Spending $32,000 on Pokémon Cards - Pokécode

I still remember watching some random YouTube video of someone opening a box of Pokemon cards. That random someone turned out to be Logan Paul and he was about to do his first box break live on stream back in October 2020, where he opened up a 1st edition booster box that he paid $200,000 for. It not only sparked my interest in Pokemon again, but it turned out to be the start of something much bigger. The hype surrounding the Pokemon Trading Card Game grew bigger and bigger but I never expected what happened next.

It was absurd to think that someone paid $200,000 for some cards, but my jaw dropped when Pokercode CEO Johannes Mansbart proposed to our internal team to spend $32,000 on a 1st edition Gym Challenge booster box, containing 36 boosters.

Pokécode was born

I wasn’t a big fan at the start, maybe because it scared me to spend so much money on a box of Pokemon cards. But in the end, we went for it and put together something that eventually evolved into Pokécode. An event where we would have 9 competitors battle it out on the online felt to win between 1 and 10 booster packs.

Our partner, world champion magician Alexander Straub, took it upon himself to organize the event together with Pokercode. Alexander got in contact with some of Germany’s biggest influencers to play for the booster packs and messages were sent out. We ended up with an insane line-up including Trymacs, Papaplatte, Crispyrob, Angeschrien, FeelFifa, Dave, and UnsympathischTV. Add our own Fedor Holz and Alexander to it and you have a crazy line-up of 9 influencers, ready to win some Pokemon cards.

The box was in our possession and Fedor situated himself in Spielraum, a trading card game store in Vienna, together with Alexander. The plan was to play poker for the packs, let the winners pick a number, and then open up the booster box on stream so everyone would know what they had won. The potential of this box was huge with some of the highest graded cards out of this particular set already being auctioned off for around $10,000.

Shuffle up and deal

Cards were in the air for the Pokécode event. Every player was guaranteed to win at least 1 booster pack (potentially containing a 1st edition Blaine’s Charizard worth up to $10,000 if graded PSA10) but action was slow at the start with the potential to win up to 10 booster packs, and thus increasing your chances of pulling an ultra rare card.

Trymacs was the first player eliminated from the tournament, winning himself ‘only’ one booster pack that was still worth approximately $1,000. Angeschrien busted out shortly after, also winning one booster pack. The third and final player taking home one booster pack was Dave. With everyone now 2 packs guaranteed, UnsympathischTV lost their remaining chips before our ‘Road2WSOP’ hero Alexander was eliminated for 3 booster packs.

Someone who was all too familiar with Pokémon cards and with box breaks is fourth-place finisher Kevin Teller, better known as ‘Papaplatte’. The German YouTuber was one of the few that managed to buy a pack from Logan Paul’s 1st edition base set box break, back in October 2020. When Papaplatte’s pack was opened he turned out to be the lucky one, getting his hands on a 1st edition Charizard Holo, the most expensive Pokémon card on the market (the most recent PSA10 graded 1st edition Charizard Holo was auctioned off for $650,000). This time, Teller had to settle for fourth place and 4 booster packs.

Crispyrob was eventually eliminated in 3rd place earning 6 booster packs and Pokercode founder Fedor managed to win the heads-up battle against FeelFifa. FeelFifa had to settle for 8 packs while Fedor took the tournament down for the grand prize of 10 boosters.

Can we pull a Charizard?

Now with the tournament wrapped up, it was time to open up the 1st edition Gym Challenge booster box that we spent $32,000 on. The packs were chosen by the players and it’s time to unpack these boosters. Trymacs was the first player eliminated from the tournament, but despite winning just one pack he managed to get his hands on Giovanni's Gyarados (approx. $1,200 PSA10). The next holographic card was for Alexander when he pulled Giovanni’s Persian himself. The most recent auction price for this card (graded PSA10) went for over $7,000.

Other holographic pulls include a Rocket’s Mewtwo for CrispyRob (approx. $1,500 PSA10), another Giovanni’s Gyarados for FeelFifa, a Misty’s Gyarados for Fedor (approx. $1,200 PSA10), Misty’s Golduck for CrispyRob (approx. $4,000 PSA10), Giovanni’s Machamp for Fedor (approx. $800 PSA10), Sabrina’s Alakazam for UnsympathishTV (approx. $1,000 PSA10), and Koga’s Ditto for Dave (approx. $500 PSA10).

Community Freeroll

The next day our Pokercode by GGPoker players were invited to play a $3,000 freeroll with extra Pokemon prizes added for the top 30 finishers. The winner would receive one pack out of the $32,000 booster box with other high finishers winning elite trainer boxes and other Pokemon trading card game prizes.

Do you want to play poker on Pokercode by GGPoker? Sign up on Pokercode.com/play!

Overall the event was a pretty big success, but for now, we go back to being Pokercode instead of Pokécode. Make sure to check out all the videos produced by the participants!