THE DAILY SCOOP – GGMillion$ Season 2023 Episode 33
Alexey Borovkov Bullies His Way to GGMILLION$ Victory for $300k
A stunning display of big stack play gave Alexey Borovkov victory in the weekly GGMILLION$ showdown as he beat ‘Samu Sabu’ of Austria to claim the $299,880 top prize. Back on GGPoker after an excursion to WSOP Paradise last week, this week’s $10,300 buy-in ‘Millions’ had the prize pool grow to $1,380,000 and provided many thrills and spills along the way as the dominant Borovkov made the most of his opportunity to capture the major online poker title.
Chip Leader in Charge
With the final nine players sitting down at one of the quickest final tables in recent history, the Russian player Alexey Borovkov – playing from Argentina – held a massive lead over the rest of the field with 137 big blinds. His closest challenger was Chris Rudolph with 92 big blinds, and who had reached the seventh final table of 2023 in the GGMILLION$ event series.
Behind them were some massive names in the game with ‘Samu Sabu’ (65BB), Daniel Petersen (27BB), Pieter Aerts (21BB), ‘sohta61’ (19BB), Ilya Anatski (18BB), ‘Audrii’ (17BB) and the Russian legend ‘spaise411’ (12BB) all in the hunt. The Russian ‘spaise411’ was at his seventh final table and managed to navigate the early exchanges with his short stack.
One player who didn’t was the Austria-based ‘Audrii’. All-in with pocket fours on hand 2, they were up against Alexey Borovkov’s ace-king, and a flop of A-6-5 immediately set the at-risk player behind. A jack on the turn was no help for the Austrian and – chasing only a four – the king on the river merely confirmed Borovkov busting his opponent for $41,492 to grab the initiative early in the action.
Petersen Picked Off
The final eight players weren’t to battle for long before another of their number hit the rail. All-in with king-jack of spades, Belgian player Pieter Aerts couldn’t survive against Borovkov’s ten-four of clubs as the flop came down A-K-3 all clubs. A five on the turn and six on the river meant that Aerts was left on the rail as he cashed for $53,130.
Next to go was ‘spaise411’, as his micro-stack of 307,200 chips, less than eight big blinds, was committed from the big blind with king-queen offsuit from the button. It was rough timing, with Anatski calling it off with ace-jack from the big blind, surviving after a nine-high board with four hearts saw neither player holding one. The Russian went to the rail with a score of $68,032 – a fine amount, but no late run for one of the GGMILLION$ event series’ most popular and successful players.
The reverse of the last two hands occurred when Daniel Petersen shoved with ace-jack and was called by Brovkov holding king-queen. Only the Russian had a diamond so the all-diamond flop of K-T-3 was a disaster for Petersen, whose only hope of overcoming his opponent was to hit an offsuit ace or a queen for Broadway in the remaining two streets. A four and a six landed to send Petersen to the rail with $87,114, the last five-figure result of the tournament.
Borovkov Triumphs After Late Drama
Down to just five players, everyone was in line for a 6-figure payday from now on. The next hand, ‘sohta61’ was all-in with pocket sevens but couldn’t crack Anatski’s pocket tens for $111,547. Incredibly, less than 45 minutes at the final table had elapsed and five players had been eliminated.
Twenty minutes later, Anatski shoved for 709,262 with ace-queen of hearts and two players called him – ‘Samu Sabu’ with pocket sevens and Borovkov with pocket fours. The flop of A-Q-4 was harsh on Anatski, and ‘Samu Sabu’ let go of the hand as Borovkov’s bet pushed the Austrian out of the way. After kings fell on both the turn and the river, Anatski left with a score of $142,034.
Chris Rudolph was the next to go, the German beat in third place for $182,898. He ran into the coldest deck imaginable, all-in pre-flop with ace-king, he ran into Borovkov’s pocket aces. The superior hand won and was stacked with 10.53 million to Sabu’s 3.77 million chips, Borovkov was one big pot away from glory.
It was just 70 minutes to narrow the field to heads-up play which took 45 additional minutes to resolve. The start of heads-up saw ‘Samu Sabu’ start to chip up, but he never achieved parity and spent most of the time surviving with between 1m and 3m chips. On the final hand, with a board of Q-4-4-2-9 where two clubs came on the flop and another landed on the river, there was only 1.5 million in the pot when Sabu bet 1.27 million. Borovkov raised all-in and Sabu called it off, showing the second nut flush with king-seven of clubs. Borovkov, however, had the nut flush with ace-jack of clubs and claimed victory for just under $300,000.
Watch all the action as it happened in the company of regular host Jeff Gross and special guest co-commentator David Yan from New Zealand.
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Alexey Borovkov | Russia | $299,880 |
| 2nd | ‘Samu Sabu’ | Austria | $234,194 |
| 3rd | Chris Rudolph | Germany | $182,896 |
| 4th | Ilya Anatski | Belarus | $142,834 |
| 5th | ‘sohta61’ | Cyprus | $111,547 |
| 6th | Daniel Petersen | United Kingdom | $87,114 |
| 7th | ‘spaise411’ | Russia | $68,032 |
| 8th | Pieter Aerts | Belgium | $53,130 |
| 9th | ‘Audrii’ | Austria | $41,492 |
WSOP Paradise High Rollers 2023 Week 34
About the Author: Paul Seaton has written about poker for over 10 years, interviewing some of the best players ever to play the game such as Daniel Negreanu, Johnny Chan and Phil Hellmuth. Over the years, Paul has reported live from tournaments such as the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas and the European Poker Tour. He has also written for other poker brands where he was Head of Media, as well as BLUFF magazine, where he was Editor.