GGMasters is the GGPoker network’s flagship weekly tournament: a $150 freezeout carrying a $1,000,000 guarantee, played every Sunday at 17:00 UTC. For most of Asia that is not a Sunday tournament at all — it starts Monday 01:00 in Hong Kong, Singapore, Manila and Taipei. Asian players reach it through Natural8 rather than GGPoker directly, and the same lobby stacks a $1,050 High Roller edition, a $320 bounty version and six days of $25 feeders underneath it.
Six years and 300-plus editions in, GGMasters has paid out over $235 million from roughly 1.5 million entries. That scale is why it matters more to an APAC grinder’s calendar than any single festival: it happens again next week, and the week after.
The clock is the first thing to get right
The “Sunday major” framing is European. Treat GGMasters as a Monday-morning commitment and the rest of the planning falls into place — a 7,000-entry $150 field runs long, so a deep finish means you are still playing well into Monday.
- Main Event ($150) and High Roller ($1,050) — Hong Kong, Singapore, Manila, Taipei, Kuala Lumpur: Monday 01:00. Tokyo and Seoul: Monday 02:00. Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, Jakarta: Monday 00:00. India: Sunday 22:30.
- GGMasters Bounty ($320) — starts 19:30 UTC, so Monday 03:30 in the UTC+8 belt, Monday 04:30 in Japan and Korea, Monday 02:30 in Vietnam and Thailand, Monday 01:00 in India.
Practically: the UTC+7 and UTC+8 markets get the best of it. Japanese and Korean players staring at a Monday 02:00 start with a 04:30 bounty chaser on top should probably pick one, not both.
What sits underneath the Main Event
Monday through Saturday the network runs a rotating set of $25 GGMasters editions — GGMasters Asia, Double Stack, Bounty Warm Up, Classic and straight Bounty formats — with guarantees between $40,000 and $100,000 and start times spread across 11:00 to 19:00 UTC. GGMasters Asia is the one worth circling: it is scheduled for APAC waking hours rather than European ones.
These are not just satellites. They are standalone tournaments with their own guarantees, which makes the $25 tier a legitimate place to live if $150 a week is too steep. If you want the Sunday seat specifically, the lobby’s qualifiers pay in tickets, and the High Roller edition draws a much smaller field for its $600,000 guarantee — a different risk profile entirely from the $150.
Working out which GG-network skin you should even be registering from in your country? Message @PAGDaddyBot on Telegram — it takes about a minute.
Overlays: the number that should pick your week
Here is the part most guides skip. At $150 a seat, roughly $138 of each entry reaches the prize pool, so GGMasters needs 7,247 entries every single week just to fund its own guarantee. When it falls short, GGPoker pays the difference — dead money added to the pool with no player attached to it.
It happens more often than the marketing suggests. Since the $1M guarantee arrived in March 2025, 65 regular weekly editions have averaged 7,631 entries, but 11 of them missed the mark, adding about $614,000 in combined overlays. Two consecutive misses in June 2026 were the sharpest run yet: 6,703 entries on 15 June left a $74,986 shortfall, and 6,488 entries on 22 June generated $895,344 against the guarantee — a $104,656 overlay, the largest a regular edition has produced under the $1M banner.
Special editions push this further. The 6th-anniversary freezeout on 1 February 2026 kept the $150 price tag while boosting the guarantee to $10,000,000, which is a fundamentally different proposition from a normal Sunday. When you see a guarantee jump without a buy-in jump, that is the week to play.
Master Rise rewards consistency, not one heater
The loyalty layer pays for showing up. Rank inside the qualifying group for three straight weeks and you collect a $150 ticket; extend the streak to week four for $350 cash and week five for a further $850, with in-the-money finishes required for those last two rungs. It is a small edge, but it is the only part of GGMasters that rewards a grinder over a one-off entrant — and it argues for committing to a run of weeks rather than dipping in when you happen to be free.
One structural note: the Main Event is a true freezeout. No rebuys, no add-ons. That changes correct play against a field full of re-entry-conditioned regs, and it is why the $320 bounty edition and the network’s progressive knockout tournaments demand a different gear. If you want to know whether your GGMasters results are actually profitable rather than merely memorable, the network’s built-in tracker covers it — see our guide to GGPoker PokerCraft. And if you have not settled on a skin yet, Natural8 vs GGPoker breaks down what changes when the network is the same but the operator is not.
Frequently Asked Questions
What time does GGMasters start in Asia?
The Main Event begins Sunday 17:00 UTC, which is Monday 01:00 in Hong Kong, Singapore, Manila, Taipei and Kuala Lumpur, Monday 02:00 in Tokyo and Seoul, Monday 00:00 in Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City and Jakarta, and Sunday 22:30 in India.
Do I play GGMasters on GGPoker or Natural8?
Both sit on the same network and share the same GGMasters prize pool. Natural8 is the Asia-facing skin, so most APAC players register there; the tournament, field and guarantee are identical either way.
Is GGMasters a freezeout or can I re-enter?
The $150 Main Event is a strict freezeout — no rebuys and no add-ons. Bust and your week is over, which is unusual for a tournament of this size.
How many entries does GGMasters need to avoid an overlay?
7,247 entries at $150. It has averaged 7,631 since March 2025, but 11 of 65 regular editions have fallen short, including a $104,656 overlay on 22 June 2026.
What is the cheapest way into GGMasters?
The $25 weekday editions run Monday to Saturday with $40,000 to $100,000 guarantees, and the lobby’s qualifiers pay out in $150 tickets. Master Rise also hands out a $150 ticket for a three-week ranking streak.
What is the difference between GGMasters and GGMillion$?
GGMasters is the $150 mass-field weekly. GGMillion$ is the network’s $10,000 high-roller weekly with a minimum $2,000,000 guarantee — same network, entirely different audience.
Does the $1,000,000 guarantee ever go up?
Yes, for anniversary and festival editions. The 1 February 2026 sixth-anniversary freezeout ran at $10,000,000 guaranteed with the buy-in held at $150.
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