Over one week of games have now been slayed at the Natural8 – GG Spring Festival 2021 to bring the total number of champions to 126. The newest heroes were Brazil’s “RealGanjaBoy” and Germany’s “TOTOROO”, both players taking down the featured GGSF Opening Act-L events. Also navigating to victory were Singapore’s Ho Bao “Yummers19” Qiang, Eelis Parssinen, Dawid “INSERTC0IN” Smolka, Natural8’s Team NLG Fedor Holz and Stefan Schillhabel, and Lev “LevMeAlone” Gottlieb for his third takedown. Another top performer was Joshua McCully who reached four final tables on Day 8. At the special $10K GG Legends Bounty featuring famous DJ “Deadmau5”, Canada’s “Foreign” claimed the authentic “mau5head” first prize. Jumping over to the side contest, Week 1 of the Series Leaderboard closed with 100 players awarded a share of US$ 300,000 (in tournament credits). Winners per tier were Niklas Astedt, Fabrizio Gonzalez, and RealGanjaBoy. We’ve got all these stories for you and more.
If you are just catching wind of GGSF 2021, it’s time to suit up and join the party. The festival boasts the biggest guarantee this season of US$ 150,000,000. Games opened on April 4 and will run until April 25 inclusive. If you are new to the scene, make sure to sign up on Natural8 to avail of exclusive promos and freebies. You can read up on those perks at the bottom of the page.
To date, nearly US$ 64.3 million has been collected over 128 tournaments, 15 events reached their 5000 maximums and 11 overlays. 208 games have yet to be tabled with bundles of cash up for grabs. Tournaments are offered across three tiers – Low, Medium, High – with buy-ins from US$ 5 to US$ 25,500. As always, all events advertise guarantees from US$ 5,000 to a jaw dropping US$ 10,000,000.
Speaking of ten million dollars, Week 2’s featured GGSF Super MILLION$ ME-H US$ 10,300, US$ 10,000,000 guaranteed event has begun. Day 1A concluded with 41 players out of 337 entrants advancing to Day 2. Four starting days remain. Don’t miss out on this incredibly enormous prize pool. To get in at a cheaper cost, you can try your luck at the satellites which are offered daily.
And now for our GGSF Day 7 and Day 8 top stories.
Featured Events Results
GGSF Opening Act-L: $80 NLHE – REALGANJABOY – US$ 129,296.24
Since signing up to the network in July 2020, Brazil’s “RealGanjaBoy” has been riding the red however that has all changed having won the featured GGSF Opening Act-L $80 NLHE for US$ 129,296.24. With nearly even stack at heads up against Norway’s “25dollscom”, both players struck a deal then played on for the glory. After a heated battle, RealGanjaBoy closed it out, winning back to back shoves to earn top rank. With this win, RealGanjaBoy also accrued the most points in the Series Leaderboard Week 1 Low Tier to claim the T$ 10,000 first prize.
Running from April 5 to 12, the featured GGSF Opening Act-L $80 NLHE drew 20,516 entries across multiple days to well exceed the one million dollars guarantee. Out of the 3,268 Day 2 qualifiers, 2,200 earned a share of the US$ 1,509,977.60.
After six and a half hours of Day 2 play, the final table was formed with Poland’s Mindaugas “MyliuVMI” Jonaitis in command. Jonaitis held rank until five handed when RealGanjaBoy won multiple big pots to jump out front backed by a massive stack. RealGanjaBoy eliminated Dimitrios “R3V3N83 04” Michailidis (5th), doubled up off Jonaitis, then booted Samuel “Gr1ndwal” Kabelitz (4th). At three handed, 25dollscom and Jonaitis went at it with the former winning both bouts to ship it and face RealGanjaBoy at heads up with a slim edge. Both players quickly reached a deal then played on for the win. After a heated tug of war, RealGanjaBoy put a lid on it. Final hand was RealGanjaBoy 
full house over 25dollscom 
two pair on a board 
.
Final table payouts
1st RealGanjaBoy – Brazil – US$ 129,296.24 (deal)
2nd 25dollscom – Norway – US$ 129,689.56 (deal)
3rd Mindaugas “MyliuVMI” Jonaitis – Poland – US$ 83,223.37
4th Samuel “Gr1ndwal” Kabelitz – Andorra – US$ 62,408.74
5th Dimitrios “R3V3N83 04” Michailidis – Cyprus – US$ 46,799.87
6th kilppari – Finland – US$ 35,094.90
7th Suttisak@InVesT – Thailand – US$ 26,317.57
8th excusemesir – Finland – US$ 26,317.57
9th Troy225 – United Arab Emirates – US$ 14,799.36
GGSF Opening Act-L: $80 PLO-NL – TOTOROOO – US$ 57,602.50
The big moment finally arrived for medium stakes player “TOTOROOO” after taking down the featured mixed game variant GGSF Opening Act-L: $80 PLO-NL for US$ 57,602.50. TOTOROO overcame the 1,002 Day 2 qualifiers, knocking out Fabrizio “S@ulG00dm@n” D’Agostino (3rd) and New Zealand’s “Imar54” (2nd) to seize the win. This was TOTOROOO’s first victory on the network. Among the finalists was Colombia’s Farid Jattin who championed the H-34: $1,050 High Rollers Main Event. Jattin finished in 5th place.
Running from April 5 to 12, the GGSF Opening Act-L: $80 PLO-NL was not as popular as the NLHE version. The event drew 5,679 entries for an overlay of US$ 82,025.60, the highest overlay of the series. Day 2 opened with 1,002 entries with the top 600 earning a share of the US$ 500,000 guaranteed pot.
Final table payouts
1st TOTOROO – Germany – US$ 57,602.50
2nd Imar54 – New Zealand – US$ 41,645.32
3rd Fabrizio “S@ulG00dm@n” D’Agostino – Italy – US$ 30,110.39
4th lotusa – Hong Kong – US$ 21,770.40
5th Farid Jattin – Colombia – US$ 15,740.45
6th luck2pro1 – Israel – US$ 11,380.66
7th MyDaDOwNsMe – Canada – US$ 8,228.45
8th Maximilan “kid1591” Sanders – UK – US$ 4,026.06
9th Patrick “Egption” Tardif – Canada – US$ 3,511.20
Lev “LevMeAlone” Gottlieb banks third super high roller win
WSOP bracelet holder Lev “LevMeAlone” Gottlieb has been an absolute beast at the high tier. On the third day of the festival, Gottlieb became the first player to win two events, the Super MILLION$ for US$ 586,075.23 and the Super Tuesday high tier for US$ 320,728.78. Four days later, he crushed another, taking down the H-35: $10,300 PLO-NL High Roller for US$ 199,770.92. With this win, Gottlieb has accumulated over US$ 1.1 million in victory earnings. He defeated Austria’s Christian Rudolph at heads up to join Sweden’s Niklas Astedt with three wins.
Team NLG: Fedor Holz and Stefan Schillhabel win events
Day 8 witnessed Natural8 Team NLG German pros Fedor Holz and Stefan Schillhabel bring one in each for the team. Collecting the most was Holz who triumphed over the 466 entries of the H-35: $1,500 Sunday Marathon. He entered the final table as the big boss and held it to the close for a US$ 124,456.71 payout. This was Holz’s first series win and first series final table. His other deep runs were 13th place at the H-15: $10,300 Super Tuesday and 14th place at the H-38: $5,250 Bounty Hunters Main Event.
At the M-37: $300 Sunday Marathon, fellow compatriot Schillhabel emerged victorious over the 1,403 entry field to claim the US$ 51,864.38 first prize. It was an easy defeat for Schillhabel at heads up with an uber massive stack against Austria’s Mario Mosboeck. Schillhabel also finished 16th at the H-38: $5,250 Bounty Hunters Main Event.
Finland’s Eelis Parssinen reaches four final tables, wins one
For the past week, Finland’s Eelis Parssinen has been raking it in however victory eluded him until Day 7 when he shipped the H-33: $5,250 PLO-NL Bounty event. This awarded him a wealthy US$ 180,439.06 payout, which may well be his second largest career score. Back in November, Parssinen won the 2020 EPT Online US$ 25,000 No Limit Hold’em Eight Max for his largest payday of US$ 539,819. Prior to his latest win, Parssinen cashed at 8 festival events with a final table appearance at the M-15: $1,050 Super Tuesday taking 3rd for US$ 70,693.80. His hot run continued on Day 8 with a 3rd place finish at the H-35: $10,300 PLO-NL High Roller event for US$ 104,431.80 and 4th place at the H-38: $5,250 Bounty Hunters Main Event for US$ 84,661.33.
Big Bounty: DAWID “INSERTC0IN” SMOLKA – US$ 293,548.55
At the H-38: $5,250 Bounty Hunters Main Event, chopping heads on his first and only bullet was Poland’s Dawid “INSERTC0IN” Smolka to pocket the US$ 110,696.96 first prize and a jaw dropping US$ 182,851.59 in bounty rewards. To emphasize how large that bounty reward was, 2nd placer Andrii Derzhpilskyi collected the second largest of US$ 48,281.24 which was nearly four times less. This was Smolka’s largest ever score on the network.
The H-38: $5,250 Bounty Hunters Main Event was one of several seven digit guaranteed tournaments offered on Day 8. 357 entered to build a richer prize pool of US$ 1,785,000 which was US$ 160,000 more than the opening day event of its kind.
Buy in: US$ 5,250
Guarantee: US$ 1,500,000
Entries: 357
Prize pool: US$ 1,785,000
ITM: 53 places
Final table payouts
1st Dawid “INSERTC0IN” Smolka – Poland – US$ 293,548.55
2nd Andrii Derzhpilskyi – Ukraine – US$ 158,800.25
3rd Preben Stokkan – UK – US$ 89,887.68
4th Eelis Parssinen – Finland – US$ 84,661.33
5th Rodrigo Selouan – Brazil – US$ 89,684.04
6th Diamond Hands – Austria – US$ 58,309.55
7th QuantumKey – Croatia – US$ 45,412.57
8th Denny Ramos – Brazil – US$ 41,152.56
9th Kartik “Mandovi” Ved – India – US$ 45,221.40
Asia-Pacific results
It was a busy weekend for players in Asia-Pacific with six events offered in the region’s prime time. Surprisingly a few of the events experienced overlays. On the victory side, two players from the region emerged as champions. At other events, many reached final tables. Here are our top performers.
Four final tables for Australia’s Joshua McCully in Day 8
Flying under the Thailand flag, Australian player Joshua McCully was a force to reckon with on Day 8 as he was seen slugging it out at four final tables. His deepest finish and largest score was at the freezeout event – H-39: $ 1,050 GGMasters High Rollers – earning 2nd place for US$ 120,781.75. This was his first ever recorded six figure payout. His other finishes were:
H-34: $1,050 High Rollers Main Event – 4th place – US$ 37,437.84
M-37: $300 Sunday Marathon – 4th place – US$ 21,870.69
L-37: $30 Sunday Marathon – 9th place – US$ 1,489
McCully has consistently run well on the network. Last year he cashed at 12 WSOP 2020 Online events placing 29th out of 5,802 entries at the US$ 5,000 No Limit Hold’em Main Event for US$ 55,880. In the live circuit, his highest pay was at the 2018 WSOP International Circuit Sydney A$5K No Limit Hold’em Challenge event finishing 4th for A$ 85,332 (~US$ 62,833).
Ho Bao “Yummers19” Qiang wins the M-38: $525 Bounty Hunters Main Event
Ho Bao “Yummers19” Qiang” became the first player from Singapore to claim one of the festival events for a huge return. Qiang shipped the M-38: $525 Bounty Hunters Main Event, defeating the 2,745 entry field to pocket the US$ 55,527.05 first prize plus a burly US$ 63,965.10 in bounty rewards. He earned a combined US$ 119,502.15 for his largest known tournament score.
Qiang is a well known figure in the Asian live circuit. Though his earnings only amount to US$ 200,225, he is often seen attacking the big buy in tournaments. His largest live scores were at APT Taiwan 2019 series where he pocketed NT$ 868,000 (~US$ 28,381) for his victory at the High Rollers Single Day. He also ran deep at the Main Event finishing 4th for NT$ 652,600 (~US$ 21,200), and 4th at the Superstack event for NT$ 797,000 (~US$ 26,310).
The M-38: $525 Bounty Hunters Main Event was another event guaranteeing seven figures. With 2,745 entering, the pot ballooned to US$ 1,372,500 with 368 profiting. Among the players at the final table were Fabrizio Gonzales (7th) and China’s Xyc888 (2nd). For the latter, he won a three way showdown to enter heads up with a 2.5:1 lead over Qiang. The uber aggressive Qiang doubled up to even the score and eventually won it with 
both pairing up to dust 
.
Final table payouts
1st Ho Bao “Yummers19” Qiang – Singapore – US$ 119,502.15
2nd Xyc888 – China – US$ 65,560.37
3rd Jon Nixon – Canada – US$ 49,406.97
4th Bcb20 – Turkey – US$ 44,880.67
5th Victor Begara – Brazil – US$ 31,047.34
6th hai2109 – Argentina – US$ 21,555.15
7th Fabrizio Gonzalez – Uruguay – US$ 15,204.10
8th Tomas “CoronaMyAss” Jozonis – Austria – US$ 14,388.28
9th Felipe “LisFlower” Boianovsky – Brazil – US$ 13,905.63
Other Asia finalists
PieOMy – Vietnam – M-34: $250 Daily Main Event – 1st place – US$ 40,939.17
Fireball – Hong Kong – L31: $10.50 Bounty Hunters Asia – 1st place – US$ 2,407.47
Dajingjing – China – H31: $210 Bounty Hunters Asia – 1st place – US$ 23,715.30
Aleksey “somebody444” Churbanov – Indonesia – L38: $52.50 Bounty Hunters Main Event – 1st place – US$ 18,729.32
Vladdi! – China – M39: $150 GGMasters – 2nd place – US$ 55,014.58
Wei Zhao – H-33: $5,250 PLO-NL Bounty – 3rd place – US$ 57,597.45
Karti “Mandovi” Ved – India – H-38: $5,250 Bounty Hunters Main Event – 9th place – US$ 45,221.40
Canada’s “Foreign” wins the $10K GG Legends Bounty featuring DJ “Deadmau5”
The $10K GG Legends Bounty featuring DJ “Deadmau5” was highly popular as players filled the online felt looking to knock out famous Canadian DJ “Deadmau5”. Players lucky enough to boot the deck master won autographed merchandise. Deadmau5 bought in seven times which meant seven happy fans. With buy in at US$ 5.25, this event reached its maximum 5,000 entries for a larger prize pool of US$ 25,000. Navigating the minefield to the very top was Canadian player nicknamed “Foreign” to win $ 2,134.53 and an authentic “mau5head”.
Other Big Winners
H-34: $1.050 High Rollers Main Event [ 2 Day Event ]
Guarantee: US$ 300,000
Entries: 488
Prize pool: US$ 488,000
ITM: 71 places
Winner: Farid Jattin – Colombia – US$ 79,771.42
Jattin also placed 5th at the GGSF Opening Act-L PLO-NL for US$ 15,740.45.
H:42: $2,100 Sunday Heater [ Bounty Turbo ]
Guarantee: US$ 250,000
Entries: 204
Prize pool: US$ 408,000
ITM: 27 places
Winner: Yuri Dzivielevski – Brazil – US$ 72,235.16
H-28: $1,050 High Rollers Main Event
Guarantee: US$ 250,000
Entries: 243
Prize pool: US$ 250,000
ITM: 35 places
Winner: Michael Watson – Canada – US$ 52,176.54
Maximum and overlays
For Day 7 and Day 8, a total of 5 events reached their 5000 entry maximum and four events saw overlays. As mentioned above, that brings the total number of full capacity events to 15 and 11 in overlays. To players delight, the M-39: $150 GGMasters freezeout event guarantee was bumped up from US$500K to US$600,000.
Maximum 5000 reached at Day 7 and Day 8
$10K GG Legends Bounty featuring DJ “deadmau5”
L-34: $25 Mini Main Event
L-37: $30 Sunday Marathon
L-39: $25 GGMasters
L-41: $50 Sunday Big 50
Overlays at Day 7 and Day 8
GGSF Opening Act-L: $80 PLO-NL – US$ 82,025.60
H-31: Bounty Hunters Asia – US$ 66,000
M-31: $52.50 Bounty Hunters Asia – US$ 24,600
H-32: $525 Asia Major – US$ 4,000
Featured Events – underway
Dates: April 12 to 19
Open: GGSF Headliner-M: US$ 400 NLHE, US$ 2,500,000 guaranteed
Open: GGSF Headliner-M: US$ 400 PLO-NL, US$ 1,000,000 guaranteed
Open: GGSF Super MILLION$ ME-H US$ 10,300, US$ 10,000,000 guaranteed
Multiple entry heats run daily for both GGSF Headliner-M events with buy ins at US$ 400. Both events feature seven figure guarantees. For the GGSF Super MILLION$ ME-H US$ 10,300, US$ 10,000,000 guaranteed event, only five starting days are offered leading up to Day 2. Here are the Day 1A results:
Entries: 337
Day 2 qualifiers: 41
Day 2: April 19 @405am HKT
Chip leader: Michael Watson – 1,921,636
Top 10 in chips
Upcoming Featured Events
Dates: April 19 to 26
GGSF Main Event-H: US$ 1,500 NLHE, US$ 10,000,000 guaranteed
GGSF Main Event-H: US$ 1,500 PLO-NL, US$ 2,000,000 guaranteed
Event Promos
US$ 1,000,000 Series Leaderboard
The first week of Series Leaderboard prizes has been awarded. A total of 100 players earned a share of T$ 300,000. Below are the top 3 winners per tier. Uruguay’s Fabrizio Gonzalez made out the most, earning T$ 35,000 for topping the Medium Tier and placing 2nd at the High Tier. He cashed at 15+ events with victories in two. Points towards Week 2 begins on April 12 with another T$ 300,000 up for grabs.
Week 1 – Top 3 winners – High Tier – 20 places awarded
Niklas Astedt – Norway – 1,261.03 points – T$ 25,000
Fabrizio Gonzalez – Uruguay – 1,166.09 points – T$ 20,000
Andras Nemeth – Hungary – 1,094.21 points – T$ 15,000
Week 1 – Top 3 winners – Medium Tier – 30 places awarded
Fabrizio Gonzalez – Uruguay – 1,523.03 points – T$ 15,000
Christian Rudolph – Austria – 1,065.88 points – T$ 12,500
Tim “BeardOilGuy” Rutherford – Canada – 1,035.26 points – T$ 10,000
Week 1 – Top 3 winners – Low Tier – 50 places awarded
RealGanjaBoy – Brazil – 1,177.69 points – T$ 10,000
Androm3da – Canada – 1,112.67 – T$ 7,500
Tsunguntai – Finland – 1,097.34 – T$ 5,000
Exclusive Natural8 Promos
For players signed up on Natural8, expect plenty of GGSF freebies. Throughout the series, Natural8 will be giving away GGSF tickets via their hourly freerolls, VIP Club Freerolls, GG Masters Freerolls, and First Deposit Freerolls. For N8 players that participate in any of the GGSF 2021 events, you gain entry to exclusive Natural8 GGSF Flipouts with each entry beefing up your stack. Flipouts happen every Saturday on April 10, 17, & 24, with one flipout for each of the three tiers. Prizes per Flipout: US$ 10,000 (High) / US$ 5,000 (Medium) / US$ 2,000 (Low).
Another exclusive promo is the US$ 50,000 GGSF LiveX Sponsorship. In order to land this special promo, you’ll need to overcome a mountain of players and win the GGSF Main Event-H: US$ 1,500 NLHE, US$ 10 million guaranteed event. The sponsorship includes:
12 months LiveX Crew Sponsorship
US$ 15,000 Las Vegas Package ($10,000 to cover your buy-ins and $5,000 for expenses)
US$ 35,000 for live event sponsorships over 12 months
Stay tuned to Somuchpoker as we continue to bring you recaps on the ongoing Natural8 – GGSF festival.
Tricia David
Tricia David has long experience as a recreational poker player and has been covering poker events since 2010 for numerous outfits in Asia. She spent one year working part time with Poker Portal Asia then became editor and lead writer for all event coverage of the Philippine Poker Tour (PPT). Under the PPT, she overlooked content for their website, and produced live updates on all their events. In addition, she served as the live and online events website content writer for the Asian Poker Tour. Currently, she does live events reporting in Asia for online news site Somuchpoker and is also one of their news contributors.
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