtube and poker forum would be filled will people complaining about, how they turned poker into just another casino game for gamblers. But when GG Poker does it, there is no such criticism at all, and CC even promote this new game.

DS3 said:

Meanwhile on PokerStars they forced the Aurora graphics engine on everyone regardless of whether they degraded their clients graphics or not.

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For me the new software on PokerStars runs absolutely perfect. I think, the issue is with people using outdated hardware and not wanting to upgrade.

DS3 said:

Just my perspective but I think many believed GG would not, could not succeed and they are now stuck in that mode.

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I absolutely think, GG Poker has succeeded. They are now in the top 3 of global poker sites, which is a huge achievement for a relative newcomer to the game. They have left older sites like PartyPoker or 888 Poker trailing way behind in the process, and they are the closest site to threaten PokerStars position as the industry leader.

I would certainly give GG Poker a try, if I was allowed to play there. But at the same time its not like, its really bugging me, that I cant. I dont think, I am missing out on anything that special to be honest. People talk about soft games, but there are lots of fish in micro and low stakes games on any site, at least if you game select a little bit.

DS3 said:

Yeah, I think people are in denial and simply make comments out of bias. As I write, there are 177,000 active players on GG and 86,000 on PokerStars. Yes, just a snapshot but you will find similar situations around the clock.

I find it odd that the 'numbers' are that high on GGPoker because when you look at the actual tournament lobbys, it is RARE for them to have an $11 buyin MTT with a guarantee exceeding $10k & ~$20k for $25 buyin. Stars has far bigger numbers in their MTT's. ... AND all of the SNG's they offer, GG has zero.

On Z00M vs. 'Rush & Cash', Pokerstars typically has ~50%+ more traffic across all limits.

There is no denying the graphics in GG are the best in the game.

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I'd have to strongly disagree with the notion that GGPoker has the best graphics in the game. (when you're saying 'graphics' I'm assuming you're meaning 'software'??)

They are far behind many sites in that regard.
- there's no way to save table layouts on GGPoker. So if you're a player who plays a bunch of tournaments or tables at the same time, you'll need to open up one at a time, then re-size it and place it where you want it (& then need to do this again & again). On Stars I can have 6 on each screen if I want to play 12 MTT's or I can put 4 on my screen '2' when 4-tabling ZooM or 4 on each if playing something else, etc. etc. (or 6 on screen 2, 4 on screen 1 leaving some space for lobbys, etc.).. AND have this all saved in a number of different layouts. FAR BETTER!

The Hand History feature is lightyears better on Stars. GGPoker's is terrible.

The tournament lobby is much better at Stars as well as the lobby filters. ainec

The bet buttons are much better on Stars with the ability to set pre-set buttons in a far more efficient manner than GGPoker.

fundiver199 said:

For me the new software on PokerStars runs absolutely perfect. I think, the issue is with people using outdated hardware and not wanting to upgrade.

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I agree with a lot of your post except this ^ comment here only applies to some of the players who have difficulty with the Aurora software. I have mine working in a way now where it is just fine... BUT that's only after the recent updates where they've made some improvements. Prior to this, it actually HURT my eyes (literally harmed them where I needed to turn off my screen because I was feeling pain in my eyes). There was one setting I could use that wasn't too bad and I could still play but it was far from enjoyable. (now it is fine).
My computer setup is ~7yrs. old and has zero problem running the Aurora stuff but the problem for me is >>> I don't like it!

fundiver199 said:

People talk about soft games, but there are lots of fish in micro and low stakes games on any site, at least if you game select a little bit.

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I think you'd be surprised.

here's the numbers for the sites found on PokerScout

fundiver199 said:

Yes it was a scoop for GG Poker to host the WSOP. But it was also a 1-off, since WSOP will obviously move back to being held live if not in 2021 then at least in 2022, when the pandemic is finally over.

I am just trying to add a bit of balance to the debate really. I think, people are being overly critical of PokerStars, because they are dissapointed, the site is not like, it was 15 years ago. At the same time I think, people are turning a blind eye to the shortcomings of a site like GG Poker, just because they are still relatively new in the business.

To give another example GG Poker has recently launched a form of MTT, where the first phase in an all-in shoot-out, and only when that is finished and 8 out of 9 people eliminated, does normal play begin. If this had been done by PokerStars, then Youtube and poker forum would be filled will people complaining about, how they turned poker into just another casino game for gamblers. But when GG Poker does it, there is no such criticism at all, and CC even promote this new game.


For me the new software on PokerStars runs absolutely perfect. I think, the issue is with people using outdated hardware and not wanting to upgrade.

I absolutely think, GG Poker has succeeded. They are now in the top 3 of global poker sites, which is a huge achievement for a relative newcomer to the game. They have left older sites like PartyPoker or 888 Poker trailing way behind in the process, and they are the closest site to threaten PokerStars position as the industry leader.

I would certainly give GG Poker a try, if I was allowed to play there. But at the same time its not like, its really bugging me, that I cant. I dont think, I am missing out on anything that special to be honest. People talk about soft games, but there are lots of fish in micro and low stakes games on any site, at least if you game select a little bit.

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Valid points as always fundiver199.

1- Yes the WSOP will revert back to the live format as it should, but it was a coup nonetheless. And apart from the early teething problems which they corrected immediately, they proved they can stay on top of the technical aspects which should inspire confidence for future mega online events.

2- I have to admit as a relative newbie I have no idea what PokerStars was like many years ago.

3- I agree there is a juvenile 'gambling' casual player aspect to some of their offerings.

4- At the time of the Aurora switch I happened to have two new laptops less than a year old. Aurora ruined the graphics on both - to sum it up it looks like I am playing through a dirty haze with graphics from a decade or two ago. Yet the graphics are vivid and bright on the thousands of websites I have visited elsewhere since the PokerStars upgrade. The only problem is with PokerStars.

5- Agreed - though I would argue PokerStars might have been dethroned already.

6- I happen to agree with you here also. I am not sure that I would be bothered if looking in from the outside. But, after CC linked up I joined (and one can argue that sign up was handled poorly on GG's behalf with essentially no demand to contribute to CC). I am not a fan of the overload of ambassador emojis that some players use compulsively (juvenile again) and the signing of Bilzerian was bizarre although that appears to have fizzled to nothing in short order.

However, the graphics are super vivid and the software employs many tricks which no one else bothered with. Praising the winner of each hand (now adopted by ACR). Turning the edge of your card to see the card value like a live deal. The ability to 'rabbit hunt' and see how the hand would have played even if you folded your hand.

However, the irritations are fairly small niggles and the site remains a vibrant place to play.

Sorry that you are not in the position to at least give it a go.

Poker Orifice said:

I think you'd be surprised.

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Maybe. But I have just become somewhat immune to talk about "incredibly soft sites". Its a story, we have heard many times before about numerous poker sites, and its mostly just advertisement in my opinion. A lot of people are affiliated with whatever site and basically get paid to spread that kind of stories.

For instance I moved to 888 Poker, because I had read in many places, that the cash games were incredibly soft. But it turned out, they were just the same as on PokerStars if not actually tougher. And it was way more difficult to get into games with much less tables running and way worse software. So it was basically just a hype.

There is also some degree of common sense and self regulation in this. If a game is very tough, then most regulars wont make profit, and when they figure this out, they will move on. Whereas if a game is very soft, it will attract more and more regulars, until its no longer soft. The point is, information travels, and in online poker people can move around relatively freely, so it will naturally tend to find some sort of equilibrium.

Poker Orifice said:

I'd have to strongly disagree with the notion that GGPoker has the best graphics in the game. (when you're saying 'graphics' I'm assuming you're meaning 'software'??)

They are far behind many sites in that regard.
- there's no way to save table layouts on GGPoker. So if you're a player who plays a bunch of tournaments or tables at the same time, you'll need to open up one at a time, then re-size it and place it where you want it (& then need to do this again & again). On Stars I can have 6 on each screen if I want to play 12 MTT's or I can put 4 on my screen '2' when 4-tabling ZooM or 4 on each if playing something else, etc. etc. (or 6 on screen 2, 4 on screen 1 leaving some space for lobbys, etc.).. AND have this all saved in a number of different layouts. FAR BETTER!

The Hand History feature is lightyears better on Stars. GGPoker's is terrible.

The tournament lobby is much better at Stars as well as the lobby filters. ainec

The bet buttons are much better on Stars with the ability to set pre-set buttons in a far more efficient manner than GGPoker.

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No I mean graphics actually, what is presented to you as a player to play on. GG bests everyone out there.

Now in terms of all the other aspects of the software you have mentioned I have no argument. For example, I do not multi-table at GG ever. I tend to do so across multiple sites - sometimes on a single site, never GG.

Have always said the PokerStars lobby is the best and this was unaffected by Aurora.

As regards anything else I am not bothered because I simple dip in and out of GG because of CC partnering with them - and it is a vibrant and fun graphics package you are greated with - so I slowly warm to them more and more.

DS3 said:

5- Agreed - though I would argue PokerStars might have been dethroned already.

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Personally I dont understand, why people even care, who is the "industry leader". For us as players its great, that there is competition, and this is, what really matter. Personally I have spend most of my time on 888 Poker for the past year and a half, and thats certainly not because, I think, they are the "industry leader". But I like their MTTs, and as long as that remains the case, why not play them?

But returning to that somewhat irrelevant "competition", PokerStars are certainly not giving up without a fight. Last year they introduced two new major series in addition to those, they had already, and it was a success. I also dont think, anyone will argue, that Sunday Million is still the largest online MTT, which run weekly, and they have started to live stream day two of it every week, which in my opinion is a great initiative.

I will also argue, that Stars is still a great place to play cash games. They have lower rake than anyone else, and they have taken several initiatives to soften up the games, that have actually worked. There is now a 4 table cap for regular cash games, and the latest initiative is something, they call "dynamic waiting lists". Its somewhat complicated, but basically it means, that players need to sit down and play on a table with vacant seats, before they can go on waiting lists.

This limits bum hunting. And if GG Poker dont like bum hunting, why dont they do something similar, rather than threaten players to have their money stolen, if GG Poker think, they are bumhunting to much? There are also other simple technical solutions available like randomized seating, which for instance 888 Poker have done. It makes absolutely no sense, that a poker site has software, which allow people to table and seat select in cash games, and then write in their TOS, its not allowed to do it.

I know, I am repeating myself, but to me this is actually a big deal and a sign, that GG Poker has not yet grown up. I also have to ask, why they have not aquired a license here in Sweden, when smaller sites like 888 or PartyPoker have? Are there requirements, they are unable or unwilling to meet, or what exactly is the problem? To be considered an industry leader, for me a poker site must have a license in the majority of those countries, that have a regulated market. If that happen one day, I will look forward to give GG Poker a try

Well yesterday I just thought about testing GG Poker and have download the software.
I registered and tried to deposit in order to get the welcome bonus. But the software got stucked on the start of the KYC verification and It was impossible to do anything.
The verification process did not work at all.
I quit and I was like: OK we will see tomorrow.
But today the software took more than 2 minutes just to open up!
So I think they still are far away from the perfection.

fundiver199 said:

Personally I dont understand, why people even care, who is the "industry leader". For us as players its great, that there is competition, and this is, what really matter. Personally I have spend most of my time on 888 Poker for the past year and a half, and thats certainly not because, I think, they are the "industry leader". But I like their MTTs, and as long as that remains the case, why not play them?...

...If that happen one day, I will look forward to give GG Poker a try

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Well the number one thing is little more than human nature- people like a winner.

Regarding PokerStars, I have been somewhat heartened to hear twice now that they are planning a move to up their game back in the live arena- to come back strongly with tours in both the EU and US once Covid 19 of out of the way. This is second hand information but comes from industry insiders on podcasts... I would love this as I was attracted to poker in the first place once I started following the EPT.

The bum hunting issue was handled really poorly yes, but then ACR had a mini-blow up recently when people realized you could be canned from the site for repeated delay of game and many freaked out concerning bubble play.

Yes, I'll concede it odd how they operate in one jurisdiction and not another -in fact their origin story remains hazy to me as it centered on Asia where online gambling is still often technically illegal.

However, the fact remains I basically think competition is healthy and keeps everyone on their toes.

Completely agree with all of the above. I think, streamed live poker events are extremely important for bringing new players into the game even online. If we look back, some of the great things, PokerStars have done, was to arrange shows like "Shark Cage" and "Big Game", which were very entertaining to watch and gave amateurs a chance to play against the pros and potentially win big money. I really think, poker needs something like that again. But of course they have no incentive to do something like this in the US, since they can only offer their services in a few states at the moment.

As for the ACR "blowup" I was one of the guys, who harped on about it. And I will continue to do so, whenever there is a reason to, because I think, a lot of people dont read the TOS, and to me those of both ACR and GG Poker are complete BS. Both sites are basically saying, that poker players are not allowed to try to win, and if they do it anyway, the site is entitled to steal their money. To me thats totally unacceptable, and sites like PokerStars and 888 Poker dont have something similar. For me its high time, that both GG Poker and ACR grow up as well.

Competition isn't an absolute. It's like a fight. If you bring a gun to a knife fight...well...yeah there's competition but not really.

GG poker seems to have the means, savvy and capital to challenge Pokerstars. Up until their arrival, we've only really had Party Poker with any heft. (I'm leaving Americas Card Room and the like out.)

GG have the marketing budget and have brought some decent innovations to the online game recently. Pokerstars, as always, remains the premier marketing site and tbf is always innovating. They're a good site. Full stop.

What matters to me as a recreational player is the online experience and customer service + sort of the rake back. PS is quite good on the online gaming experience and I like the huge variety of games. Long may it continue. However, there customer support has really went down hill since they've become a big corp - likewise the rake back. Rake back is just a joke for many, many players.

TLDR: The online poker market is now very mature. It's unexpected that such a large player like GG has emerged, but I really expect the old customer service, rake back and good bonuses never to return. Poker is now just another market and we players are the fish.

But as a rec player, it's ok. it is what it be. Corporatism won't improve the game or the experience - ever.

I created an account on GG last month and I was surprised about how much I liked to play there, somehow they really made the game more fun to play, the table design is beautiful and clean, you can see some info about players you can't on PokerStars like their winnings on the site with a graphic on the last 5mtts, the percentage of hands they've been playing on the tournament and other stuff

I can write a lot about the game design itself because I really enjoyed it

The main lobby design I think it's outdated though, unnecessary background music (when you're playing there's a dealer voice too which is so annoying, but you can disable everything), awful banners looking like you're entering a torrent download site and takes too long to load at least on my pc

As mentioned, there are not SNG but there is a lot of mtts like the bankroll builder which has no rake and you gain T$, all the mtts I've seen there has an estimated time for them to complete and there's a lot of turbos lasting from 1-2 hours with a field of somewhere around 100 players so it's kinda of a 180 sit and go and the Bankroll Builder with buy in $0.25 to $2 a lot of time I've seen a field around 20-50 players, so this can be an alternative

Overall I think rec players will find GG more fun to play

- They're mobile App is YEARS ahead of PokerStars
- No HUDs
- Emotes and fun stuff like a dramatic music when you go all in
- Addicted games like all in/fold and Flip and Go
- Good promotions and marketing on twitch with lots of streamers, also there's different skins like Natural8 that keeps growing in the asia market and other places like here in Brazil, I only know one active streamer that promotes PokerStars but there's at least other 4 streaming for N8 including Felipe Mojave who's playing on GG too

PokerStars still top of mind, but GG is not playing around

oakthyago said:

Hello guys I'd like to bring you a discution about the potencial that the GGpoker has to become a great poker room, if they already arent.

I met the room because of the cardschat freeroll they have two per weak to all members. I won a freeroll there and saw that they have a $100 welcome program I just did not know that would be a crazy jornay. they really like this high rake games this all in fold is totally crazyness and the bonus is almost all about it. get luck and did lost my money there but was a tought beggining.

the problem is that this high variancy games makes poker looks more like gambling and not a mind game. If they have sit n go I would not be playing poker stars.

I would like to hear what our comunity think about GGpoker.

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GGpoker great room, graphics are great. I play in this room and I really like it.

italorohdrigues said:

you can see some info about players you can't on PokerStars like their winnings on the site with a graphic on the last 5mtts, the percentage of hands they've been playing on the tournament and other stuff

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Its essentially a build in HUD, and to me its a little strange to list that as an advantage of playing on GG Poker, and then also list "no HUDs" as another advantage. One can argue, that a built in HUD is better, because it does not need to be installed and set up, and that this is easier for recreational players.

But its still a way for other players to pick up information about you without paying attention to the action. VPIP is by far the most important number on any HUD, and maybe I dont actually want people to know, how much money I have won or lost on the site. Even the third party trackers dont give that information away.

So if someone really feel, that online poker should mimic live poker as much as possible, then I would not recommend them to play on GG Poker. There are other sites like PartyPoker, which are completely HUD free. For me personally the build in HUD would not be a reason to play on GG Poker, but it would also not be a reason to not play there.

teutonic1 said:

TLDR: The online poker market is now very mature. It's unexpected that such a large player like GG has emerged

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Basically they have emerged because of the booming Asian market along with something called the IDN network. Its not all that different from the fact, that some chinese car brands, that are still totally unknown in Europe or North America, are now among the largest in the world.

They have some strange policies. No one will be, what pokerstars was back in a day.

fundiver199 said:

Basically they have emerged because of the booming Asian market along with something called the IDN network. Its not all that different from the fact, that some chinese car brands, that are still totally unknown in Europe or North America, are now among the largest in the world.

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Very good point. Can't be denied and I suspect we'll be seeing more internet sites emerging from the East, and not just China and/or Taiwan.

However, given that the American-Anglos have dominated and almost monopolised online poker content for decades, the emergence of GG is not insignificant. They had to have the resources and savvy to negotiate the smorgasbord of individual European country regulatory agencies, and to do so they needed plenty of capital in order to buy the legal experience necessary to conform to each country's requirements. People tend to vastly underestimate the legal requirements, and the time it takes to get these things done.

I’ve caught these GGPoker flashes here and there. But there’s been so many sites over the years that a simply a flash in the pan. So I couldn’t be bothered to look further into it.
Not a millennial jumping onto the latest everything scared something will pass them buy.
Yet thus far I’ve gathered it may be worth looking into, but one needs to be prepared for immaturity due to the mindsets of the designers. Clearly from the “everyone is special and it’s all okay” generation.
The positive points that are drawn to mind is the apparent volume of people and a supposed ease of deposit and withdrawal.
Have any mature Canadian players opened an account with GGPoker and have you encountered any issues ?

The site always having issues or being down is getting big time old !

Most of the time i like GG...

Today i hatte it, cause my Client can‘t connect and won‘t work.

I do like GGPoker but agree with others here that the lack of sit & go's is a big drawback.

Well maybe if they stop getting country restrictions few countrys now that arent able to play at ggpoker cause they dont have the license anymore!

kind hard to become the best poker room if you have a lot of countries left out

I play at ggpoker and I especially love shortdecks tables