When GGPoker announced the launch of ClubGG for players in the United States, it did so with exciting news; that players on the platform would be able to compete for 10 seats into the World Series of Poker Main Event. A $49.99 monthly subscription would give members the opportunity to play in a multi-stage series of satellite events leading up to a final-stage tournament each Sunday that would award WSOP Main Event seats to the top 3-4 finishers.
The first of these final-stage tournaments was held on Sunday, August 8. The tournament drew 132 players and awarded the top three finishers $10,000 tickets into the Main Event. Those three winners were Francisco “PlayerX” Estrada, Cameron “C Jam Blues” Fegers and “M0 Life”. While “M0 Life” has remained anonymous the day after earning their WSOP Main Event seat, we were able to learn a bit more about Estrada and Fegers after their potentially life-changing wins.
Francisco Estrada called his shot
Francisco Estrada has only three cashes for $6,480 in live tournament earnings listed on his Hendon Mob page. He’s hoping to add a much larger score to that tournament page this November in Las Vegas. Estrada sent a tweet out on July 11th announcing his intention of playing in the Main Event this year by any means necessary, from winning a seat to finding a staking deal to buying in directly.
Estrada had just finished up a shift driving for DoorDash at 2am in the morning in his home town of Thornton, Colorado when he read an article about ClubGG and the chance to win a seat into the Main Event. He signed up for a platinum membership the day it became available and started grinding for a final stage seat. On the same day that Estrada locked up his spot in Sunday’s final stage tournament playing on his phone at work, he told his mother “I’m going to win a seat on this app.”
Both his tweet on July 11 and his declaration to his mother would eventually come true. Estrada got off to a slow start on Sunday as his starting stack of 10,000 chips was dwindled down to 3,900. But the Colorado native kept his cool and built his stack back up through a few timely double-ups. When the dust settled, he found himself in the top three and as the proud owner of a WSOP Main Event seat.
“Once I won, I felt like my life stopped for a brief second,” Estrada explained. “I had to stop and take in what had just happened. It all felt so surreal. This has always been a dream of mine, and now I get to play in the most prestigious poker tournament in the world.” Estrada hopes to inspire and motivate the poker community with this story and with his upcoming run in the Main Event.
Cameron Fegers had no tournament experience
Cameron Fegers found out about ClubGG through Lynne Ji’s ClubGG cash game. After checking out the app and seeing that all of the satellites were working towards a potential seat in the WSOP Main Event, he figured it was worth a try. Despite the fact that he had never played in a poker tournament before. Ever.
Fegers and his friends can regularly be found playing in the 2/5 cash game at MGM National Harbor near his hometown of Washington, D.C. But these ClubGG satellites were his first experience in tournament play. Fegers believes that his cash-game experience helped him play patiently in Sunday’s deepstack format.
“It was a slog of a day,” Fegers admitted. “You realize your patience and discipline get tested in ways you're not really accustomed to on a daily basis. Picking your spots and being okay with periods where your stack remains relatively flat requires such patience.” That patience will come in handy when he is playing in the Main Event this November.
“What an experience,” Fegers continued. “I’m just so grateful for this opportunity.”
More WSOP Main Event seats are still up for grabs
Seven more guaranteed seats in the WSOP Main Event are still available. With a ClubGG membership, players have access to unlimited hourly “Stage 1” tournaments in which the top 20% of the field are awarded a “Stage 2” ticket. “Stage 2” tickets can be used to play in sit-n-go tournaments that award one “Final Stage” ticket for winning a 9-max, two “Final Stage” tickets to the top two in an 18-max, three tickets to the top three in a 27-max and so on.
Club members that have earned a “Final Stage” ticket are eligible to play in the final stage tournaments on Sunday, August 15 and Sunday, August 22. The top three finishers on the 15th and the top four finishers on the 22nd will join Estrada, Fegers, and “M0 Life” at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino for the 2021 WSOP Main Event.
Featured Image Credit: Flickr - World Poker Tour
