GGPoker $5 Ocean KO Tops 272,000 Entries, Past Guinness Mark
On Monday 12 October 2026, Day 2 of GGPoker's $5 Ocean KO Opener begins with more than 272,000 entries behind it, above the 253,692 of the Guinness record PokerStars set in 2015. Whether that counts as a new record depends on what you count.
Five dollars is a coffee and a pastry. On GGPoker, since the first flights opened on 2 October, it has also been a seat in what is shaping up as the best attended online poker tournament on record. The $5 Ocean KO Opener, guaranteed at $1 million, had passed 272,000 entries by the weekend, according to figures reported by PeruAllin and CodigoPoker. The mark to beat was 253,692, set by PokerStars in 2015 and recognised by Guinness World Records. A cheap ticket quietlu turned into a crowd.
Now the fine print. 272,000 entries is not 272,000 people. PeruAllin's count, as of the weekend, split the field into 161,896 unique players and 110,541 re-entries. CodigoPoker points out that the 2015 record was recognised for participants, so topping it on raw entries is not totallu the same thing as an official ruling. PokerNews still headlined the event a world record on Monday, and the WSOP's account said the Guinness title for the largest online poker tournament has been broken, as relayed by Pokerfuse. The Post has not found a Guinness announcement of its own, so treat the crown as pending.
The format helps explain the stampede. Ocean KO is a jackpot progressive knockout: every elimination spins a multiplier on the bounty, from 0.4x up to 400x, and GGPoker is the first room to offer it outside France and Spain. The prize pool has already cleared the guarantee, standing above $1,253,000 as of the weekend. KACHINGUUU.
Day 2 is today, Monday 12 October. As of the weekend, 17,717 players had made it through, out of that vast sea of entries. It is a long road from a $5 seat to the money, and the numbers say most of the crowd will be spectators by the end of the night.
It is also a fine bet by the house. GGPoker put a lottery wheel inside a knockout, priced the ticket at five dollars and waited to see who would swim in. The crowd came, and then came back for more. The Spirit's long nose, they say, can smell a 400x from across the lobby. GLORU, or at least a very large asterisk.
So is a record a record if nearly 110,000 entries were second tries? Youluwu decide. The book of luck has already taken the number, and Guinness can argue about the ink.
Should re-entries count toward a poker record?
No right answer. Just your gut, and the Spirit watching.
