In a surprising move, the online poker giant GGPoker banned Francesco “forzaitalia” Garofalo, weeks after his victory in the GGPoker’s WSOP Online 2024 $25K GGMillion$ Super High Rollers Championship.
Although the exact reason for the ban is not known, a tweet from MTT Database Review suggested that the winner, “forzaitalia,” was possibly guilty of multi-accounting. GGPoker didn’t disclose a specific reason but banned the player, seizing the winner’s $1.1 million prize and redistributing it among the players who finished in the money. Even the player who exited on the money bubble got a payout.
The final table players received significant pay jumps with the difference in prize money. The runner-up Chris Brewer moved to the 1st place, becoming the new champion of the $25K GGMillion$ Super High Rollers Championship and getting an extra $256,866, although he did not get the bracelet.
The new runner-up Bryn Kenney, who originally took third, added another $198,070 to his $667,265 payout. Another final table player was Patrick Leonard, who originally finished fourth in the WSOP Online 2024 tournament. His previous payout was $514,531, but an extra $152,733 has been credited to his account.
The CoinPoker ambassador shared a tweet about waking up to a refund from GGPoker of $152,733.53, the difference between third and fourth place money.
Global Poker Index’s number 1 player Adrian Mateos, who previously finished sixth for $305,942, moved to fifth place and added an additional prize money of $90,816.
This shocking development immediately caught the attention of the poker community, given the significance of the event and high-profile players involved in the event. While the competitors celebrated pay jumps, others raised questions about the ban on the winner of this WSOP Online event. Meanwhile, some community members hinted at multi-accounting, believing that this was the likely cause of his disqualification.
MTT Database Review’s tweet also questioned regarding the ban on the winner of the $25k event. The tweet also asked a question about the scale of the incident: Is this the largest single ban and refund in history of online poker?.
The $25K GGMillion$ Super High Roller Championship Highlights
The $25K GGMillion$ Super High Rollers Championship event took place in September and drew 230 total entries ( including 90 re-entries), generating a massive $5.6 Million in prize pool. In the field were many of the game’s elites, including Daniel Negreanu who streamed his play from Canada but exited this WSOP Online event shortly after late registration closed on September 24.
Francesco Garofalo, ‘forzaitalia‘, having only $38K in winnings on GGPoker prior to this event, started the final table with the third-largest stack (49 big blinds). He picked up a double up through Brewer and then eliminated Mateos in sixth and Dimitar Danchev in fifth before busting Chris Brewer heads-up to claim the $1,122,201 top prize
GGMillion$ Super High Roller Championship Final Table Payouts
| Place | Player | Earnings |
| 1 | ‘forzaitalia’ | $1,122,201 |
| 2 | Chris Brewer | $865,335 |
| 3 | Bryn Kenney | $667,265 |
| 4 | Patrick Leonard | $514,531 |
| 5 | Dimitar Danchev | $396,758 |
| 6 | Adrian Mateos | $305,942 |
| 7 | Roman Hrabec | $235,914 |
| 8 | Ole Schemion | $181,914 |
| 9 | Samuel Mullur | $140,275 |
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