GGPOKER

Cypriot ‘P1ppin’ Wins First-Ever Super MILLION$ for $230k 

A bumper week in the GGPoker Super MILLION$ saw a prize pool of $1,060,000 distributed mostly to nine superstars on the felt, with Cyprus-based player ‘P1ppin’ winning the $230,343 top prize, claiming their first-ever victory in the tournament format. The final table, which had begun with no fewer than nine victories between the players, saw a brand-new winner as the chip leader heading into the action going wire-to-wire.

Chips Stacks Dictate Early Elimination

Kicking off the action in the lead was Cyprus-based player ‘P1ppin’, who started with 82 big blinds but had never won the tournament before. Nor had their closest challengers, Austrian ‘FiesoDuck’ (74BB) or Thai player Joshua McCully (71BB). Behind the leading trio, however, sat five players with enormous experience in getting over the line and winning this event.

Fourth in chips was Brazilian player Pablo Silva, who has been a fixture in the latter stages of recent Super MILLION$ events. He began with 54 big blinds in his bid to win a third title and was followed in the counts by Ukrainian Andrii Derzhypilskiy who started with 46 big blinds and a dream of making it two wins. Ottomar Ladva needs no introduction to anyone who follows the history of this tournament series. The Estonian already had three wins prior to him beginning the final table with 37 bigs.

Behind those middle runners, Duco Haven of the Netherlands had 31 big blinds and was seeking his second victory, with Arsenii Malinov (17BB) chasing his third. The short-stack was Montenegrin player ‘Picasso98’ with 12 big blinds, and they were the first player out, shoving just a couple of minutes into the action with ace-five. Called by Duco Haven with king-jack, the board of A-T-9-Q-Q completed the Dutch player for a turned straight and sent ‘Picasso98’ to the canvas with $31,871.

Ladva’s Ladies Fail to Take Off 

With eight players left, regular host Jeff Gross and special guest Pamela Balzano commentated on the action, with Latvian Ottomar Ladva unable to get anywhere near his fourth title. All-in pre-flop with pocket queens, he ran into FiesoDuck’s pocket aces, and there was no help coming for the ladies. An ace on the turn only confirmed the bust-out, with Ladva cashing for $40,810.

Pablo Silva was shorter than Arsenii Malinov when the Brazilian shoved with pocket jacks before the flop. Silva’s jacks were leading on the flop against Malinov’s ace-king, which came dry, but an ace on the turn and a king on the river sent Silva to the rail for $52,256.

The bust-outs were coming thick and fast and didn’t end there. Ukrainian professional Andrii Derzhypilskiy entered play as one of the stars to be stopped, but Joshua McCully had no trouble doing so. The Ukrainian shoved with ace-ten of hearts and McCully called it off with pocket tens. The flop of J-4-2 with two hearts was more than worrying for McCully, as was the three of diamonds on the turn. Any ace, heart or five would save Derzhypilskiy, giving him a double up to over 22 big blinds. He bricked those “too many outs” as Gross called it, the queen of spades on the river condemning him to a sixth-place finish worth $66,913.

Just 45 minutes into the action, four players had been sent to the rail, but stacks were fairly even. As a result, the action slowed down a little. The best part of an hour elapsed without anyone being eliminated, but then in just a couple of hands, everything changed.

Arsenii Malinow was all-in and at risk with the best hand possible, pocket aces, before the flop. Called by the chip leader, ‘P1ppin’, with pocket jacks, a disastrous flop for the Russian of K-J-4 preceded a ten on the turn and another on the river to end Malinov’s tournament in fifth place as a bad beat suckered his chances of winning this week’s Super MILLION$, his fifth-place result of $85,681 no consolation at all in the heat of battle.

P1ppin Pips Duck to the Bills 

Four players remained, but only one could win. At that stage, ‘P1ppin’s stack of 5.3 million chips was far ahead of ‘FiesoDuck’ (2.4m) Duco Haven (1.68m), and Joshua McCully (1.03m) as the rest of the field struggled to amount to the same chips as ‘P1ppin’ had on their own. McCully blinked first as short-stack, eventually shoving 11 big blinds into the middle with ace-six pre-flop only to run into ‘FiesoDuck’ with pocket aces. No help came on the board for McCully and he earned $109,713 in fourth place.

Down to three, play went for some time without anyone being in jeopardy of losing their tournament lives. Eventually, Duco Haven, down to under 10 big blinds was forced to shove with ace-seven and was called by ‘FiesoDuck’ with ace-jack. Things looked bleak for the Netherlands player. A flop of K-Q-8 was followed by another eight on the turn.

“OK, we’re chopping, it’s a chop.” Said GGPoker ambassador Pamela Balzano on the commentary. The Poker Gods did not want to hear it, however, and a jack slammed down on the river to give the Austrian player the chips and send the Dutch pro Haven to the rail in third for $140,485.

Heads-up, ‘FiesoDuck’ had gathered 3.5 million chips, but remained behind the leader ‘P1ppin’ with 7 million. A neat 2:1 chip advantage had grown around 15 minutes later by the time ‘FiesoDuck’ shoved for 1.4 million, the equivalent of 13 big blinds, with ace-four. Called by ‘P1ppin’ with pocket sixes, the flop of K-9-4 made no difference and a ten on the turn was followed by the deuce on the river and P1ppin had done it. Winning their first-ever GG MILLION$ for $230,343, the Cypriot had seen off a quality opponent in ‘FiesoDuck’ who took home the runner-up score of $179,888.

“I think I’ve never seen so many races pre-flop or creative moves!” Balzano said on the action that had flown by in a near-record time of just 2 hours and 20 minutes.

“Super MILLION$ is now GG MILLION$ and next week, we’ll be on in Vegas during the WSOP with a special guest,” said Gross. “I can’t wait!”

You can watch all the action right here in a full replay of the final table on GGPoker’s YouTube channel.

GGPoker GG MILLION$ June 27th 2023 Final Table Results:
Place	Player	Country	Prize
1st	P1ppin	Cyprus	$230,343
2nd	FiesoDuck	Austria	$179,888
3rd	Duco Haven	Netherlands	$140,485
4th	Joshua McCully	Australia	$109,713
5th	Arsenii Malinov	Russia	$85,681
6th	Andrii Derzhypilskiy	Ukraine	$66,913
7th	Pablo Silva	Brazil	$52,256
8th	Ottomar Ladva	Estonia	$40,810
9th	Picasso98	Montenegro	$31,871

2023 Week 15                                             2023 Week 17

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.