GGPoker Rakeback Deal and Review
GGPoker Rakeback Deal
By signing up through ItalyPokerDeals you get the following GGPoker rakeback deal:
- 100% up to $600 Welcome Bonus, worth 25% additional rakeback
- Up to 60% VIP rakeback through the GGPoker Fish Buffett rewards program
- Rush & Cash Daily $25,000 Leaderboard
- Other GGPoker Promotions
GGPoker Fish Buffett VIP Rewards Program
New players signing up at GGPoker through ItalyPokerDeals will automatically enter the Fish Buffett rewards program, where they can earn cash prizes after paying rake in cash games or tournaments. They receive 100 Fish Buffett points for every $1 paid in rake and they can climb within limits by playing more. There are 25 VIP levels in total, offering an average cashback between 15% and 60%.
According to our GG Poker review, there are different requirements for reaching each VIP level, with the easiest ones being Plankton and Goldfish, where you need to acquire 750 and 1,500 Fish Buffett points respectively during 7 days, whereas other VIP levels offer monthly or yearly time limits. While each VIP level has an average cashback, the prizes are awarded by spinning the wheel being volatile.
No matter which level you reach by climbing the VIP ladder, the prizes are earned on a weekly basis. Any unopened spins will be opened automatically and money credit into your account. It is worth mentioning that you will reach the next level as soon as you have acquired the necessary Fish Buffet points. If you fail to reach your target in due time, you will be downgraded to the previous VIP level.
While the highest VIP level, GG Platinum, rewards grinders with an average GG Poker rakeback of 60%, besides the volatility of the random wheel spins, regular players have the disadvantage of getting less rewards due to the Player Value Index (PVI) rake method used by the room, which is designed rather for casual players, who have the advantage of getting more rewards on average.
Lucky players can even hit 100% rakeback on single wheel spins, but the frequency is low, therefore if you spin the wheel 100 times you should expect to get the average cashback for that specific level. Alternatively, there are 4 VIP levels where you can get a weekly flat cashback instead of spinning the wheel: Platinum Octopus – 35%, Platinum Whale – 50%, Platinum Shark – 55%, GGPlatinum – 60%.
GG Poker Cashier (Deposit and withdrawal methods)
GGPoker offers direct cashier and a wide variety of payment methods, including Skrill and Neteller eWallets, Bitcoin cryptocurrency, Visa and Mastercard debit cards. The minimum deposit is $10 and withdrawals are usually processed fast, within 1-2 business days, pending account verification.
Withdrawals are usually charged a small fee, except for Bitcoin where GGPoker covers it for you. Please keep in mind that Bitcoin cashouts are also the fastest available payment method. However, prior to your initial withdrawal, GGPoker may require you to verify your personal data, such as ID, proof of address or banking details to be fully compliant with anti-money laundering legislation.
Withdrawals are capped at $5,000 for most payment methods, except $1,500 limit for debit cards. By depositing at GG Poker you will not only enjoy their nice welcome bonus, but also playing against a weak field, mainly composed of recreational players from Asian countries, some of them being casual players from casino or sports betting who want to have fun by depositing directly via Bitcoin.
GG Poker Traffic and Games Overview
GGPoker traffic is impressive, with several hundred thousands of players online, split across all poker games such as No Limit Texas Holdem and Pot Limit Omaha cash games, Rush & Cash speed and short deck poker variant, tournaments and lottery Spin and Go’s. As mentioned above, most of the traffic comes from Asia and Europe, the average number of connections being 7,500 for cash games.
According to Pokerscout, GGPoker network is the largest online poker operator with more than 10,000 players at peak hours, surpassing the famous brand Pokerstars by a large margin. For instance, based on our GG Poker review, Pokerstars has twice less traffic for cash games in 2023.
Being part of the largest Asian facing network, GGPoker shares the same player pool with other reputable brands such as BetKings or Natural8. While peak hours can usually be found during Asian evenings, you can find plenty of action all the time, especially for micro and low stakes cash games.
Here you can find about 20-25 tables for NL5, whereas PLO tables begin with PLO10, where there is also decent action with an average of 15-20 tables. It is worth mentioning that GGPoker is one of the few sites where Omaha action is pretty similar to Texas Holdem. At low stakes you can find hundreds of tables and even some high stakes cash games traffic for high rollers.
The speed poker variant is called Rush & Cash, running from NL2 up to NL200 with over 500 players. Heads up tables are not available and most action takes place at short-handed tables. Besides this, GGPoker also offers access to Short deck and All In or fold variants.
GGPoker becomes more and more popular due to entering many new markets and hosting daily guaranteed tournaments in different formats, freeze outs or bounty events for different bankrolls, either freerolls or buy-ins ranging from $1 to $5,000 with millions of dollars in guaranteed prizes.
There are a dozen of MTTs split into different categories as follows:
- GG Masters -$2 million dollars guaranteed prizes every week
- Daily Guarantees – three daily events, Daily Red, Daily Blue and Daily Green with buy-ins ranging from $2,5 to $250 and guaranteed prizes from $4,000 up to $60,000
- Bounty Hunters – tournaments where you receive bounties for kicking out opponents
- Omaholic – daily events for PLO players with buy-ins up to $315
- Chinese Zodiac – special offering in CNY format to attract Asian players
- T$ Builder – special MTTs without fees every half hour where you earn tournament tickets
- High Rollers – expensive MTTs with up to $250,000 GTD prizes and entry buy-ins up to $5000
- Million$ - Massive Super Million event with over $10,000 buy in and GTD prize of $5 million
While there are no regular SNGs at GGPoker, you can still play their Spin & Gold lottery spins, with a maximum prize pool of 2 million dollars and entry buy-ins ranging from $0.25 up to $200. The game takes place in a hyper-turbo format of 3-max players so the action is very juicy with many gamblers.
GG Poker Rake Structure
Let’s now discuss a little bit about the rake calculation method. As you probably know, GGPoker network is devoted to attracting casual players and therefore has implemented a player value index (PVI) rake method, which is designed to reward more the losing players and less the winners. Thus, assuming both rake the same, winning ones will have lower PVI value and losers higher one.
While the PVI formula takes into account several factors such as how often you deposit or cash out as well as how profitable you are at the tables, nobody knows exactly how that is computed. We only know that winning regulars have a lower PVI (0.1 being the lowest) whereas amateurs have a better one (2 being the highest one). So we can assume that regulars exhibit PVI less than 1, which is of course multiplied by the real rake generated. This of course affects how much cashback you earn.
The lack of transparency with how this formula is designed might seem frustrating for grinders who are used with a weighted contributed rake method. On top of this, GGPoker also charges preflop rake as compared to other sites, thus not being optimized for grinders, but in the same time it managed to collect a great user base, with players from all the countries and the best traffic in online poker.
When it comes to the rake structure, GGPoker charges cash games players with 5% for both No Limit Texas Holdem and Omaha, with different rake caps depending on the stakes and number of players, from 0,5 up to 2bb. Please keep in mind that all preflop pots larger than 2.5bb are also charged.
An interesting add on is that Rush & Cash speed cash players are only charged rake if the table is full. Moreover, Omaha tables have no rake cap. If you prefer MTTs, you shall pay a 10% fee, whereas for Spin and Gold lottery spins fees are 7%. All in and Fold games are charged with a fixed fee per hand.
All in all, GGPoker has a pretty expensive rake structure, especially if we take into account the absence of rake caps for Omaha and the preflop rake for cash games. However, if we take into account the games softness as well as the huge traffic opportunities, it might still be profitable.
GGPoker Tracking, Software Features, Account Access and Details
Since it is focused merely on attracting Asian recreational players, GGPoker has prohibited the usage of any third parties software such as PokerTracker or Holdem Manager that allowed players to use HUD at the tables and exploit their opponents based on statistics.
However, the Pokercraft tool is offered as an alternative to provide more information about your own game. While GGPoker removed the option to save hand histories of your opponents, you are allowed to download your own hand history to make session reviews for improving your own game.
Besides this, GGPoker offers some nice features designed to attract other recreational players:
- Emoji – famous stars Negreanu and Elky who are endorsing GGPoker dance at the final table
- SnapCam – where you can share short videos at the tables
- Bubble Protection – you may recover your initial buy-in if you finish close to the bubble at MTTs
- Staking – you can buy shares of any players for MTTs and win additional cash prizes
- Run it twice – you can protect yourself from bad runs by choosing the run it twice option
GG Poker software has been designed by NSUS Ltd, being visually appealing and one of the best available on the market, multi-tabling being available for regulars. The poker client can be downloaded for Windows and MAC desktop versions but is also available for iOS and Android mobile devices. It is worth mentioning that the software RNG has been approved by BMM Testlabs.
According to your GG Poker review, players from the following countries are restricted to join:
Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Bahrain, Cuba, Curacao, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Jordan, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Kuwait, Libya, Mauritania, Norfolk Island, North Korea, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, United States of America
Due to gambling legislation changes, available territories might not be updated in real time. Therefore, we strongly recommend to get in touch with our support team to check the availability of the games at skype ID: italy_pkr
GGPoker Bonuses
Once you have registered your account by signing up at GGPoker through ItalyPokerDeals, you can opt from the following available bonuses:
- 100% up to $600 first deposit bonus
- Up to $100 welcome bonus in free rewards
Obviously, grinders will prefer the welcome bonus of up to $600 which matches their initial deposit. To harvest the maximum available amount, you need to deposit $600. Even though you won’t clear all of it, you don’t lose anything due to the fact that the bonus is released in small increments of 5$ for every $20 paid in rake, thus being equivalent to 25% additional rakeback. The bonus can be cleared within the first 90 days, enough time for every serious grinder to harvest the whole amount.
Casual players will perhaps prefer to get the free rewards consisting in $40 of free tickets received in the first 6 days of play with no strings attached. Afterwards, they can get an additional of 60$ in cash prizes by playing All in or Fold games during these 6 days. Last but not the least, those who hit all daily targets, will receive a final $15 GGMasters satellite ticket.
GGPoker Promotions
On top of the welcome bonus as well as the Fish Buffett VIP rewards, there are still plenty of freerolls, giveaways, jackpots, satellites and other GG Poker promotions such as:
- $20,000 Weekly Mission Freeroll
- Big Hand Jackpots
- Omaha Fest
- Cash giveaways
- Daily freebie
- Spin and Gold Daily Leaderboard
- GG Series of poker
- Rush & Cash Daily Leaderboard
Probably the most exciting from all GG Poker promotions is Rush & Cash $25,000 Daily Leaderboard, where No Limit Texas Holdem grinders share a prize pool of $15,200 every day, whereas Omaha participants split their share of $9,800. It is worth mentioning that only 60 seats are rewarded and to be eligible to participate you need to play at the fast-fold/speed poker tables.
GGPoker Review
GGPoker is the flagship of GG Network, the largest online poker site in the world, being launched in 2014 and licensed in Curacao. It managed to surpass the largest online poker brand in the world, Pokerstars, after bringing plenty of traffic from South-East Asia and Europe, trying to attract as many recreational users as possible through great software, nice promotions and heavy rewards.
Many might consider a disadvantage the fact that HUD is not allowed at the tables but it actually managed to maintain the games softness. Moreover, while high volume rake players have no option to find good traffic elsewhere, the rather high rake (including preflop) and PVI method used by GGPoker is rather beneficial for casual players. On the other side, grinders can harvest the welcome bonus of up to $600 and get up to 60% GG Poker rakeback through the Fish Buffett rewards.
While the cashback looks strong for those who are serious about the game, it is worth mentioning that based on our GG Poker review, the actual cashback received by grinders is seriously affected by PVI rake method. However, it is a two edged sword since you might improve win rate at the tables by having a bigger edge on your weaker opponents as compared with the old and outdated poker sites.
Conclusion
As with all major poker sites, there are pros and cons when playing at GGPoker. Personally, I don’t enjoy their software very much, although it has plenty of nice features for beginners. It simply looks too fishy and unprofessional for my taste, but gamblers enjoy it and one thing that I know is that most money in poker comes from weaker opponents, not from playing against other regulars.
For high stakes players there’s simply no better place for multi tabling nowadays, given that GGPoker is the largest online poker site out there, surpassing Pokerstars. If you are a high roller and want to maximize your GG Poker rakeback, please get in touch with our support team at skype ID: italy_pkr