GGMillion$ wsop online Bracelet Won for $1.9 million as Kid Poker Calls the Action – October 2, 2024

This week’s GGMillion$ on GGPoker wasn’t just a bumper tournament, it was a World Series of Poker bracelet event. With seven-time WSOP bracelet winner and the only two-time WSOP Player of the Year Daniel Negreanu joining Jeff Gross in the commentary booth for the action, it was a thriller at the online felt. The GGPoker Global Ambassador, known as ‘Kid Poker’, was like a child in a candy shop as the gold was won in dramatic fashion.

Kenjic Leading the Way

With nine players making the final table, the chip leader was Serbian player Jovan Kenjic, who started the final with a massive lead at 124 big blinds. Behind Kenjic was the Australian player James Mitchell on 96 big blinds, and no-one else was close at the start of play. Russian Roman Emelyanov (42BB), Danish player Daniel Petersen (39BB), Latvia’s Aleks Ponakovs (34BB), Chinese professional Jinlong Hu (27BB), German Christopher Nguyen (26BB) and Spanish player Sergio Aido (15BB) all hoped to battle their way to glory, with perhaps only Belarussian Aliaksei Boika needing a miracle, starting the final with just a single big blind.

Sure enough, it was Boika who bounced first in the very first hand. All-in with king-deuce, Boika lost to James Mitchell’s pocket nines, which flopped a nine to also take some from Kenjic, who had called the initial shove with pocket jacks. No help came on the turn or river to save Boika and he cashed for $243,577 in ninth place.

While the final took just over two-and-a-half hours to wrap up from start to finish, providing a second elimination proved time-consuming for the table. Chips changed hands many times over the first fourty minutes of play, which was what it took to send home the Latvian WSOP bracelet winner, Aleks Ponakovs. All-in with pocket jacks against the suited ace-seven belonging to Sergio Aido, the Spaniard’s recent rise in chips meant that he was holding the axe. A flop of Q-9-9 was safe enough for Ponakovs but an ace on the turn, followed by another nine on the river gave Aido a winning full house and sent Ponakovs home with $315,324 in eighth place.

Petersen Pushed Out

Two big hands clashed with seven left to send Christopher Nguyen from the event for a score of $408,366. All-in with pocket jacks on a flop of T-9-7, Nguyen was losing to Daniel Petersen’s pocket queens. Only a jack or an eight would save Nguyen but through the king turn and deuce river, nothing changed, elevating Petersen’s presence at the final table and eliminating the German player.

Down to six players, it was another hour before the Chinese player Jinlong Hu busted out for $529,029 as pre-flop aggression went very wrong. Kenjic raised from the button, and Hu shoved for around eight big blinds with king-ten from the small blind. He was called on a re-raise by Aido holding pocket kings. Kenjic got out of the way before a board of A-Q-7-7-3 sent the China-based player Hu to the rail. 

Out in fifth place was Daniel Petersen, who cashed for $685,508 after another thirty minute period free of eliminations was ended in dramatic fashion. All-in with ace-six, Petersen lost to Aido’s ace-ten. A flop of 5-3-2 gave the Danish player hope of a reprieve as the gutshot straight draw was out there, coupled with three sixes. Seven outs missed once on the ace turn, however, before a king on the river gave Aido the big stack and sent Petersen home.

Aido Shoots for the Gold

Down to four, Aido’s lead was a sizeable one, with the Spanish poker legend holding 72.5 million at blinds of 600,000/1,200,000. Kenjic was on 28.4 million, Emelyanov sat on 23.8 million and Mitchell was the furthest behind, on just 16.7 million. From the point where Petersen was busted, it took just under 10 minutes to wrap up the entire event and award over $5 million in prize money and a WSOP bracelet.

Mitchell called off his stack with ace-five of spades but was behind Aido with ace-ten. A flop of K-9-7 kept it that way, while a jack on the turn and queen on the river gave Aido a Broadway straight and sent Mitchell to the virtual rail for $888,436 in fourth place. 

Soon, play was heads-up. Emelyanov shoved with ace-ten and was at risk when called by the other short stacked Kenjic with ace-queen of spades. The flop was unfavorable to Emelyanov as it came K-8-3, and a nine on turn and river changed nothing, sending the Russian home in third place for $1,151,60. 

Heads-up, Aido had 90 million to Kenjic’ 50 million and it was a decisive shove that won the Spanish player the gold. On just the third hand of heads up play, on a board showing A-T-6-J-5 with 3 spades, Aido shoved with the bigger stack and ace-ten. Kenjic had a tough fold to make with jack-nine including the nine of spades blocker to go along with second pair. His hand proved too strong to lay down and with no time left on his clock to fully think through the decision. 

It was all over when Kenjic called giving Sergio Aido the WSOP bracelet and $1.9 million, his second bracelet after the $2 million he won in the summer when he took down the $50,000 High Roller NLHE event, beating Chance Kornuth to the gold. 

“I wanna live in Sergio’s shoes just for today!” said Negreanu after the event. “It couldn’t have run better for him. He’s a great player to. That last hand, the time pressure issue was real. Time management is a real thing here in these GG events!” 

Here’s how it all worked out

Sergio Aido came into play with just 15 big blinds and a dream. He left it with $1.9 million and the WSOP Online bracelet in the GGMillion$ – what a result! 

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1st	Sergio Aido	Spain	$1,935,575
2nd	Jovan Kenjic	Serbia	$1,492,885
3rd	Roman Emelyanov	Russia	$1,151,601
4th	James Mitchell	Ireland	$888,436
5th	Daniel Petersen	Denmark	$685,508
6th	Jinlong Hu	China	$529,029
7th	Christopher Nguyen	Germany	$408,366
8th	Aleks Ponakovs	Latvia	$315,324
9th	Aliaksei Boika	Belarus	$243,577

Dominykas Dominates GGMillion$ for $339,000 – October 16, 2024

There was a dramatic climax in this week’s GGMillion$ tournament on GGPoker, as Lithuanian Dominykas Mikolaitis came from starting in eighth position to win $339,445 and became the latest weekly champion. On a night of drama where host Jeff Gross and special guest Nick Petrangelo were often stunned by superb play, the chip leader Maksim Vaskresenski blew a 6:1 chip lead heads-up to finish in second.

Online Legends Gather for Final

As the final table of nine returned to the GGPoker felt, Polish player Maksim Vaskresenski was the chip leader on 106 big blinds. The well-known Portuguese player Joao Vieira (81BB) and Moldovan Pavel Plesuv (66BB) were Vaskresenski’s closest challengers, with the chip leader’s fellow Polish player Wiktor Malinowski (42BB) and Germany’s Alexander Tkatschew (41BB) in hot pursuit too. 

Also in the hunt for glory but lower in chips were Swedish player Sven Andersson (36BB), Spanish player Sergio Aido (26BB), Lithuania’s Dominykas Mikolaitis (25BB), and Portugal’s Rui Ferreira (14BB), though Ferreira was very short and needed early positive movement to get back into the battle. 

It wasn’t Ferreira who busted first, as the Polish duo got mixed up with each other only to see the shorter stack of the two online legends bust in ninth place for $48,492. All-in with ace-five of spades pre-flop, the chip leader Vaskresenski was snap-called by his Polish countryman Wiktor Malinowski with pocket kings. A flop of A-8-6 set the chip leader into the lead, and a deuce on the turn followed by a queen on the river to send Malinowski home first, with his native friend reaping the reward.

Mystery Hand Madness

Vaskresenski led at that stage, but as play continued, he was overtaken by the rise of Joao Vieira, the Portuguese professional leaping to the top of the leaderboard after a series of small wins and a full double up

with aces winning over ace-king. Pavel Plesuv was unlucky to leave the event in eighth place for $61,845 when he was all-in with the ace-king of clubs against Vaskresenski’s ace-king offsuit with the ace of spades. Four more spades followed on the board to take out the Moldovan as two other players showed folded spades too. 

Next came the hand of the night, as the board showed 7-3-2-4-9 with no flushes. Vaskresenski made a pot-sized bet on the river with pocket threes, only for Joao Vieira to raise half his stack, big enough to commit Vaskresenski if he chose to call. 

“This is the most exciting Mystery Hand we’ve had. The most action, the chip leader versus second, a set… what does he have?” asked Jeff Gross. Petrangelo thought there were a lot of ace-deuce, ace-three or ace-four combos that led to a bluff. Vaskresenski made an excruciating fold before we were shown the hand, ace-five, for a turned straight. The hand gave Joao Vieira a big lead, but Vaskeresenki had made a brilliant lay-down, losing the lead but saving millions of chips, and his tournament life, in the process. 

“That was a crazy hand,” said Gross. “That’s where I feel safer in the booth sometimes!”

Seven players remained, but not for very long. Sven Andersson shoved pre-flop with ace-four and Rui Ferreira made the correct decision to call with a smaller stack while holding ace-king. A flop of T-8-3 kept the Portuguese player in line for a sizeable double-up, but a four on the turn changed all that. Suddenly, Ferreira was looking for a king to survive. It didn’t come, as an ace confirmed the Portuguese player’s exit for a score of $78,876.

Flush Over Flush

The epic nature of this week’s GGMillion$ was there for all to see, and for the players taking part, it must have been exhilarating. Sven Andersson had previously enjoyed some good fortune, but his exit still came in sixth place for $100,596. All-in when down to just over a single big blind with ace-seven, he lost to Joao Vieira’s queen-deuce with a spade after a cruel board of A-5-3-J-3 had four spades on it, along with the Swede’s top pair.

A vital pot occurred soon after when Dominykas Mikolaitis had the ace-ten of spades while Joao Vieira had the king-queen in the same suit. With three spades on the board by the river, the Portuguese players’ bet was raised by the Lithuanian, who got a full double-up to a massive stack of 11.2 million chips with the other three players scratching half of his chips between them. 

The very next hand saw the German player, Alexander Tkatschew go to the rails. All-in with king-queen offsuit, he was crushed by Vieira’s pocket kings. The board came down J-6-2-Q-7 to send the German home with $128,298. 

Four was then reduced to three just 25 minutes later. Vieira, playing from the short stack with less than 10 blinds, shoved with ace-four of spades but ran into the pocket queens of Vaskeresenki. The flop came down J-8-2 with 2 spades to give Vieira real hope. Unfortunately for Vieira, the board ran out 8-4 to send the chip leader from just thirty minutes earlier out in fourth for a score of $163,628.

The Great Switch

With three players remaining, Mikolaitis had the lead, but it had been trimmed slightly. The Lithuanian had 8.3 million chips, with Vaskeresenki on 5.6m and Sergio Aido on 3.4m. That all changed, however, when Vaskeresenki made a flush on a board of K-T-6-9-J when the final card joined two spades on the flop to match the Polish player’s seven-nine of the suit. Mikolaitis made a poor choice and shoved on the river with just ace-high, with the ace being in spades. 

That pot gave the Polish player as big a lead as Mikolaitis had when four-handed play started. Shortly after, Aido busted to the chip leader, raising with ace-queen then calling off his stack when Vaskresenski shoved with pocket sixes. Across the board, Vaskresenski made quads when it ran out 6-5-3-6-3, and play went heads-up with the Polish player holding a better than 6:1 chip lead. 

The final duel was no epic battle, but it switched once more before the title was taken. Mikolaitis got himself level over a series of small pots before the biggest pot of the night in terms of momentum. Vaskresenski only really had himself to blame, holding Q-J off and bluffing repeatedly on a board showing A-5-3-4-9 as Mikolaitis called every street with pocket tens to take the massive 6:1 chip lead himself. 

Shortly after the reversal of stacks, Vaskresenski shoved with king-seven of hearts and Mikolaitis snapped it off with ace-nine, including the nine of hearts. A flop of A-K-J paired both players but kept Mikolatis in the lead and only two cards from victory. A deuce on the turn and an eight on the river ended the event in Mikolaitis’ favor as Lithuania prevailed at odds of 14.08 on the GGPoker website. Only the short-stacked Rui Ferreira had been longer odds to win, but it was a brilliant win for Mikolaitis, who used his extensive online poker skills to book a superb win in style. 

Watch all the action in the company of regular host Jeff Gross and co-commentator Nick Petrangelo right here:

 

 

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1st	Dominykas Mikolaitis	Lithuania	$339,445
2nd	Maksim Vaskresenski	Poland	$266,153
3rd	Sergio Aido	Spain	$208,687
4th	Joao Vieira	Portugal	$163,628
5th	Alexander Tkatschew	Germany	$128,298
6th	Sven Andersson	Sweden	$100,596
7th	Rui Ferreira	Portugal	$78,876
8th	Pavel Plesuv	Moldova	$61,845
9th	Wiktor Malinowski	Poland	$48,492

Kravchenko the King in GGMillion$ Victory for Bumper $1.5m Prize – October 30, 2024

A rollercoaster ride played out on GGPoker as the Belarussian player ‘D Kravchenko’ won the top prize of $1,486,518 in the pre-Hallowe’en edition of the GGMillion$. There were scares for each player at the felt as the overwhelming chip leader crashed and burned, the short stack rose from the dead, and a winner appeared like a ghost from nowhere to steal victory away into the night. 

Yin and Yan

A bumper prize pool of $9.28 million was on the line this week in the $10,300-entry GGMillion$, and it was the Russian player Vladimir Minko who began with a big lead, having piled up 105 big blinds before the start of the final table. The closest competitor to Minko was the Belarussian GGMillion$ regular Ilya Anatski, who had just 62 big blinds. Polish player Maksim Vaskresenski (47BB) was a bit further back, while veteran player David Yan (34BB) from New Zealand was also in the hunt. 

Also chasing glory were Spain’s Sergio Aido (32BB), Belarussian D Kravchenko (29BB), and Vietnamese player ‘Im sooo lucky’ (27BB). Canadian Lucas Greenwood (19BB) and Israels Ravid Garbi (15BB) were both sitting short and were the only two players starting with less than 20 big blinds.

Despite heading into the action fourth in chips, there was an early exit for David Yan, whose experience counted for nothing when he was all-in for four big blinds with queen-ten against Minko’s ace-king on a flop of 8-7-2. Turning a nine, Yan was open-ended but missed all his outs when a second nine fell on the river, and he exited in ninth for a score of $176,859.

Greenwood Goes as Garbi Dominates

With eight left, Lucas Greenwood was quickly taken care of by Ravid Garbi. The Israeli player had the dominating hand as his ace-queen got the better of Greenwood’s ace-ten when all the chips were in the middle pre-flop. A flop of 6-5-3- was followed by a queen on the turn. With no straight or flush outs, it was already the end for Greenwood as he busted in eighth place for $228,870. 

The short stack at the start of play, Garbi was now riding high as he took over the outright lead with the elimination of Sergio Aido in seventh place for $296,319. Aido had his chips all in with a flush on a board of K-5-4-6-4 with three hearts, holding jack-seven of the same suit. His flush was no good against Garbi’s ace-four of hearts as the Israeli’s nut flush sent the Spaniard to the rail. 

A trio of takedowns was complete for Garbi when he got the Belarussian Ilya Anatski in sixth place for $383,790. Anatski is one of the most consistent performers on GGPoker, and his record at final tables in this event series is the envy of virtually everybody, so his exit was valuable to Garbi in more ways than simply taking his chips. The stacks went in on a board showing Q-J-T-5 as Garbi raise-shoved with the flopped straight, holding eight-nine. Anatski thought for some time with pocket aces but could not resist the call button with his overpair and gutshot draw and committed his stack. No king came as a six on the river ended the Belarussian’s event and saw Garbi take a commanding lead into the second half of the final day.

Premium Hands Pay Off

As the final five began play, less than 1.5 hours of action had played out. Unbeknownst to either the players or hosts, there was only 80 minutes left to come as play sped up in the latter stages as everyone chased Garbi. The Israeli’s stack of 39.5 million was incredible, particularly given he started play with just 15 bigs. Garbi was sitting on the throne, looking down on his rivals, with even his closest challenger, Vladimir Minko (18.9m), having less than half of his stack.

Despite being Garbi’s main rival, Minko went from hero to zero across a disastrous half hour at the virtual felt. Eventually, all-in with ace-queen, he lost a flip and busted as Kravchenko scored the win with pocket eights, a board of T-7-5-4-J sending the overnight chip leader home with $497,226. 

Soon, four became three, as ‘Im sooo lucky’ did not live up to their name. All-in with ace-jack, that excellent pre-flop hand was no match for Kravchenko’s pocket queens. Kravchenko easily survived through the K-7-2-4-K board to send home the Vietnamese player for $644,334.

Heading To Heads Up

Kravchenko was on a roll and had the stack to call off Ravid Garbi’s shove with ace-queen while holding just the seven-deuce of clubs. Once again, fortune favored the chip leader as the flop of K-6-6, and a turn of a three was followed by a devastating seven on the river to send Garbi home with $835,110, a fine return on a starting stack that was the lowest of the lot, but a disappointing last hand.

Heads-up, Kravchenko had slightly better than a 4:1 chip lead and almost immediately made it count for the outright win. A flop of A-T-7 hit Maksim Vaskresenski’s ace-deuce hard, but Kravchenko held ten-seven for a perfectly disguised two pair. After a king on the turn and five on the river, Vaskresenski shoved 16 million into a pot of 10 million, and Kravchenko snap-called to victory, leaving Vaskresenski to collect $1,082,516. 

Watch all the action with host Jeff Gross and guest co-commentator Ben Heath, himself a high-roller boss, right here on the GGPoker YouTube channel:

 

 

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1st	D Kravchenko	Belarus	$1,486,518
2nd	Maksim Vaskresenski	Poland	$1,082,516
3rd	Ravid Garbi	Israel	$835,110
4th	Im sooo lucky	Vietnam	$644,334
5th	Vladimir Minko	Russia	$497,226
6th	Ilya Anatski	Belarus	$383,790
7th	Sergio Aido	Spain	$296,319
8th	Lucas Greenwood	Canada	$228,870
9th	David Yan	New Zealand	$176,859

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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.

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Edited by Shawn A.