Mike “SirWatts” Watson scooped the GGMillion$ SHR for the first time last night, taking him to within $50k of the $10million GGPoker earnings mark.
With 192 entrants and the easy maths of a $10k buy-in for the weekly SHR on GGPoker, there was a $1,920,000 prizepool to be shared out among the top 20 finishers.
Adrian Mateos made the paid spots, out in 18th place for $25,495, while Michael Addamo, Dominik Nitsche, Iván Deyra, and Volodymyr Palamar also cashed.
By the time Sunday night was complete there were nine final table contenders set to return on Tuesday evening for the big finale, $50k already locked up and $390k up top for the winner.
Leading the chip counts was Roman “RRomashka” Emelyanov, one of three Russians at the final table, though Minko and Borovkov were displaying Mexican and Argentine flags respectively. Bringing up the rear, US player Leo Taffe flying the Canadian flag.
Cry me a River
Borovkov was first to depart, jamming top two pair into the nut flush draw of compatriot Emelyanov, the river bringing the required spade to eject Borovkov in 9th spot.
It took an hour to find our next bustout, short-stacked Taffe ahead pre-flop and all the way to the river before Chris Nguyen spiked a killer king. Incredibly, Nguyen and the river accounted for Sturm as well…
Sturm: 7♦ 7♣
Nguyen: A♦ K♠
Flop: 2♣ 5♦ 10♦
Turn: 4♣
With most eyes watching out for the ace or king, it was a backdoor wheel that sent Sturm tumbling out in 7th spot…
River: 3♣
Alexandros Theologis, in the GGPoker commentary booth alongside host Jeff Gross had missed it too, wondering on the livestream where Sturm had disappeared to!
Relative unknown Moldovan Ilia Cabaniuc turned his deep run into 6th place and $115,656, tag-teamed out by Nguyen and Roman “RRomashka” Emelyanov.
Big pairs…
Andrew Wilson’s bust out broke a long 5-handed truce, getting his last 10 or so bigs in with pocket 9s only to find Minko to his left with a bigger pair…
With the blinds rising along with the paydays, Nguyen found his 4-bet shove snapped off by Watson…
Nguyen: A♦ 10d:
Watson: K♠ K♥
Flop: 4♣ 3♥ J♦
Turn: K♣
The turn increased Nguyen’s outs from 3 to 4, from an ace to a queen, but the river bricked…
River: 5♣
…and he had to settle for 4th place and $188,123.
…and bigger pairs
While “RRomashka” quickly found himself as the short stack, he could only watch on in amazement as his two rivals clashed with the biggest hands poker has to offer…
The runout bricked and Minko’s race was run while “RRomashka” had just made $66k as a spectator in the biggest clash of the night.
Heads-up for the win
Watson brought a 10:1 chip lead into the finale and it only lasted a few hands, the river once again providing the drama…
RRomashka: 9♥ 9♣
Watson: K♥ 2♥
Flop: 2♦ 5♦ 7h:
Turn: Q♦
River: K♣
…and with that, Mike “Sir Watts” Watson had just won what appears to be his first-ever GGMillion$ title (despite some confusion about him apparently having two previous wins to his name).
Final table results
1 | Mike Watson | Canada | $390,260 |
2 | RRomashka | Russia | $305,997 |
3 | Vladimir Minko | Russia | $239,927 |
4 | Chris Nguyen | Germany | $188,123 |
5 | Andrew Wilson | England | $147,504 |
6 | Ilia Cabaniuc | Moldova | $115,656 |
7 | Leon Sturm | Germany | $90,684 |
8 | Leo Taffe | USA | $71,103 |
9 | Aleks Borovkov | Russia | $55,751 |
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