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GGMILLION$ Won by Russian Player ‘Army034’ for $943,000 After Dominant Display

The latest GGMILLION$ final table saw a dramatic conclusion as Russian player ‘Army034’ earned the victory for their first-ever GGMILLION$ win, securing them a payday of almost a million dollars at the expense of some poker greats along the way.

An Early Elimination 

Heading into the action, some of poker’s finest players were battling for the bulk of a $6.19 million prize pool. The most recent winner in this format ‘focus_nik’ from Belarus led the field with 78 big blinds as they looked to win their second title in a matter of a few weeks. Behind them eight great players who only had one previous GGMILLION$ win between them gathered.

Russian player ‘Army034 (66 big blinds) was closest to the leader, while the amusingly named ‘Karma is a Cat’ from Canada came in with a purr-fectly acceptable stack of 55 big blinds. Hong Kong’s ‘No-Ola’ (50BB), Lebanese ‘youngmoney23’ (45BB) and Mexico-based ‘LemonHouse’ (44BB) all hovered with intent behind the leaders. Mike ‘SirWatts’ Watson (21BB) was the only previous winner lurking in the lower end of the order, with Kazakhstan’s Dmitry Grinenko (15BB) and Norway’s Linus Hjulstrom (11BB) bringing up the rear.

It was the short-stacked Hjulstrom who busted first, cashing for $122,182 when he ran pocket eights into the pocket queens being held by ‘Army034’. After the excitement of this early hand, the table remained drama free as ‘fokus_nik’ and ‘Army034’ slowly chipped up, accumulating over 60% of the chips in play.

The Slippery Ladder 

Grinenko shoved with ace-queen and the Belarussian chip leader immediately had the chance to grab his chip lead back with pocket sevens. It was Mike Watson, who had woken up with pocket eights, with the winning shove, getting close to a treble up at Grinenko’s expense as the Kazakh player busted in eighth place for $157,014 as the board ran out dry.

Incredibly, after 90 minutes of action, only two players had left but that was all about to change. The blinds were racing through players when Watson shoved from the button with ace-eight of hearts for 15 big blinds, as would be expected. Also to be expected was the call from ‘Army034’ with pocket tens in the next seat. No ace and only one heart on the board signaled defeat for the popular Canadian pro, as he cashed for $202,185.

‘Karma is a Cat’ doubled with seven-five, spiking a five to chip up a little through ‘youngmoney23’, but in the very next hand, got unlucky with pocket nines. Their pre-flop shove was called by ‘Army034’ who was priced in with jack-six. A turned jack reduced the field to five as the Canadian player went home with $260,765.

Soon, only four remained. ‘Army034’ was running over the table, but a clash between two others saw premium hands go to war. Mexican player ‘LemonHouse’ was left feeling bitter when all in with ace-king only to run into ‘No-Ola’, whose pocket kings survived the board of 9-8-7-T-T and sent the Mexico-based player home with $336,734.

Hero Fold 

With four players in the hunt for glory, one player had a huge amount of chips. Russia’s ‘Army034’ looked dominant with 30.3 million chips as ‘No-Ola’ (13.1m), ‘focus_nik’ (9.6m) and ‘youngmoney23’ (8.3m) all jockeyed for position behind them. ‘No-Ola’ found a moment to get all in with a pocket pair, but their deuces were no match for their Russian caller’s pocket aces and ‘Army034’ had taken yet another scalp, the Hong Kong player taking fourth place for $435,253.

The overnight chip leader fell just short in their attempt to win a second title in a matter of weeks as ‘focus_nik’ busted in third place for $563,017. Shoving pre-flop from the small blind with king-jack of diamonds, they were unfortunate to bust to ‘Army034’s eight-deuce of hearts as the board came 5-5-2-K-3 with a heart flush arriving on the turn card of a king.

That pot gave ‘Army034’ a gargantuan chip lead heading into the final duel, as they racked up 52.8 million chips to the Lebanese player ‘youngmoney23’s 8.8 million. Despite this lead, heads-up took over 30 minutes to play out, as the Lebanese player somehow didn’t go bust with hands like king-five on a board of K-8-8-Q-5 when up against the Russian’s king-eight.

Incredibly, the Lebanese player did grind back into contention, even doubled up to just a 2:1 dog when ace-queen beat pocket fives. A little later, however, king-five came back to bite ‘youngmoney23’ as they shoved with a suited version of it and ran into the Russian’s ace-jack. No help came for the Lebanese player and ‘Army034’ was the champion, winning their first-ever GGMILLION$ title and the top prize of $943,582.

You can watch the full final table replay with regular presenter Jeff Gross resuming his seat after WSOP exertions and Peruvian bracelet winner Diego Ventura this week’s special guest co-commentator right here.

GGPoker GG MILLION$ Tue 25th July 2023 Final Table Results:
Place	Player	Country	Prize
1st	Army034	Russia	$943,582
2nd	youngmoney23	Lebanon	$728,706
3rd	focus_nik	Belarus	$563,017
4th	No-Ola	Hong Kong	$435,253
5th	LemonHouse	Mexico	$336,734
6th	Karma is a Cat	Canada	$260,765
7th	Mike Watson	Canada	$202,185
8th	Dmitry Grinenko	Kazakhstan	$157,014
9th	Linus Hjulstrom	Norway	$122,182

2023 Week 18                                             2023 Week 20

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.