What happened
GGPoker's $5 Ocean KO Opener drew 420,084 entries according to the body of PokerNews's report, which also gave 415,000 in its title and description. Either number beats the previous record of 253,692 entries, set by PokerStars in October 2015 in a tournament called Common Cents.
The event is a progressive knockout with random jackpot multipliers of up to 400x on the bounty. The $1 million guarantee was smashed, the prize pool for remaining players is over $1.9 million, and total bounties are over $1.05 million. First place pays $43,938. At least 24,134 players advanced to Monday's Day 2, and there is no winner yet.
Ocean KO launched on October 4, and the first three buy-in levels on that Sunday drew 23,443, 5,926 and 692 entries. On a $5 bounty, Pokerfuse reports a 400x multiplier hits 0.002 percent of the time and 72.32 percent of knockouts pay less than the starting bounty. Some players argue the jackpot multipliers make online poker more like a lottery.
Why it matters
A record this size does not say poker got bigger. It says a five dollar ticket with a printed lottery mechanic sells like a five dollar ticket with a printed lottery mechanic.
The 2015 record paid its winner $10,000 for a one cent entry. The new record's first prize is $43,938, and 5.7 percent of the field is still alive.
