THE DAILY SCOOP – Super MILLION$ Season 2023 Episode 7
Aleks Ponakovs Breaks Through in the Super MILLION$ for $376,000
Latvian WSOP bracelet winner and high stake professional Aleks Ponakovs ended his Super MILLION$ famine last night as he took down the latest thrilling installment of the GGPoker series. Costing $10,300 to enter, the 2023 season of Super MILLION$ has already featured some big name winners, including Ole Schemion, but this week it was time for Ponakovs to finally earn his long wait for a title, winning $376,032 in the process.
Quickfire Start Sees Chess Grandmaster Call for Check
It didn’t take long for one of the nine final table players to crash out. Kicking off, the chip leader with 78 big blinds was the Latvian player Aleks Ponakovs, whose excellent record online didn’t include a Super MILLION$ victory. Others at the table did have previous wins, with ‘TouchSomeGrass’, who started with 63 big blinds, Ognyan Dimov (54 big blinds), and the Brazilian former online world number one player Pedro Garagnani, who was going for title number three.
Mexico-based Estonian chess grandmaster Ottomar Ladva also has a Super MILLION$ title to his name, but it was checkmate for the four-time Estonian chess champion as he began with a short stack and lasted just 13 minutes. Having two queens in chess is almost a guaranteed game over for your opponent, but all-in with pocket queens, Ladva needed to hold in a flip against Austrian player ‘Hazes’ who held ace-king of hearts. The king on the turn ended matters and sent Ladva home with $53,719.
There was a long to wait before the field was trimmed again. More than an hour later, it was Garagnani who bought it, all-in with pocket jacks pre-flop, and unluckily ran right into Ponakovs’ pocket queens. A queen slow rolling onto the river ended all hope for the Brazilian, who cashed for $68,511. The hand left Ponakovs on a stack of over 6.4 million chips, more than double his nearest rival.
Out next was the lone Argentinian player ‘sentimiento’, who woke up with pocket kings in the big blind. ‘TouchSomeGrass’, fresh from winning this event a few weeks ago, shoved from the button with ace-queen offsuit, and the Argentinian player made the easy call. An ace and a queen on the flop were enough to give the Austrian player top two pair. There was no miracle card coming to save ‘sentimiento’, who busted in seventh place for $87,377.
Thirty minutes later, or two hours of play into what would be an almost 3 hour stream, the field was finally reduced to five as the day of the Bad Beat continued. This time, the victim was ‘Hazes’, whose run came to an end with $111,439 being added to his wallet. Starting the hand short stacked with under 3 big blinds, ‘Hazes’ was all-in with pocket queens which were ahead of Ognyan Dimov’s ace-jack off suit, but it didn’t stay that way. With all the chips committed pre-flop, Dimov called it off and had the fortune to catch running jacks on both turn and river to eliminate the Austrian player, who can feel extremely aggrieved at having missed out on a vital double up.
Dimov might have been feeling he could be the one to push Ponakovs, but the opposite happened as he crashed out in fifth 10 minutes later for $142,126. On a board showing T-5-2-6, Dimov bet with king-ten. Ponakovs was going nowhere, however, shoving with six-deuce on the rainbow board. Dimov made the call and couldn’t hit on the river of a four to reduce the field to the same number.
Ponakovs Ploughs Lone Furrow to Victory
With four players remaining, Ponakovs had a sizeable lead, having amassed 8.65 million chips, almost as many as his opponents combined. Chinese player ‘sutem’ was closest with 3.89 million and ‘TouchSomeGrass’ at 3.72 million wasn’t far behind him. ‘Hunter777’ was a little further back with 2.22 million chips.
Ponakovs was close to losing the lead when ‘sutem’ helped him pull further away from the field, as a frantic close to the event began. This week’s Super MILLION$ had been running for two hours and 15 minutes when the Chinese player shoved from the button with pocket sixes. Ponakovs had the simplest of calls with pocket queens and they held with ease as the board ran out 7-7-2-A-8, offering no help to ‘sutem’ as he headed to the rail with $181,264.
Ponakovs could have lost a chunk soon after, shoving with ace-three but ‘TouchSomeGrass’ folded ace-eight. Shortly after that hand, he had a decisive lead with approximately double chips of the other two players. ‘Hunter777’ shoved with pocket nines, and Ponakovs made the call with ace-queen. Neither player was aware that ‘TouchSomeGrass’ had folded queen-nine. It mattered not as an ace on the turn and a queen on the river for good measure meant one Latvian would go into the heads-up with a big lead, and the fellow Latvian would hit the rail for $231,180.
With a better than 3:1 chip lead, Ponakovs knew it was his title to lose. While ‘TouchSomeGrass’ caught up a little, the final hand wasn’t far off. The Austrian was ahead when the chips went in, holding ace-six of hearts to ace-four offsuit for Ponakovs, but the flop of A-7-4 immediately put Ponakovs into the lead. A deuce on the turn and a river three changed nothing and the Latvian had his first-ever Super MILLION$ title for $376,032, with ‘TouchSomeGrass’ winning the consolation prize of $294,841.
You can watch all the action in this three-hour replay of the final table with regular host Jeff Gross and Scottish Triple Crown winner Niall Farrell here:
GGPoker Super MILLION$ Tue 18th April 2023 Final Table Results: |
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| Place | Player | Country | Prize | |
| 1st | Aleks Ponakovs | Latvia | $376,032 | |
| 2nd | ‘TouchSomeGrass’ | Austria | $294,841 | |
| 3rd | ‘Hunter777’ | Latvia | $231,180 | |
| 4th | ‘sutem’ | China | $181,264 | |
| 5th | Ognyan Dimov | Russia | $142,126 | |
| 6th | ‘Hazes’ | Austria | $111,439 | |
| 7th | ‘sentimiento’ | Argentina | $87,377 | |
| 8th | Pedro Garagnani | Brazil | $68,511 | |
| 9th | Ottomar Ladva | Estonia | $53,719 | |