GGMillion$ Won in Style for $323,000 After Epic Hero Call!
This week’s GGMillion$ on GGPoker saw a bumper field of poker’s finest compete for a top prize of $323,977. With over a million on the line for the final table players, legends of the online felt, such as Juan Dominguez, Christoph Vogelsang, and Arsenii Malinov battled for supremacy, but there was a surprise winner after a thrilling conclusion to the weekly $10,300 buy-in event.
The King of Spain
Joining regular host Jeff Gross on commentary duties this week was poker pro Mike Wasserman, the co-creator of Mid Stakes Mastery. He also has over $9 million in live and online poker winnings to go with his strategic analysis. With $1.61 million in the prize pool, the top prize of $323,977 was being chased by the chip leader Pedro Neves from Portugal with 91 big blinds.
Behind Neves’ monster stack, Russian players Arsenii Malinov (63BB) and Vlad Batrakov (13BB) had polar opposite sized stacks, while German high roller specialist Christoph Vogelsang (63BB) was at his fourth final table of the season. Croatian player ‘d1nzvoz’ (57BB) and Spain’s Juan Dominguez (51BB) had very strong chances, while Chris Klodnicki (36BB), Brazilian GGMillion$ final table regular ‘LisFlower’ (24BB) was hoping to improve early. Canada’s Guillaume Nolet (21BB) was also dreaming of a double-up close to the start of play to get back into contention.
The first player to bust was an unexpected one, as Spanish poker professional Juan Dominguez lost a number of early pots before waking up with pocket kings pre-flop. All-in pre-flop, Dominguez was crushed by LisFlower’s pocket aces, and an ace on the flop saw the Spaniard drawing dead other than to running kings, straight or flush cards. The six of hearts on the turn ended all hope for Dominguez, who cashed for $46,282 in ninth place.
Malinov Climbs to Chip Leader
Guillaume Nolet was the next player to leave and again fell foul of pocket aces. The Croatian player ‘d1nzvoz’ had the rockets and took out Nolet after the Canadian shoved pre-flop with pocket jacks. A clean board of K-8-5-7-5 sent Nolet home with a score of $59,027.
Vlad Batrakov had started as short stack, and the Russian laddered brilliantly for 90 minutes but eventually ran short again and busted with pocket nines from the big blind. It was ‘d1nzvoz’ again with the winning hand, this time the queen-ten was enough. The flip went the Croatian’s way when a Q-6-5 and no nines thereafter sent the Russian home in seventh place with $75,281.
A long period elapsed without any casualties, and both Gross and Wasserman looked ready to settle in for the long haul. Quite the opposite happened, however, and after almost two and a half hours with only a trio of eliminations, the tournament’s final stages saw five bust-outs inside 30 minutes!
The first to fall was possibly the most important, as the overnight chip leader Pedro Neves bought a ticket in sixth place for a return of $96,012. All-in pre-flop with king-ten of clubs, but it turned into a case of terrible timing, as Arsenii Malinov called with pocket kings and won with ease when a board of 7-5-2-4-6 fell with only one club.
Frantic Finish Sees Heroic Call to Close Action
German player Christoph Vogelsang departed in fifth for $122,452 when he committed his final chips with queen-eight offsuit pre-flop. Malinov, holding an offsuit king-deuce, was the aggressor, setting his opponent all in. The better hand held across the ten-high board to reduce the field to four players.
Four remained, but it looked like a two-horse race, with Malinov (7.8m) followed by ‘d1nzvoz’ (6.5m) in the counts. Both players from the Americans, Chris Klodnicki (1.56m) and LisFlower (896k), were a fair bit behind and not quite in a position to start challenging at that stage. The Brazilian short stack left next, cashing for $156,171 in fourth place. The last of LisFlower’s chips were all in preflop with an ace-seven only to be cracked by the king-ten of Malinov after a ten landed on the flop.
Play was heads-up just 2 hands later after Klodnicki bowed out for $199,177. All-in on the next hand with king-jack, he couldn’t hit against Malinov’s ace-three, and the Russian was ready for the final battle, holding around 64% of the chips in play.
Despite having that lead, the match came down to a brilliant call from the at-risk Croatian. On a board showing 8-5-3-2-9, Malinov made a huge river bet of 2.94m chips into a pot of just under 2.1m with queen-jack. Somehow, ‘d1nzvoz’ made the correct call with just eight-seven, giving them a better than 2:1 chip lead. The finale came when Malinov called off his stack with five-three on a board of 8-5-2-4 only to discover that his Croatian opponent had slow-played pocket queens and the Croatian had won the title and $323,977 top prize, Malinov having to accept the $254,025 runner-up score for his efforts in the poker tournament.
“We saw a bunch of sickos get in there and battle!” Said Mike Wasserman at the end of the thrilling final table.
Watch all the sickos battle in action right here:
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | ‘d1nzvoz’ | Crotia | $323,997 |
| 2nd | Arsenii Malinov | Russia | $254,025 |
| 3rd | Chris Klodnicki | United States | $199,177 |
| 4th | ‘LisFlower’ | Brazil | $156,171 |
| 5th | Christoph Vogelsang | Germany | $122,452 |
| 6th | Pedro Neves | Portugal | $96,012 |
| 7th | Vlad Batrakov | Russia | $75,281 |
| 8th | Guillaume Nolet | Canada | $59,027 |
| 9th | Juan Domingues | Spain | $46,282 |
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.