THE DAILY SCOOP – Super MILLION$ Season 2023 Episode 6
Andriy Lyubovetskiy Wins Super MILLION$ for $1.1 million
There was a new winner of the GGPoker Super MILLION$ this week as the Ukrainian poker professional, Andriy Lyubovetskiy, took down the event for a score of $1.1 million. The Ukrainian, who won his first WSOP-E bracelet in 2021 when he won the €25,000-entry Platinum High Roller at King’s Casino in Prague added a Super MILLION$ title to his already impressive resume, beating a final table stacked with top talent Tuesday night.
Garagnani Begins in the Lead
Kicking off the action in the lead was the utterly dominant Brazilian and former world number one online player, Pedro Garagnani. He began the final day on an incredible stack of 128 big blinds, just short of 1/3rd of the chips in play and more than double his nearest challenger, the Dutch player Duco Haven with 62 big blinds. Garagnani was a former Super MILLION$ champion, but unlike last time out, where half the final table were former winners, the Brazilian was the only player to start the action with a previous title to his name.
Big name pros like Simon Mattsson (41BB), Ignacio Moron (28BB) and Joao Vieira (11BB) each had varying levels of chips with which to combat Garagnani’s dominance at the final table, but even with the chip disparity, it took half an hour for a player to bust. It was Moron who took that player out in ninth place for $149,722. The significant jump in pay from the usual range of 9th place payouts was due to this week’s edition of the GGPoker Super MILLION$ having an incredible $5 million guarantee. Moron’s ace-king was too good for the ace-queen of ‘ReCreatineMood’, who was all-in on a board of K-J-8-A. Moron had two pair and his Canadian opponent missed a Broadway miracle on the river.
Joao Vieira got it all-in on the next hand with jack-ten on a flop showing K-J-7 in diamonds. He needed a massive amount of help against Moron’s king-queen with the queen of diamonds. Drawing to just four outs, the off-suit jacks and 3 tens, Vieira was unable to hit on turn or river. The Portuguese player cashed for $193,608 in eighth place.
Moron Busted by Brilliant Brazilian Garagnani
Despite scoring two early scalps, Moron was out next. It took less than an hour to produce the third of the eight eliminations and Moron’s king-queen was good enough to call off his stack in the big blind for 14 big blinds. Unfortunately, Pedro Garagnani, who had shoved with eight-four of clubs in the small blind when the action folded around, got lucky. The flop of A-5-3 in clubs immediately gave the Brazilian the flush and left Moron without a way to win. Ignacio busted out in 7th, earning $250,521 as he became the victim of a 118-to-1 flopped flush.
Those odds were provided by Jeff Gross right off the top of his head, ably assisted as he was in the commentary booth this week by Dan ‘Jungleman’ Cates. Gross called the next hand’s pre-flop action too, predicting that Garagnani would ‘rip’ with ace-three off-suit. This time, however, the aggression did not pay off. The Ukrainian player Andriy Lyubovetskiy called with pocket queens. The flop had a queen in the window and was followed by two fives, leaving Garagnani dead to running 5’s or A’s. It was a vital double-up for Lyubovetskiy, who jumped to 10.7 million chips. He was still way behind Garagnani with 35 million, but close enough to prevent the same pre-flop aggression being aimed at him.
Simon Mattsson was down to six big blinds when he raised pre-flop with jack-king and, after Garagnani’s ace-king raise, was all-in with the call. Mattsson called off his stack and found he’d need to hit. The board of 7-7-7-5-9 didn’t help Mattsson and the Swede cashed for $324,328.
It wasn’t long before he was joined on the rail by the player who started the final table second in chips. ‘CoronaMyAss’ was a non-believer in playing small ball, shoving pre with eight-deuce from the small blind. ‘Duco Haven’ made the right call with ace-jack, but the cards didn’t favor him. The board paired the eight on the turn and no cards came to help the Dutchman survive, sending him to the rail $420,044 richer.
Lyubovetskiy Lays the Ghost
‘Babsi3000’ was the next player to depart, cashing in fourth place for $544,171. Extremely short stacked, the Austrian player had only five big blinds to their name pre-flop and got it in with a dominating hand, holding queen-nine to the nine-for of their caller, ‘CoronaMyAss’. The flop of 6-5-2 opened up a gutshot possibility which came immediately with the three on the turn, concluding the hand with CoronaMyAss holding 27.3 million chips.
Garagnani had only 12.5 million by that stage but the Brazilian overnight chip leader didn’t build his reputation for anything and battled back in style. Bluffing with just king-jack on a board of 7-9-9-4-5, Garagnani got ‘CoronaMyAss’ to fold seven-three and that left the Austrian player with considerably fewer chips than either of his opponents. His last chips went in with ace-three on the next hand, but Garagnani had a real hand this time, calling with ace-queen. He turned Broadway to seal the heads-up spot.
Going into the final duel, Garagnani led once more, holding 40.1 million to Lyubovetskiy’s 35.7 million. It was not toa decisive lead and Lyubovetskiy led by 60 million to 16 million thanks to a hero call on the penultimate hand. The final hand had the Brazilian shove with king-seven. Lyubovetskiy called with pocket fours and the flop of K-J-4 put him in control with bottom set.
After a nine on the turn and another jack on the river, Andriy Lyubovetskiy was pronounced the winner, getting his first-ever Super MILLION$ title and the $1.1 million top prize. Garagnani, who missed the chance to win his second Super MILLION$ title, had to make do with the $913,902 consolation prize.
You can watch the final table replay with Jeff Gross and Dan ‘Jungleman’ Cates right below.
GGPoker Super MILLION$ April 11th 2023 Final Table Results: |
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| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
| 1st | Andriy Lyubovetskiy | Ukraine | $1,184,696 |
| 2nd | Pedro Garagnani | Brazil | $913,902 |
| 3rd | CoronaMyAss | Austria | $705,145 |
| 4th | Babsi3000 | Austria | $544,171 |
| 5th | Duco Haven | Netherlands | $420,044 |
| 6th | Simon Mattsson | Sweden | $324,328 |
| 7th | Ignacio Moron | Mexico | $250,521 |
| 8th | Joao Vieira | Portugal | $193,608 |
| 9th | ReCreatineMood | Canada | $149,722 |