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First time winner earns $326,577 GGMillion$ Title – GGMillion$ Season 2025 Episode 43

This week’s GGMillion$ event saw the Russian player Kirill Shcherbakov overcome a huge chip leader at the start of play as Dominik Nitsche once again fell short at the final table, unable to convert a big lead into the title he craves. With the action brought to life by regular host Jeff Gross and special guest co-commentator Mike Wasserman, the final nine played out thrillingly on GGPoker. 

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Pre-Match Betting Odds

When this week’s final table

began, it was the German professional Dominik Nitsche who started with the lead, and a huge one at that. Packing 134 big blinds, Nitsche was bidding to end his long wait for a GGMilion$ title, and was some way clear of his nearest challenger, Russian player Osmirko Artem, with 93 big blinds. The betting odds in the GGPoker client backed that up, with Nitsche a 2.54 favorite while Artem was available at 4.02. 

Everyone else in the field had less than half the chips of the leader, with the Ukrainian player Volodymyr Palamar on 56 big blinds, but still good value at odds of 6.96 to run deep. Brazilians Bruno Botteon (34BB/10.28) and Dante Fernandes (24BB/14.24) both appealed too, while Belarussian Yahor Dambrouski sat on 23 big blinds at odds of 17.4.

Short-stacked Russian Kirill Shcherbakov (21BB/18.34), Irish player Jon Proudfoot (15BB/19.94), and British player ‘NOWAYM8’ (8BB/42.88) all looked like long-odds shots to make their chips count, but a surprise was on the cards as one of the biggest shocks in GGMillion$ history was about to play out.

Key Moments from the Felt

The first exit was one of the cruellest, as ‘NOWAYM8’ was probably uttering their own name phonetically as they busted on just the third hand (41:30). All-in with the superior ace-nine of hearts to Nitsche’s king-five of hearts, a run-out of 7-3-4-4-6 provided a straight for Nitsche, and ‘NOWAYM8’ was left to depart in ninth for $35,479.

Two short stacks battled when Jon Proudfoot’s ace-jack of spades couldn’t hit against Dante Fernandes’ pocket nines, which saw the Irishman bust in eighth for $45,430. Soon, only seven remained, as the Belarusian player Yahor Dambrouski lost out with ace-four against the ace-eight of the Ukrainian Volodymyr Palamar. Dambrouski departed with a score of $58,172 in seventh place

A big bust-out came in sixth place, as Brazil’s Bruno Botteon was eliminated by one pip. His pocket eights were one pip short against Dominik Nitsche’s pocket nines as the German’s superior hand held up, and Botteon left with $74,488 in sixth place. The reverse situation played out soon after at a great cost to Palamar, whose pocket queens went into his final hand well ahead of Kirill Shcherbakov’s pocket tens (2:06:25). Unfortunately, the board had other ideas. A ten on the flop spelled disaster for the Ukrainian as he failed to catch any cards and busted for $95,381 in fifth place.

Dante Fernandes was dominated in defeat, falling in fourth for $122,133 when his ace-ten was no good against Shcherbakov’s ace-queen. Play was sent heads-up after the elimination of Nitsche in third (2:56:00). Falling two places short of his ultimate goal of winning the title, Nitsche had the best of it as a flop of 9-6-2 with two clubs landed, the German holding queen-nine. But Shcherbakov called with ace-five of clubs, needing only one more to make a flush. The required card hit on the river, doleing out maximum pain as Nitsche left with $156,389. 

Mattsson was the unfortunate victim of escalating blinds when he committed all his chips pre-flop with ace-seven of diamonds. Called by ‘Deputadim’ with pocket jacks, two more jacks came on the flop and turn as quad jacks eliminated a GGMillion$ player for the second time of the night! It still represented a stunning return on his investment for the short stack, as the Swede won $157,425 in fourth place, having started in ninth.

Heads-up, Osmirko Artem had a strong lead with 7.7m chips against Shcherbakov’s 4.5m. That all changed during a hand where Artem raised pre-flop, checked on the flop, then fired on the remaining streets with ace-king. Shcherbakov hero-called brilliantly with a flopped pair of tens for second pair, but took the lead, almost an exact reversal from the start of heads up. The very next hand, a board of K-9-2-7-A played out before Artem shoved with queen-high in his hand (3:09:11). Could Shcherbakov produce another hero call to win it? You bet he could. The Russian eventually clicked call with just ten-seven in his hand for fourth pair on the board, a superb piece of play that deserved to win any event. 

This Week’s GGMillion$ Results – December 9th, 2025

After a flurry of early eliminations, the ending of this week’s GGMillion$ was a surprise. Osmirko Artem had the lead, but two failed bluffs were both called by his opponent Kirill Shcherbakov, and Artem paid the ultimate price, cashing for $200,253 as runner-up instead of winning the event for $256,419.

“Your champion for the first time!” said Jeff Gross as the call came through. “That is a big ‘W’ for Shcherbakov. Tell me Mr. Wasserman, how did he come out of nowhere and get it done?”

“He let a lot of other people do the dirty work and came through,” said Mike. “He six-bet jammed with ace-three and for him to have the wherewithal and to recognise the spot for what it was and pull the trigger? He earned it!”

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1st	Kirill Shcherbakov	Russia	$256,419
2nd	Osmirko Artem	Russia	$200,253
3rd	Komink Nitsche	Germany	$156,389
4th	Dante Fernandes	Brazil	$122,133
5th	Volodymyr Palamar	Ukraine	$95,381
6th	Bruno Botteon	Brazil	$74,488
7th	Yahor Dambrouski	Belarus	$58,172
8th	Jon Proutfoot	Republic of Ireland	$45,430
9th	‘NOWAYM8’	United Kingdom	$35,479

How Did Andersson Win as an Outsider?

A terrific show from Swedish player Sven Andersson booked the second win of his career at a GGMillion$ final table. Starting way back in fourth, he might have been an outside bet at 7 to 1, and even though he was a long short stack with four left, he got the job done, coming through to win the massive $326,577 top prize.    

“How did he do it?’ asked Jeff Gross to co-host Bryan Paris. “He was a dark horse, showing up out of nowhere and getting the chips.”

“He held on until he got four-handed,” said Paris. “He won a couple of flips and took it from there. I thought he played great.”

Watch how Sven Andersson won his second GGMillion$ title right here: 

 

2025 Week 42                                          2025 Week 44

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.

* The pre-game pick is the sole opinion of the author. It in no way reflects or affects the outcome of the final table.