GGPOKER

Former Footballer Mario Mosboeck Scores GGMILLION$ Win for $275,000

With 127 entries, this week’s GGMillion$ final table was one packed with superstars. It was won, however, by a first-timer who traded the soccer pitch in Austria for the online poker felt. Mario Mosboeck, who once played professionally for Austrian Bundesliga side SC Wiener Neustadt, cleaned up the top prize of $275,977 as he defeated eight opponents, many of whom rank among the GGMillion$ biggest-ever winners.

Rich Player, Poor Player

Going into the final nine, some players had plenty of chips, others were fighting over scraps. Mosboeck (98 big blinds) held an impressive chip lead as he battled for his first GGMillion$ title, with Ramiro Petrone (84BB) appearing at his second final table, sitting second in chips. Duco Haven (55BB) and Pavel Plesuv (36BB) both survived to make their fourth GGMillion$ final table, while Fabrice Touil (31BB), Ivan Luca (27BB) and Fausto Tantillo (24BB) appeared at their first.

Johannes Straver (15BB) and Christian Rudolph (6BB) sat with two and three previous final tables, so they had experience in their corner. The short stacks were the odds-on favorite to be the first to bust and, as it turned out, the shortest of them all did indeed cash in ninth place for $38,185. All-in with ace-seven, Rudolph hit an ace on the river, but by that point it was not the card he was chasing, as Ramiro Petrone’s king-jack had flopped two pair. A queen on the turn meant a Broadway straight was Rudolph’s only hope, but that ace doomed him.

An early bust-out often leads to a flurry of them at a final table, but this week, things couldn’t have been more different. Under the watchful gaze of regular presenter Jeff Gross and special guest co-commentator Andrew Moreno, a live tournament crusher and poker professional, there were no further eliminations for over an hour. Petrone was in charge… and a big name was about to fall.

Stars Fall From The Sky

With eight players remaining, it was the Moldovan player Pavel Plesuv who slipped from being high in the chip counts to sitting on the virtual rail. Shoving all-in from the Big Blind with ace-eight, the previous GGMillion$ winner had picked the absolute worst time to bluff-shove, running into the Dutch player Duco Haven’s pocket Kings in the cutoff. The flop came down K-7-7 giving Duco a flopped full house. Plesuv was drawing dead as soon as the 5 came on the turn, but he went home with a solid score of $48,895.

Another Dutch player wasn’t having such a great time at the final table. Johannes Straver shoved from the big blind with pocket fours, but the initial raiser in the hand, Fabrice Touil, held pocket aces and made the easy call to take out his short-stacked opponent, an ace on the flop preceded a full house for the player sporting the Israeli flag, sending the Dutch player home with $62,609 in seventh place.

Another 30 minutes would pass before, six became five as another giant of the modern game fell. Fausto Tantillo raised to over half his stack with an offsuit ace-jack pre-flop and called it off to race to the river against Haven’s pocket tens. No ace or jack came and Tantillo left in sixth place earning $80,170. He was swiftly followed from the felt by Fabrice Touil, who also lost his tournament life courtesy of a ‘coinflip’. All-in with pocket fours, they were on course for a double-up against Petrone’s queen-ten on a board showing A-7-3-5 but a queen on the river was the final blow and he left in fifth for $102,656.

Mosboeck Plays Out from the Back

Four players remained, and the battle for supremacy appeared to be between Duco Haven with 4.66 million and Ramiro Petrone with 4.34 million. Behind them, however, Mosboeck lurked ominously with 2.71 million, with Argentinian player Ivan Luca (1.42 million) the short stack. Luca didn’t stay as short stack for long when he shoved with ace-eight of hearts from first position and was called by Haven with pocket tens in the small blind. Those tens held on the board of Q-J-J-3-3 and Luca collected $131,448 for the fourth-place finish.

Mosboeck was now the shortest stack, but the former pro soccer player knew how to keep attacking as he tried to hit his goal of making the heads-up. Nearly 20 minutes later, after hitting a full house on the turn, had Haven bluff into him with just 2 pair. Mario Mosboeck had stolen the chip lead from Haven. The Dutchman, who had hardly seen any trouble during the final table proved the old adage that no one is ever more than two hands from devastation in No Limit Hold’em. In the very next hand, Haven couldn’t help shoving for 1.5 million with ace-six offsuit and ran into Petrone’s pocket jacks, losing after the board of 4-4-3-T-Q landed, sending the Dutchman to the rail for $168,317.

Heads-up, Mosboeck held a very marginal lead, but a short way into the final duel against the WSOP bracelet winner Petrone, he struck gold. Petrone raised pre-flop with pocket eights, Mosboeck re-raised with pocket aces. Petrone called and the flop of J-7-2 led to two checks. An innocuous four on the turn led to action as Mosboeck checked, Petrone bet 1.29 million chips and the Austrian took his time calling. The river of a six saw two final checks, but that was enough for the former soccer player to take a close to 2:1 lead.

Petrone did well not to go broke in a couple of hands where he was outkicked, only to run into an ending that was colder than a Siberian cocktail. On a flop of Q-5-2, Petrone was loving his 9-5 and played the ‘Dolly Parton’ stronger than The Queen of Country ever strummed a banjo. A turn of another five lit the blue touch paper and Petrone again bet out, only called by Mosboeck. The river was gold for Petrone, who hit a nine to make a full house. All the chips went into the middle of course, but Mosboeck had been slow-playing queen-five for a superior turned full house and his slow play – so suited to the poker felt rather than the soccer pitch saw him lift the trophy and the top prize of over $275,000.

Here’s how everything played out with Jeff Gross and Andrew Moreno in the commentary booth.

GGMillion$ 17th October 2023 Final Table Results:
Place	Name	Country	Prize
1st	Mario Mosboeck	Austria	$275,977
2nd	Ramiro Petrone	Uruguay	$215,526
3rd	Duco Haven	Netherlands	$168,317
4th	Ivan Luca	Argentina	$131,448
5th	Fabrice Touil	Morocco	$102,656
6th	Fausto Tantillo	Austria	$80,170
7th	Johannes Straver	Netherlands	$62,609
8th	Pavel Plesuv	Moldova	$48,895
9th	Christian Rudolph	Germany	$38,185

2023 Week 26                                             2023 Week 28

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.