Ponakovs Wins $321K and Denies Lefrancois GGPoker GGMillion$ Title

Dozens of the world’s top online poker players descended on GGPoker over the weekend and bought into the GGMillion$ High Rollers event. Some 158 entries of $10,300 created a $1,580,000 prize pool that the top 20 finishers shared, and it was Aleksejs Ponakovs who came out on top, leaving a trail of superstars in his wake.

A min-cash weighed in at $20,980, with the likes of Barak Wisbrod and Leon Sturm helping themselves to that particular sum. Pavel Plesuv and Christoph Vogelsang also cashed but missed out on a final table appearance, with Cypriot “spimodactyl” bursting the final table bubble after crashing out in tenth.

$10,300 GGMillion$ Final Table Results

The nine-handed final table was a star-studded affair, as expected from a $10,300 buy-in online tournament. It became less so when Andrey Kotelnikov bowed out in ninth, a finish worth $45,878.

“GREPoker” from the UAE fell in eighth for $58,212 before Canadian “we_are_cookin” had their goose cooked; their GGPoker account swelled by $74,625 shortly after busting in seventh.

The final six players would not have looked out of place in a tournament commanding five times the buy-in of the GGMillion$. Those six became five after Austrian star Daniel Smiljkovic ran out of steam. Smiljkovic crashed out in sixth for a $95,175 addition to his bankroll.

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All five surviving players were now guaranteed a six-figure haul, and it was Felipe Boianovsky who was the first to collect one. The 2023 PokerStars SCOOP Main Event champion saw his latest deep run end in fifth place, which awarded an impressive $121,384 to the Brazilian.

Ukraine’s Igor Popyk turned his $10,300 investment into $154,809 with a fourth-place finish, which left a trio of poker Goliath’s vying for the title.

Artur Martirosian was cut down in third for $197,440, leaving Pascal Lefrancois heads-up against Latvia’s finest, Ponakovs. This tournament does not allow deals, so the one-on-one battle continued as planned despite a near $70,000 difference in the payouts.

Ponakovs came out on top and received the $321,152 top prize, denying Lefrancois another high-stakes victory. The $251,810 Lefrancois received for his second place finish will go some way to numbing the pain of falling at the final hurdle.

Winter Giveaway Series Grand Finale Ends in a Heads-Up Chop

Ponakovs was not the only GGPoker player to see over $300,000 land in their account. The top two finishers in the $250 Winter Giveaway Grand Finale followed in his footsteps. The multi-day tournament attracted 18,958 players who fought tooth and nail for a slice of the $4,510,340 prize pool, which GGPoker added $150,000 to.

Six of the nine finalists saw $100,000+ prizes land in their accounts. “Kanme11” ($46,907), “GNboy” ($60,818), and Benjamin Miner ($78,859) missed out on a six-figure haul, but it is unlikely there were too upset considering the sums they were awarded.

“Wizard Of Aus” was the first recipient of a $100,000 prize. They netted $102,255 for their sixth-place finish. “PokerLifexd” and “gzlucky” joined the list of busted players, receiving $132,596 and $171,944, respectively.

The elimination of “belatheboss” in third, good for $222,971, left “Zadni venzi” of Russia heads-up against New Zealand’s Graeme Putt. The last-standing duo struck a deal that saw “Zadni zvenzi” become the tournament’s champion and receive $338,620, with Putt walking away with $325,621.

$250 Winter Giveaway Grand Finale Final Table Results

*reflects a heads-up deal

GGPoker’s attention now turns to the Ace Poker League (ACL), featuring 27 trophy events and red envelope cash drops between January 12 and February 2. What better way to celebrate the Lunar New Year?

Matthew Pitt hails from Leeds, West Yorkshire, in the United Kingdom, and has worked in the poker industry since 2008, and worked for PokerNews since 2010. In September 2010, he became the editor of PokerNews. Matthew stepped away from live reporting duties in 2015, and now concentrates on his role of Senior Editor for the PokerNews.