GGPoker launch Dan Bilzerian's Battle Royale format
Poker meets Fortnite? A very interesting new format has just hit the GGPoker lobby that looks like it could be a hit.
GGPoker rolls out innovative new formats at a rate we have not seen before in online poker and this is a great example.
Dan Bilzerian's Battle Royale is a 100-person PKO SNG with three distinct stages.
It begins as a Six Max fast fold format where you will be drawn at a new table every hand. 50 players will remain at the end of the stage, if after 15 minutes there are more than 50 players, anyone outside of the top 50 is eliminated. In the event of equal stacks, the player with more bounties and/or who played the most hands will rank higher. The bounties of any player eliminated at this stage are added to the prize pool.
The second stage is a five max shootout format that plays down to a winner. After 15 minutes the players will be forced all-in. The players who play fastest in this stage will be given a favourable seat selection at the final table.
The final table is ten handed, with a five minute chess clock and blinds increasing every three hands. The current buy-in levels are $0.25/$1/$3/$10 and there is a 5% rake. The tournaments payout as follows, on top of the bounties:
| Position | $0.25 | $ 1 | $3 | $10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $2.64 | $10.57 | $31.70 | $105.65 |
| 2 | $2.64 | $10.56 | $31.68 | $105.60 |
| 3 | $1.81 | $7.24 | $21.71 | $72.35 |
| 4 | $1.42 | $5.69 | $17.06 | $56.85 |
| 5 | $1.12 | $4.48 | $13.43 | $44.75 |
| 6 | $0.88 | $3.52 | $10.55 | $35.15 |
| 7 | $0.69 | $2.76 | $8.28 | $27.60 |
| 8 | $0.54 | $2.17 | $6.51 | $21.70 |
| 9 | $0.43 | $1.70 | $5.10 | $17.00 |
| 10 | $0.33 | $1.34 | $4.01 | $13.35 |
Poker meets Fortnite?
This format really looks like it could be a hit. It is both fast action but also encompasses a variety of disciplines and skills, with low rake. It embraces the ever popular Progressive Knockout format which is a hit with recreational players.
It is branded very much like the Battle Royale format video games like Fortnite (bounties are called 'kills' for example) and it looks very much like the sort of game which would lend itself well to Twitch streaming.
Love him or hate him, this is the first big effort to use Dan Bilzerian's branding since his controversial appointment last year. It does seem like a good format to use Bilzerian's image as he has a secondary association, albeit a tenuous one, with the military which is reflected in the game's imagery and sounds.
This writer tried the first games that came up in the lobby, which fill up quickly, and it is a lot of fun. It's very fast, maybe a little too fast, but there is not much time to be bored. A full game would last less than an hour.
Weekly $15,000 Leaderboards in the launch month
To celebrate the new format, GGPoker has launched weekly leaderboards right away, starting each Thursday, where Battle Royale players stand the chance to battle for an additional prize pool of $15,000 per week.
Players get 1 leaderboard point with each Battle Royale played and there are four separate leaderboards for each of the available buy-in levels. Additionally, a Happy Hour with 1.5x points is slated every day from 6:00 to 8:00 CET.
