Barak Wisbrod Wins Miraculous Second GGMillion$ Title
This week’s GGPoker GGMillion$ saw a thrilling finale as Israel’s Barak Wisbrod conquered the final table after being down to just over one big blind with five players remaining. Wisbrod’s success – his second victory in the GGMillion$ series of $10,000 weekly online tournaments – came at the expense of Tony Lin, who dominated much of the final table only to lose at the last moment.
Radoja Run Out of Town
This week, regular host Jeff Gross was joined by legendary poker streamer Steve Enriquez, the GGPoker Ambassador, who also presents poker as a television host, describes himself by saying, “I was going to be a soccer player, but I came across a deck of cards.” Leading the field when play began was the Chinese player Ding Biao, who had accumulated 88 big blinds.
Despite having a huge stack of chips in front of him, Biao had only a slight lead over his nearest challenger, GGMillion$ final table crusher Barak Wisbrod from Israel (85BB), and a decent lead over third in chips, the American Jesse Lonis with 73 bigs. Sitting significantly further back from the top 3 was Chinese player Tony Lin (38BB), Spain’s Juan Dominguez (37BB), Brazil’s finest, Yuri Dzivielevski (27BB), Portuguese player Joao Vieira (25BB), and Canada’s Mark Radoja (17BB), all of whom had a massive mountain to climb.
The short stack at the nine-handed final table was ‘spaise411’ with just 15 big blinds, but it wasn’t the Russian player who would be the first to leave. All-in with nine-eight of clubs after falling to the bottom of the chipcounts, Canada’s Mark Radoja needed help against the queen-nine of hearts belonging to chip leader Ding Biao. A flop of J-5-2 with two hearts was bad news for the Canadian, but an offsuit ten on the turn gave him an open-ended straight draw. Needing a queen or a seven to make that straight, Radoja was blocked by Biao’s queen and the heart flush draw. In the end, a fifth heart in the form of a six spoiled Radoja’s night, seeing him leave for $55,751.
Caught In Their Own Trap
Portuguese poker star Joao Vieira went from starting with a comfortable stack to out on the rail in eighth place for $71,103. All-in with a premium hand of pocket queens, Vieira was only flipping against the ace-king of Diao. A flop of T-5-5 kept the Portuguese player safe, but a king on the turn changed all that and left him looking to hit a two-outer on the river. A four landed on the river, and that was all for Vieira, as Biao solidified a strong lead at the top of the charts.
Russian player ‘spaise411’ was caught in a trap of his own design in seventh place, as he took home $90,684. On a board showing A-A-T-7-3, ‘spaise411’ bet small with ace-jack and got a shove from Jesse Lonis. The Russian called with flopped trips, but he was behind Lonis, who held the case ace and a queen for a better kicker to reduce the field to six players. For ‘spaise411’, it was a heartbreaker and the 21st time he had made the final table of GGMillion$ without winning the title.
Brazilian poker superstar and long-time world online poker #1 Yuri Dzivielevski was the next player to leave the action after calling off his stack pre-flop. All-in from the big blind with a suited king-jack of spades, the Brazilian was behind Tony Lin’s ace-six, and no help came on the board to save the former GGMillion$ winner as Lin chipped up at his expense, sending Dzivielevski home with $115,656.
A Slight Imbalance of Power
Two hours into the final table, five players continued to battle towards the latest title in the $10,300 entry GGMillion$. The table had turned into a case of the haves and have-nots, with some players, such as Tony Lin, having a huge stack while others, like Israel’s Barak Wisbrod, had next to nothing. Spanish player Juan Dominguez tried to double his way back into contention with ace-ten but couldn’t win against Jesse Lonis’ pocket nines. An eight-high board was no help to the Spanish player, who left in fifth for $147,504.
Four remained, and Tony Lin was in charge with over 11.8 million chips, more than his 3 opponents combined. Jesse Lonis had fired himself into second place in the chip counts with 4.3m, while Ding Biao (3.4m) and perennial GGMillion$ threat Barak Wisbrod (543K) were in the hunt from the back of the pack.
Ding Biao was the next player to leave, losing a coinflip with ace-jack against Lin’s pocket three. The board of 8-6-4-3-7 left Biao drawing dead on the turn as the overnight chip leader left with $188,123 and only three players remained.
A Chip and a Chair
Play was sent heads-up soon after as a shove from Lonis with jack-ten ran into Wisbrod’s ace-jack. Things looked good for Lonis on the J-T-6 flop. A queen on the turn was not fatally damaging, but the king that followed on the river completed the runner-runner for the Israeli, who hit a straight as the American left for $239,927.
Going into heads-up, Lin still had a chip lead to be reckoned with, as his stack of 13.5 million was doubling Wisbrod’s pile of 6.7m. An almost 2:1 chip lead was eradicated early, however, as Wisbrod, so often a big name at the GGMillion$ final table, once again proved his durability at this level. Building his own way into a lead where he had double Lin’s stack before the final triumphant hand, which played out in dramatic fashion.
All the chips went in from Wisbrod with ace-four and Lin called with king-deuce. A flop of A-6-2 landed, and after a ten on the turn, a nine on the river gave Wisbrod the victory while Lin earned $305,997.
Wisbrod, who was down to 1.25 Big Blinds with 5 players remaining, had completed one of the most difficult achievements in poker, coming back from a chip and a chair. “I’ve done over a hundred streams, and this is the most memorable, for sure.” Jeff Gross admitted in the final stages of a thrilling final table.
Watch it all play out as it happened right here:
GGMillion$ Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Barak Wisbrod | Israel | $390,260 |
| 2nd | Tony Lin | China | $305,997 |
| 3rd | Jesse Lonis | United States | $239,927 |
| 4th | Ding Biao | China | $188,123 |
| 5th | Juan Dominguez | Spain | $147,504 |
| 6th | Yuri Dzivielevski | Brazil | $115,656 |
| 7th | ‘spaise411’ | Russia | $90,684 |
| 8th | Joao Vieira | Portugal | $71,103 |
| 9th | Mark Radoja | Canada | $55,751 |
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.
