Jans Arends Wins Fourth GGMillion$ Title in Thrilling Finish
The Daily Scoop – GGMillion$ Season 2025 Episode 18
The Dutch player Jans Arends won his fourth GGMillion$ title after an astonishing final table performance. With unconventional moves and massive all-ins, Jans Arends came into the action in the middle of the pack but jumped to the top after some remarkable and dominant late stage play.
Nguyen on Target for the Win
This week’s GGMillion$ was hosted by regular presenter Jeff Gross, with popular WPT Global Slam and Triton Poker winner Xuan Liu on co-commentator duties. With almost $3.3m in live poker earnings alone, Liu is an authority on both online and live poker, and she brought plenty of action and thrills across a fun evening on GGPoker.
Leading the final nine into the race to become champion was one of three German players, Christopher Nguyen on 86 big blinds. A fair way behind on 60 big blinds was Chinese player ‘PepsiFanta’, while Samuel ‘€urop€an’ Vousden from Finland sat with 48 big blinds. Behind the leaders, Dutch regular Jans Arends (46BB), German pro Caspar Engelien (38BB), Polish player ‘dafaniu’ (36BB), Russian ‘Dima SPR’ (27BB), Belarusian Mikalai Vaskaboinikau (24BB), and German Simon Beckmann (15BB) were all hoping they could recover from their shorter stacks to take the title.
The short-stacked Beckmann was the first player to leave the Texas Hold’em action. All-in for 14 big blinds with queen-jack of diamonds, he started well behind the ace-king of his countryman, Caspar Engelien. A flop of K-7-5 paired Engelien’s king but provided a sweat, with two diamonds. However, the offsuit seven and three on turn and river ensured Beckmann departed in ninth place for $52,606 as Engelien chipped up at his compatriot’s expense.
Cooler After Cooler
Then, eight became seven in the very next hand. All-in for seventeen big blinds with ace-king, Vousden was at risk and behind as Mikalai Vaskaboinikau, who called with pocket kings. The board of Q-5-4-2-6 provided the chance for a wheel, but the river let down the Finn as he left with $67,093. It was a disastrous evening for Vousden, who had started third in chips and ended with him the second to leave the virtual felt.
Despite winning that hand, the Belarusian Vaskaboinikau was out next in seventh place. It was another cold deck as he was all-in with ace-ten but lost to the ace-king of Engelien, as a stress-free board of K-9-5-A-T had the Belarussian drawing dead to the river, and eventually out on the rail with $85,568. Engleien was running away with it, now leading the event ahead of the former leader Nguyen
The next victim was taken out less than 10 minutes later. A preflop min-raise by ‘dafaniu’ was shoved on by ‘Dima SPR’ holding pocket tens and ‘dafaniu’ snapped it off with pocket aces. A flop of K-K-3 was followed by a queen on the turn and a four on the river, sending the Russian home with $109,132 as the Polish player recovered some momentum after a tricky start.
The final table got off to a rambunctious start, with four eliminations within twenty-five minutes. The shortest stack was sitting at nearly 40 big blinds, as all of the action had occurred within the first level of play. For all of the early excitement, things would calm down, as there would not be another elimination for over 45 minutes.
Arends Bosses the End Game
Engelien had enjoyed waking up to monster hands throughout the final table, but when he made it 138,000 with ace-king, ‘dafaniu’ was happy to reraise with pocket aces. The German player called to a flop of Q-6-4 and in doing so, likely saved himself some money, as a c-bet from ‘dafaniu’ was only called. A nine on the turn saw the Pole bet again, this time for 750,000 and Engelien got away from it, folding to fight another day.
Jans Arends put Engelien in a box a short time later, with the Dutchman’s impressive post-flop yielding results. On a board showing 7-7-3-T, Arends bet, leading to a shove from Engelien with pocket eights. Arends snapped off that shove with ace-seven for flopped trips, while Engelien had a flush draw to go with his eights. Unfortunately, it didn’t come in. The king of hearts on the river meant Arends took the lead in the tournament as Engelien left with $139,184 in fifth place.
Sitting on just over 7 million chips, Arends held a big advantage, with ‘dafaniu’ (4.4m), ‘PepsiFanta’ (4.2m), and Nguyen (3.2m) all playing catch-up. The overnight leader Nguyen was all-in and at risk on the fifth deal of four-handed play and had the best of it with eights over ‘PepsiFanta’ with sevens. But a cruel run-out on a board of 5-4-3-4-7 sent Nguyen to the rail in fourth for $177,512.
Three-handed play lasted for over 45 minutes as Arends continued to grow his already decisive lead. ‘PepsiFanta’ eventually shoved with ace-eight of spades, and was called by Arends with ace-queen of diamonds. The chip leader easily held through the J-6-5-2-3 board as ‘PepsiFanta’ lost their fizz, exiting for $226,394 in third while Arends went into the final heads-up with a near 4:1 chip lead.
The final hand came barely 10 minutes later, as ‘dafaniu’ bluffed it all with seven-six of hearts on a board of A-3-2-T-A. Arends had a big call to make with just six-three for a flopped second pair that had been weakened by the river, but he clicked the call button and with it won his fourth GGMillion$ title and the top prize of $368,247 while ‘dafaniu’ was consoled with $288,737 as the runner up.
Watch how it all played out in the company of Jeff Gross and Xuan Liu right here on the GGPoker YouTube channel:
GGMillion$ Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Jans Arends | Netherlands | $368,247 |
| 2nd | ‘dafaniu’ | Poland | $288,737 |
| 3rd | ‘PepsiFanta’ | China | $226,394 |
| 4th | Chris Nguyen | Austria | $177,512 |
| 5th | Caspar Engelien | Austria | $139,184 |
| 6th | ‘Dima SPR’ | Russia | $109,132 |
| 7th | Mikalai Vaskaboinikau | Belarus | $85,568 |
| 8th | Samuel Vousden | Finland | $67,093 |
| 9th | Simon Beckmann | Austria | $52,606 |
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.