GGPoker’s Ocean KO Debut Beats $1M Guarantees as Jackpot PKOs Arrive

GGPoker Ocean KO concept with a shark, poker chips, playing cards and a jackpot wheel underwater.

By Sandra Gaweda | October 6, 2026 | 5 min read

GGPoker’s new Ocean KO format adds a random multiplier between 0.4x and 400x to every progressive knockout bounty.
All three Ocean KO debut events on Sunday, October 4 beat their guarantees, drawing more than 30,000 entries combined.
About 72% of Ocean KO knockouts pay less than the bounty’s face value, adding more variance than a standard PKO.
WPN, home of ACR Poker, and iPoker are both developing their own randomized bounty formats.

GGPoker has launched Ocean KO, a jackpot progressive knockout (JPKO) format that applies a random multiplier every time you bust a player. Its first three tournaments ran on Sunday, October 4, and all beat their guarantees, drawing more than 30,000 combined entries.

Multipliers range from 0.4x to 400x, and GGPoker says a single bounty can be worth up to $1.5 million. GGPoker is only the third operator to offer a jackpot PKO and the first outside France and Spain.

What GGPoker Launched With Ocean KO

Ocean KO pairs a progressive knockout structure with the random multipliers found in jackpot sit-and-gos such as Spin & Gold. Every knockout triggers a spin of the Bounty Wheel, with multipliers reaching up to 400x.

GGPoker announced Ocean KO on October 2, ahead of its October 4 launch. The format features in the Bounty Hunters Series, which runs October 4–27 with $100 million guaranteed. Upcoming events include a $5 Ocean KO Opener with $1 million guaranteed and Day 2 on October 12, followed by a $25 Ocean KO with $2 million guaranteed and Day 2 on October 19.

How Ocean KO Bounties Work

Half of every buy-in goes to the bounty, the same 50/50 split as a standard PKO. In a $10 Ocean KO, $5 goes to the bounty, $4.20 to the prize pool and $0.80 to the fee.

When you bust someone, the wheel applies a multiplier to their bounty. You take half as cash, and the other half goes onto your own bounty. Knock out a player with a $5 bounty and hit 10x, for example, and the bounty becomes $50. You collect $25, while your own bounty rises to $30. At 400x, the same $5 bounty becomes $2,000, paying you $1,000 and increasing your bounty to $1,005.

The biggest multipliers are rare. The 400x multiplier lands 0.002% of the time, or once every 50,000 bounties, while 100x hits 0.08% and 10x hits 2.40%. Multipliers average exactly 1x, but 72.32% of knockouts pay less than face value because 0.4x, 0.5x and 0.7x make up most of the wheel.

GGPoker also sorts players into 14 bounty tiers, from Egg to Legendary Shark. Tiers 1–10 can pay up to 400x, while the four Legendary levels use progressively flatter pay tables as bounty values increase. Legendary Octopus begins at $10,000, while a Legendary Shark carries a bounty of $1 million or more and pays between 0.8x and 1.5x.

How Ocean KO Bounties Work

Half of every buy-in goes to the bounty, the same 50/50 split as a standard PKO. In a $10 Ocean KO, $5 goes to the bounty, $4.20 to the prize pool and $0.80 to the fee.

How Ocean KO Compares to Other Jackpot PKOs

Winamax debuted Space KO in December 2024, and it became the most popular format on the site, according to Pokerfuse. Betclic followed with Smash KO in March 2026. Winamax operates in France and Spain, while Betclic runs in France only.

Ocean KO has the highest ceiling of the three at 400x, compared with 100x for Space KO and 50x for Smash KO. Its 0.4x minimum lands 24% of the time, versus 60% on Winamax and 49.85% on Betclic. Ocean KO also pays 10x or more about once every 40 knockouts (2.48%), compared with about once every 167 (0.60%) on Space KO and Smash KO.

Space KO shows how lopsided the payouts can get. Last month, a €100 event with an €80,000 guarantee paid out more than €1 million, including a record €838,000 bounty from one knockout, while first place won just over €5,000.

Other networks are also experimenting with randomized knockouts. iPoker is developing Progressive Mystery Bounties, while WPN has PKO Mystery Bounties in development.

Ocean KO Debut Draws More Than 30,000 Entries

All three Sunday events beat their guarantees, drawing 30,061 combined entries and generating just over $1.4 million in prize pools. The $10 event drew 23,443 entries for $215,675.60 against a $200,000 guarantee, while the $100 event reached $545,192 from 5,926 entries against a $400,000 guarantee. The $1,000 event drew 692 entries for $657,400, also against a $400,000 guarantee.

What Ocean KO Means for US Players

WPN provides the most direct US connection because it runs ACR Poker. As our ACR review covers, ACR is an offshore site with an Anjouan license rather than a US state license.

That differs from state-regulated sites, including those sharing player pools under the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA). No regulated US online poker site currently offers a jackpot PKO, so it remains to be seen whether the format reaches the regulated market.

WPN’s PKO Mystery Bounties could bring a similar randomized knockout format to ACR players.

Sandra is a content writer and editor specializing in online poker and iGaming. She covers poker sites, game formats, industry news, and US online poker laws for Legal US Poker Sites.