GGMillion$ Won by Bernhard Binder for Maiden Victory and $1.8m
A brilliant performance from the Austrian poker player Bernhard Binder saw this week’s GGMillion$ go to a first-time winner on GGPoker. This week’s show was presented as always by Jeff Gross, and the GGPoker Ambassador was joined behind the mic by Seth Davies. The American, who has over $32 million in live ranking event winnings alone, sits in 24th place on The Hendon Mob’s All-Time Money List and provided key analysis as the nine finalists battled towards a massive $1.8 million top prize.
Uncapped Starts Badly
Heading into the final table, the chip leader was the Austrian Bernhard Binder, who began the final with an awe-inspiring 92 big blinds. Behind him were two Germans in the mix, with Martin Finger (78BB) ahead of his compatriot Ole Schemion, on 31 big blinds. The Brazilian poker professional Pablo Silva (61BB) and Portuguese player Pedro Neves (58BB) were close behind Finger, with Czech player Roman Hrabec on 41 bigs a little further back.
Chasing with fewer chips were Austria’s ‘Aubstriakk’ (28BB), Lithuanian player ‘DntStpBelieving’ (15BB), and the short stack, Indian player ‘Uncapped,’ who began the final table with just seven big blinds. As it happened, the Indian player continued to fold his way up the ladder early, as ‘Aubstriakk’ pushed all-in pre-flop, three-betting to his doom with king-queen of hearts. The Austrian was called and defeated by Hrabec’s pocket queens, which made a set on the flop with the case queen and filled up to a full house on the river, leaving ‘Aubstriakk’ to collect $214,857 in ninth place.
‘Uncapped’ was all-in soon after, holding ace-queen, but both Binder with pocket eights and Pablo Silva with ace-ten of diamonds had reason to continue on the J-7-6- flop with two diamonds. Silva made the nut flush when the deuce of diamonds landed on the turn, and after Binder called the Brazilian’s 4th street bet, ‘Uncapped’ was drawing dead to the river, where an eight landed. Silva fired another 5 million chips into the middle and got a call from Binder, which not only took out ‘Uncapped’ in eighth place for $278,608 and gave Silva the lead. Suddenly, just 5 hands into the final table, it was down to 7.
Schemion Slides Out
Lithuanian player ‘DntStpBelieving’ cashed next, exiting in seventh place for $362,323. His belief was on the wane when a missed gutshot draw river bluff was called by Binder holding just A-K on a Jack-high board that left ‘DntStpBelieving’ very short with just 5 big blinds. The Lithuanian was out just 2 hands later with queen-seven of clubs all-in pre-flop against Silva’s ten-six of diamonds. A flop of Q-9-3 hit top pair for the at-risk player, but there were two diamonds as well. Another on the turn reduced the field to six as ‘DntStpBelieving’ hit the rail.
Next to go was the man with one of the biggest reputations at the final table, Ole Schemion. The German high roller regular shoved pre-flop with 23 big blinds while holding ace-king offsuit. He found himself in a lopsided race to the river against Binder’s pocket jacks, with Pedro Neves having folded a king pre-flop. A flop of 9-4-3 was no help, nor was the six on the turn. A queen on the river was close but not close enough, as Schemion cashed in sixth for $470,888.
“Everyone likes Ole but they’re happy to see him go out there knowing what he’s capable of.” Jeff Gross said on commentary. Less than and hour had passed and four players had bit the dust.
The Final Four
The middle period of this week’s GGMillion$ was drawn out but ended with a spectacular bluff and the easiest call of the week. Roman Hrabec had tried to tell a story against Binder that relied on complete conviction on the river, but with a missed straight draw, he’d run into a monster, as Binder has flopped trips, turned a full house and rivered quad eights. Binder easily snapped off the shove on the river to leave Hrabec out in fifth place for $611,679.
With four players remaining, Binder had the chip lead with 46.7 million chips, followed by Martin Finger with 28 million. Pablo Silva was sitting third at 25.8 million, while Pedro Neves played the short stack at a healthy 21.9m (44BB). Play continued for some time before a flop of 9-5-2 where Neves bet around 85% of the pot with ace-nine. He was called by Silva with nine-ten. A turn of a four saw Silva bet out for half-pot and Neves found the call. On the river of a ten, Silva ‘hit gin’ in the words of Jeff Gross.
“We’ve seen Pedro make some big calls at this final table. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is it for him.” Seth Davies said. Silva shoved and true enough, Pedro Neves called and busted in fourth place for $794,262.
Fastest Finger Can’t Find First
All three remaining players were fairly level, with Silva behind Binder at the top. Martin Finger grew his stack and was second in chips to Binder by the time a board of Q-8-3-K with two hearts and two diamonds fell. Finger bet 20% of the pot with the nut flush draw and Silva called with jack-ten of diamonds for a straight and flush draw that was heavily blocked. A five of diamonds on the river saw Finger shove with the nut flush, and Silva called to his doom for a third-place score of $1,031,043.
Incredibly, each player inside the top six places had busted in the place they had begun the final table in until the heads-up battle, but if the overnight leader Bernhard Binder was to achieve that, then things would have to change, as it was the German professional Martin Finger who started the final duel with a near 3:1 chip lead.
Two marginal calls went Binder’s way and the potential first-time winner bagged the chip lead just 20 minutes into heads-up play as the final table ticked into the third hour of play. A pivotal hand took place when Binder’s king-eight won against Finger’s king-jack. A flop of 5-3-3 was followed by an eight on the turn and Finger found the fold, but the Austrian now had a 2:1 chip lead.
Binder had a slightly bigger lead by the time the final hand played out, as a straight coinflip decided it in the overnight leader’s favor. Shoving pre-flop with ace-queen, Binder was called by Finger with pocket eights. A queen on the flop spelled disaster for the German, who was looking to flip himself into a decent lead. No eight on the turn meant Finger needed to find one of two outs and when no eight landed on the river, Austrian player Bernhard Binder had his first-ever GGMillion$ victory and one of the series biggest top prizes ever, $1,832,484. Finger had to be satisfied with the runner-up result worth a bit more than $1.33 million.
Watch all the action as it played out on GGPoker’s YouTube channel right here:
GGMillion$ Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Bernhard Binder | Austria | $1,832,484 |
| 2nd | Martin Finger | Germany | $1,338,110 |
| 3rd | Pablo Silva | Brazil | $1,031,043 |
| 4th | Pedro Neves | Portugal | $794,262 |
| 5th | Roman Hrabec | Czech Republic | $611,679 |
| 6th | Ole Schemion | Germany | $470,888 |
| 7th | ‘DntStpBelieving’ | Lithuania | $362,323 |
| 8th | ‘Uncapped’ | India | $278,608 |
| 9th | ‘Aubstriakk’ | Austria | $214,857 |
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.
