Dmytry “D Kravchenko” Kravchenko knows exactly when to produce the goods, last night bagging his second GGMillion$ Main Event title. Combined with his win late last year, the twin 7-figure victories in the highstakes online MTT have brought him more than $3million in winnings.
The 1171 entries at $10k per head meant the $10million guarantee was smashed, the easy showing a prizepool of $11,710,000 with two $million+ payouts up top.
By the time Tuesday night’s final table came around, the remaining nine players had secured $200k. Among them, absolute crushers such as Michael Addamo, Joao Vieira, Artur Martirosian, and Ole Schemion.
The livestream as usual saw Jeff Gross joined by a poker luminary in the commentary booth, this week Canadian legend Sam Greenwood calling the action.
Big Slick vs Big Stick
Kravchenko, whose big win last October was followed by scooping the Venom the next week, came in as the short stack. His 20 bigs was enough to be getting on with and that was doubled on the very first hand of play, A♥ Q♦ taking a chunk out of “LALIBERTE’s” stack. That was soon followed by KO’ing Schemion…
Schemion: A♠ K♠
Kravchenko: A♥ A♣
Flop: 10♥ 4♥ 4♣
Turn: 3♣
River: 9♠
Will the real Guy Laliberte please stand up?
Schemion was followed to the rail by “LALIBERTE”, presumably not THE Guy Laliberte of Cirque du Soleil fame, a one-time highstakes cash game player who was considered the biggest whale of all-time. When news of his identity and losses became widely-known, the Canadian basically gave up playing poker.
Back at the final table, Addamo sprang to life when he doubled through Martirosian with kings against 10s and then saw a beautiful flop on the very next hand to extinguish Derzhypilskyi’s Main Event dreams…
The J♥ failed to appear for the Royal Flush and the Ukrainian was out in 7th for $347,276.
The big clashes kept coming thick and fast, Martirosian’s remaining chips going to Kravchenko when A♠ K♠ again failed to improve, this time to Kravchenko’s pocket treys.
Vieira’s turn came next, again big slick running into a hand, this time Malinov’s aces! With so much at stake, it was yet another cooler and the aces held up without even a sweat.
Big Stacks and Small Stacks
Down to just four and with $760,000 locked up, Kravchenko and Addamo had the big stacks while Malinov and Borovkov were at the opposite end of the chip counts.
When Malinov busted in 4th it was yet another brutal affair, Kravchenko raising the button and calling off the shove Russian’s shove. What happened next deserves a picture…
Borovkov’s end was similarly sad, getting his last 15 bigs in good against Kravchenko only to see the flop hit his opponent, leaving us heads-up.
Heads-up No Deal!
The Belarusian had a slight chip lead in a battle that had almost $500k difference on the line, GGPoker having a “no deal” rule in place for the biggest of big events.
A one-hour heads-up battle ensued, Kravchenko at first looking to run away with it until Addamo fought back and even reversed the stacks. Eventually, with stacks almost event, a huge hand decided the destination of the title and $3million…
Addamo: 4♣ A♠
Kravchenko: 5♣ K♣
Flop: 2♣ 3♣ 5♠
It could have played out several ways, but what we got was a 5-bet shove from Kravchenko and instacall from Addamo, the Aussie a 2:1 favourite to hold…
Turn: 3♦
River: 10♣
…but that river had all but secured the title for Kravchenko. Addamo was left with less than 1BB, and although he doubled once, he had to concede on the next hand – his 9th GGMillion$ title will have to wait.
Final results
1 | D Kravchenko | Belarus | $1,751,384 |
2 | Michael Addamo | Australia | $1,279,288 |
3 | Aleks Borovkov | Russia | $985,997 |
4 | Arsenii Malinov | Russia | $759,838 |
5 | Joao Vieira | Portugal | $585,446 |
6 | A Martirosian | Russia | $450,970 |
7 | A Derzhypilskyi | Ukraine | $347,276 |
8 | “LALIBERTE” | Montenegro | $267,317 |
9 | Ole Schemion | Austria | $205,661 |
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