GGMillion$ Won by Benjamin Rolle as Hero Call Takes It Down
This week’s GGPoker GGMillion$ was won by German online poker boss Benjamin Rolle as he conquered a stubborn defense by Pedro Neves in the final duel and won the $310,746 top prize. A thrilling final table with nine great players took place on Tuesday night as stars of the online felt, such as Duco Haven, Alexander Tkatschew, and Vlad Darie, gathered to play for over $1.2 million in final table payouts.
Zobian on Call
This week’s special guest to join regular host Jeff Gross was Aram Zobian. The American, who has won almost $6 million in live earnings, plenty of it for his PokerStake investors, has vast experience online and was a co-commentator throughout, bringing the action to life in spectacular fashion.
Heading into the final table, the last nine of the event were led by Benjamin Rolle. The German player, who has had the lead once in the past few weeks, began on 68 big blinds. He was a little clear of the Portuguese player Pedro Neves (61BB) in second. Behind the top two, Finnish player Casimir Seire (53BB), Dutch regular Duco Haven (46BB), and another seemingly perennial final table performer, the German pro Alexander Tkatschew (40BB), were all close and vying for the best spot in the chasing pack.
Austrian player ‘Golden Seagull’ flew close with 33 big blinds, with Romanian powerhouse Vlad Darie on the same amount, while a second Austrian in Josef Schusteritsch (30BB) and the Ukrainian online boss Andrii Derzhypilsyi (12BB) also in hot pursuit of the leaders.
The first player to lose their seat, which took almost an hour, was the Ukrainian Derzhypilsyi, who took home $42,996 in ninth place. Although he did start off decently and worked up to 6th in chips, he never really managed to get going. Derzhypilsyi found himself very short after calling off just over 10 big blinds pre-flop with ace-jack of spade only to run into the ace-king of Josef Schusteritsch, who he had marginally more chips than. The Austrian doubled through his opponent, who was left with approximately 20% of a big blind which was lost in the next hand, his king-seven offsuit falling to Casimir Seire’s suited queen-seven that flopped a flush.
Three-Way Pot Changes Everything
The next out was Daire, who started in a position to challenge for the GGMillion$ title before plummeting and being knocked out in eighth place for $55,055. Shoving pre-flop from the big blind with king-three offsuit, Darie was snapped off by Duco Haven in the small blind with pocket sevens. A board of 9-7-4-Q-J more than did the job for the Dutchman.
German player Alexander Tkatschew exited next, leaving in seventh place for $70,497. All-in pre-flop with king-ten of clubs, he’d run into not one but two monsters. Schusteritsch had pocket aces in the next seat, and Seire woke up with pocket queens a little further around the table. All three players committed their stacks preflop. The flop came down J-T-4 to keep Schusteritsch in the lead. A king on the turn changed all that, putting Tkatschew within one card of a treble up, with Seire now holding an open-ended straight draw to victory. Tkatschew had the best chance of winning the 4.1 million pot in the middle of the virtual felt, which was known as GGPoker’s automatic odds calculator, which re-figured the odds at the end of each street. The German was a 66% favorite, but it was the 19% shot Schusteritsch who won the pot as a second jack on the river counterfeited the German and decimated Seire’s stack in the process.
Play continued after that seismic hand sent shockwaves around the table. Duco Haven continued to grow his stack throughout the while, and he even managed to shove his way to a pre-flop steal of Ben Rolle’s blind with ace-ten folding to Haven’s pocket sixes. It was another 30 minutes before ‘Golden Seagull’ was all-in pre-flop with ace-ten. He, unfortunately, ran into Schusteritsch’s ace-queen which managed to pair up to take out the Austrian for a score of $90,270.
A Hero Call Ends the Event
The very next hand, with just five players left, Pedro Neves took a huge chunk of Schusteritsch’s chips with pocket jacks ruling over queen-nine. The Austrian was suddenly struggling but was not as short as Casimir Seire. Chips went back and forth for 30 more minutes before Siere committed his stack pre-flop with jacks and was ahead of Rolle’s ace-ten. Schusteritsch had folded ace-nine and regretted it when a board of A-8-4-9-3 played out, giving Rolle a two-outer pair of aces to take out Seire for $115,589.
Rolle had more than 62% of the chips with that pot as he piled up 9.4 million as compared to the three short stacks: Haven (2.1m), Schusteritsch (1.9m), and Neves (1.5m). There was a quick bust-out in fourth place, as Schusteritsch was all-in 3 hands later with ace-jack only to run into the ace-queen of the chip leader Rolle. A board of 5-3-2-T-T sent the Austrian home with $148,009 in fourth place.
Three-handed play lasted just 6 hands as Neves’ ace-nine did battle with Haven’s pocket eights with all the money in pre-flop. A board of A-K-7-7-T paired up the Portuguese player, and he went into heads-up at Haven’s expense. The Dutchman left for a cash of $189,522 in third place.
It had been a rollercoaster final table, but both the final two came into play in the order they began heads-up, with Rolle (9.9m) having an almost 2:1 lead over Neves’ stack of 5.1 million chips. Trip sixes for Neves against Rolle’s pocket kings elicited a full double-up, flipping the power almost as soon as the final duel had begun. Both men held the lead at multiple points, and when the last chips went into the middle, things were very close, as a board of Q-T-5-9-T saw Neves bluff-shove with seven-eight offsuit with three clubs on board. Rolle had a very difficult call with queen-jack offsuit and no clubs in his hand, but the German made the call eventually and, in doing so, became this week’s GGMillion$ champion. A brilliant comeback highlighted his run to secure his second GGMillion$ title on GGPoker.
Watch all the action play out in stunning style with Jeff Gross and Aram Zobian right here on the GGPoker YouTube channel as it happened.
GGMillion$ Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Benjamin Rolle | Germnay | $310,746 |
| 2nd | Pedro Neves | Netherlands | $242,679 |
| 3rd | Duco Haven | Netherlands | $189,522 |
| 4th | Josef Schusteritsch | Austria | $148,009 |
| 5th | Casimir Seire | Finland | $115,589 |
| 6th | ‘Golden Seagull’ | Austria | $90,270 |
| 7th | Alexander Tkatschew | Germany | $70,497 |
| 8th | Vlad Daire | Romania | $55,055 |
| 9th | Andrii Derzhypilsyi | Ukraine | $42,996 |
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.