GGPoker Ocean Rewards: The Next Evolution of Fish Buffet

What is the Ocean Rewards Program?

According to an announcement from GGPoker, Ocean Rewards is a major update to the Fish Buffet loyalty program, coming on January 30th, 2026, that will give active players the opportunity to earn cashback of up to 80%.

In some ways, this loyalty program is simpler than Fish Buffet — it has the same number of tiers, but without internal “levels”, a more straightforward points system, guaranteed tier status retention for a year, etc.

However, in addition to this, the loyalty program also offers some controversial new features in the form of GEMs, which can be exchanged “for premium value” without a clear explanation — only with the help of this image.

How exactly these GEMs are awarded is still unclear, but GGPoker has promised to share more details closer to the program’s launch.

You can accumulate GEMs for rake — 100 GEMs for $1 rake by default but your level in Ocean Rewards multiplies this amount differently:

• Fish — x1.5
• Shrimp — x2
• Crab — x2.5
• Turtle — x3
• Octopus — x3.5
• Dolphin — x4
• Whale — x4.5
• Shark — x5

Ocean Rewards Tiers

The new loyalty program has eight tiers, each requiring different amount of Tide Points to reach:

Tide Points are earned by:

• Paying rake or tournament fees at a rate of $1 = 100 TP
• Wagering on slots in casino at a rate of $2 = 1 TP
• Wagering on popular table games at a rate of $6 = 1 TP

Given that the first month of 2026 is not included in the Ocean Rewards program, GGPoker has decided to convert all Fish Points earned between December 1st, 2025 and January 30th, 2026 to Tide Points upon account upgrade.

Ocean Rewards vs Fish Buffet

Firstly, Ocean Rewards has fewer tiers, but the expected cashback is higher than Fish Buffet. However, the rake requirements are also higher and they increase more quickly between tiers than before.

At the same time, it appears that the Ocean Rewards program’s point system will be more transparent. Starting January 30th, 2026, players will earn 100 Tide Points for every dollar of rake or fee. Fish Buffet’s point total has always been 100 in average due to additional factors influencing the final amount — deposit history, playstyle, game type, etc — without players having access to the full list and modifiers.

The good news is also that players will finally no longer have to earn a certain amount of points within a limited time to maintain their level during the days or month. Reaching any tier in the Ocean Rewards program guarantees that it will be secured until the end of the following year.

The biggest concern about the new program, besides the lack of detail in the announcement, is the mystical GEMs.

Although the Fish Buffet loyalty program awarded prizes randomly and had strict requirements for winning, players were always paid directly into their accounts in cash. But GEMs system seems to require you to take extra steps to redeem prizes, rather than simply giving them to you.

So, we can only wait until January 30th to understand how this will all actually work — there is simply not enough data for either dissatisfaction or admiration.