THE DAILY SCOOP – GGMillion$ Season 2024 Episode 46
Aces Crushed in Thrilling GGMillion$ Finale
It was a stunning finish to end the poker year on GGPoker. This week’s GGMillion$ tournament saw a top prize of $317,086 won by the overnight chip leader ‘Come2Brazil’ – ironically playing from Canada. Although the chip leader went into the action with a strong advantage in chips, a lot happened between the start and finish to leave everything in doubt right to the conclusion.
Early Exit for Kulev
This week, Jeff Gross was joined in the commentary booth by Mike Sowers, an American who has won over $3.8 million at live poker, to provide insights on the players at the virtual felt. The final nine in the $10,00-entry weekly tournament on GGPoker were led by the Canadian player ‘Come2Brazil’ on 95 big blinds, with a big gap back to British player Andrew Wilson (61BB) in second place.
Others chasing the title included three Russians, with ‘kolayruss1978’ (49BB), Vladimir Minko (40BB) and Aleks Borovkov (22BB) all in pursuit. Borovkov was the short at the final table where everyone started with a decent stack, such as Pablo Silva (44BB), Spain’s Juan Dominguez (40BB), German player Alexander Tkatschew (35BB) and Alex Kulev from Bulgaria (24BB) all hunting down the win.
The first player to lose that hope was Kulev, who three-bet shoved from the cut off for 23 big blinds with pocket sixes only to run into the pocket kings of Wilson in the big blind. No drama came on the board to save the Ireland-based Bulgarian as a J-T-4 flop was followed by a seven on the turn and eight on the river to send Kulev home with $45,298 in ninth place.
Russian Roulette
Wilson seemed to hold whenever he had a pair and soon had another victim. Calling off Tkatschew’s shove, pocket tens held against the German’s king-queen of diamonds, a board of J-5-4-8-5 with only one diamond landing to send Tkatschew home with $57,771 in eighth place. Vladimir Minko wasn’t happy – he’d folded two hearts and missed out on a lucrative flush!
The short stack at the start of play, Borovkov, waited for the right time to move all-in and thought he’d found it with pocket kings in the big blind. Running into Juan Dominguez’s pocket aces under-the-gun was not part of the plan, however, and after a ten-high board fell, the Russian Borovkov was out in seventh for a score of $73,680.
One Russian had departed and another soon followed. All-in for a total stack of just under 12 big blinds with king-jack on a flop of K-J-4, Vladimir Minko’s shove for the second half of his stack was called by Juan Dominguez with ace-queen. A ten on the turn immediately rewarded the Spaniard by making him a Broadway straight and he faded full house outs on the river as a three landed to deliver Minko’s hopes to the rail for a score of $93,970.
It took almost on time for five to become four, as Pablo Silva busted to Andrew Wilson. All-in pre-flop with king-ten offsuit, the Brazilian started and ended his final hand behind Wilson’s ace-nine of clubs as the board landed Q-8-6-2-5 to reduce the field to four and send Silva home with $119,847.
Rockets Sunk at the Death
As the final four raced to the line, it was the Spanish player Dominguez who led with a pile of 6.58 million chips in front of him. The overnight leader ‘Come2Brazil’ was his closest challenger on 4m chips, with Andrew Wilson (3.7m) and ‘kolayruss1978’ (2.07m) a little further behind.
True to the chipcounts, it was the Russian who felt under the most pressure and by the time he shoved for 1.1m chips with jack-ten of diamonds, it was a stack worth just 11 big blinds. Andrew Wilson called with pocket jacks and held with ease, a board of Q-J-2-3-5 leaving the Russian player drawing dead to the river and leaving with $152,850 with fourth place.
Three-handed play saw Andrew Wilson run into two crushing hands to go from second in chips to out in third place for $194,941. First, his ace-five was a complete bluff running into Come2Brazil’s flopped full house, then ace-king was no good against Juan Dominguez’ ace-seven as a board of 9-7-7-4-8 saw the British player lose another massive chunk of his chips. Eventually Wilson lost his last chips with ace-seven to Come2Brazil’s ace-ten after an ace on the flop prompted action.
Heads-up, the Canadian had a slight chip lead with 8.9 million chips to Dominguez’ stack of 7.37m. That lead grew bigger when the Spanish player dropped a few chips on a board where he flopped a flush draw that never came in. Come2Brazil turned top pair and scooped a pot that gave him a near 3:1 chip lead.
The end, when it came, was swift and brutal. The stacks were roughly the same when Dominguez woke up with pocket aces and slow-played the board of T-6-2-Q-6 all the way to the river whereupon he shoved 2.9m chips into a pot of 3.3m. Unhappily for him, the overnight chip leader Come2Brazil had gone all the way to fifth street with six-four and was rewarded with trips to seal a memorable wire-to-wire title.
Watch all the action with Jeff Gross and Mike Sowers as it played out over three thrilling hours on the GGPoker YouTube channel:
GGMillion$ Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | ‘Come2Brazil’ | Canada | $317,086 |
| 2nd | Juan Dominguez | Spain | $248,622 |
| 3rd | Andrew Wilson | United Kingdom | $194,941 |
| 4th | ‘kolayruss1978’ | Russia | $152,850 |
| 5th | Pablo Silva | Brazil | $119,847 |
| 6th | Vladimir Minko | Russia | $93,970 |
| 7th | Aleks Borovkov | Russia | $73,680 |
| 8th | Alexander Tkatschew | Germany | $57,771 |
| 9th | Alex Kulev | Bulgaria | $45,298 |
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.