The latest edition of 888poker’s ChampionChip Games is now in the books. The series ran from August 8-16, featuring $735,000 in total guarantees. Players competed across 24 events, with buy-ins ranging from $2.20 to $55.
The festival culminated in the Main Event which offered an optimistic $500,000 guarantee, but that figure wasn’t met, as the tournament ended up collecting just $453,000 in total prize pool, translating to an overlay of $47,000. But the rest of the series performed well, with several tournaments exceeding their guarantees by huge margins, including the Opening Ceremony which surpassed its target by more than 50%.
With most of the guarantees allotted for the Main Event, the overall series was in the red by around $21,000. However, if the Main Event results are excluded, the rest of the festival went past the $235,000 target after collecting $261,499 in total prize pool.
Let’s get into the details of the festival’s official figures.
ChampionChip Games Key Facts & Figures
Overall, the series featured $352 in total buy-ins, with an average entry fee of $15. A total of 29,299 players competed for an average guarantee of $30,646. Throughout the festival, 12 events managed to smash their guarantees, while the other half had to cover deficits.
Among the best-performing tournaments on this year’s ChampionChip schedule were the $33 buy-in, $30K GTD Opening Ceremony which pulled in a total of 1,374 entries translating to a $45,342 total prize pool; the $22 buy-in, $15K GTD Boxing event which attracted 855 entries to generate $18,810 in total prize pool; as well as the $55 buy-in, $20K GTD Weightlifting tournament which surpassed its initial guarantee by 32% after attracting 480 entries.
The Mini ME, Surfing, and Mountain Biking tournaments also drew enough entries to surpass their guarantees by at least 17%.
The $5.50 buy-in, $7,500 High Jump tournament attracted just 582 entries to collect $3,201 in total prize pool, missing its guarantee by 57.32%. The other losers include the Triple Jump, Judo, Fencing, Taekwondo, Swimming, and Sailing events, which recorded a deficit percentage of as high as 36.35%.
888poker had high hopes for the $50 buy-in ChampionChip Main Event which promised a massive $500,000 guarantee, but things didn’t turn out the way they’d expected, with the tournament attracting just 9,060 entries, equivalent to $453,000 in total prize pool. This represented an overlay of $47,000.
The $25,999 in excess money generated by the rest of the series wasn’t enough to cover that figure, and so overall, the festival was $21,000 short of its total guarantee.
2021 ChampionChip Winners
Among the biggest winners of the series was Russian pro “kuzya174” who took down the Main Event for $60,000. The Opening Ceremony was won by Canada’s “donleybabe99” for $6,022 in top prize. Brazilian player “Pavanatto23” took home $4,629 in first-place prize after taking down the Weightlifting tournament, while fellow Brazilian “coconutsss” captured the Boxing event for $2,667 in total payout.
Countries scoring the most wins were Germany and Russia with four titles each, followed by Brazil and Ukraine which claimed three gold medals each. Players from the United Kingdom, Canada, Sweden, and Romania won two titles, while those from Ireland and Denmark captured one title.
The ChampionChip Series is 888poker’s flagship low-stakes festival, which was launched in 2016 in an attempt to match PokerStars’ own small-stakes series, Micromillions. The festival debuted with 18 tournaments, featuring $175,000 in guarantees. The inaugural series proved to be successful, prompting 888poker to make it an annual event.
Sunday Sale & Road To Vegas
With the ChampionChip Games now over, all eyes will be on 888poker’s upcoming Sunday Sale, which will see the buy-ins of popular Sunday tournaments being slashed by half, while the guarantees are maintained. Sunday Sale takes place on August 29.
Those keen on participating in the 2021 World Series of Poker (WSOP) live festival at the Rio in Las Vegas this September also get the chance to win their way into events for a cheaper price by taking a shot at online qualifiers running on 888poker, as part of the Road to Vegas satellite promo.