Arsenii Malinov’s decision to buy into a $2,500 satellite for the super-sized $25,500 Super MILLION$ event is one of the best he’s made in his career because it resulted in a $661,743 prize winging its way to his GGPoker account.
This week’s Super MILLION$, the 38th such tournament, saw its buy-in increased to $25,500 from its standard $10,300. The chunkier buy-in resulted in a guarantee boost, with that guarantee blown out of the water when the entrants created a $2,850,000 prize pool. More than $2.5 million of that sum was awarded at the final table. Here is how that final table went down.
Super MILLION$ Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenii Malinov | Russia | $661,743 |
| 2 | Seth Davies | Canada | $503,914 |
| 3 | REPTAR | Germany | $383,728 |
| 4 | Aleks Ponakovs | Latvia | $292,207 |
| 5 | Joao Vieira | Luxembourg | $222,514 |
| 6 | Matthias Eibinger | Austria | $169,443 |
| 7 | Jason Koon | Canada | $129,030 |
| 8 | David Coleman | Canada | $98,256 |
| 9 | Daniel Dvoress | Canada | $74,821 |
It was no surprise when Daniel Dvoress busted in ninth-place. Dvoress entered the final table with a seven big blind stack and was desperate for a double-up. Dvoress pinned his hopes, and his last 4.5 big blinds, on pocket fives from under the gun. Arsenii Malinov called and won the pot courtesy of running spades for a flush.
David Coleman became the eighth-place finisher during the 25,000/50,000/6,000a level. Coleman open-shoved for 368,716 chips from the cutoff with ace-four and ran into the dominating ace-ten of Joao Vieira on the button.
Seventh place and the first six-figure prize went to Jason Koon. Koon was left with only 8.5 big blinds when his ace-queen lost to the pocket nines in the hand of Germany’s “REPTAR”. The rest of Koon’s stack went into the middle soon after. Matthias Eibinger made it 144,000 to go from the cutoff with ace-six of hearts, Malinov three-bet to 504,000 from the small blind with jack-five of hearts, and Koon ripped it in for 483,896 in total. Eibinger folded. A five on the flop gifted Malinov the best hand and Koon headed for the showers.
Eibinger’s Timing Is Off
Eibinger was the next player out of the door, busting during the 35,000/70,000/8,500a level. REPTAR started the preflop betting round with a raise to 154,000 before calling when Eibinger pushed all-in for 1,732,794 with king-ten of hearts. Eibinger flopped a flush draw but neither the turn or river came to his rescue.
That hand put REPTAR on top of the chip counts and the German extended their lead by helping themselves to Vieira’s stack. Vieira jammed from the button for 1,521,000 chips with ace-six of diamonds, REPTAR called in the Aleks Ponakovsbig blind with ace-queen, which held. REPTAR now held more than twice the number chips of any of his remaining three opponents.
A Bizarre Hand Busts Ponakovs
The final four became three when Aleks Ponakovs headed for the exits. Ponakovs raised to 480,000, leaving himself only 271,746 chips behind. Seth Davies, the start-of-the-day chip leader, called from the small blind, and Malinov tossed in calling chips from the big blind. The action checked to Ponkovs and he bet 150,000, Davies called, but Malinov was not messing around and he jammed all-in. Only Ponakovs called. It was ace-three for Ponakovs, which gave him a gutshot straight draw, and eight-six for Malinov, which had flopped top pair. Ponakovs improved to a straight on the river but lost to Malinov’s higher straight.
Heads-up was set when REPTAR crashed out in third-place in a cooler of a hand. REPTAR open-shoved for 11 big blinds from the small blind with ace-queen. Unfortunately for him, Davies woke up in the big blind with the powerhouse hand that is pocket kings and made one of the easiest calls of his career. REPTAR flopped a queen but couldn’t find any more outs.
Malinov went into the heads-up battle against Davies with a chip lead of approximately one million chips, or seven big blinds. The pair fought for around 20 minutes before the final hand took place. Blinds were 70,000/140,000/17,500a and Davies limped in with ace-nine. Malinov raised to 560,000 with ace-king and Davies stuck it in his opponent’s eye with a 4,050,530 all-in four-bet, which Malinov called. Davies flopped a nine but Malinov paired his king. There was no drama on the turn or the river, busting Davies in second-place, and leaving Malinov to be crowned the 38th Super MILLION$ champion.
