THE DAILY SCOOP – GGMillion$ Season 2024 Episode 15
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GGMillion$ Won by Mark Radoja for $392,000
This week’s GGPoker GGMillion$ was a bona fide classic. It was won in under three hours after a masterful display of final table poker by the Canadian player Mark Radoja. With players of the caliber of WSOP champions, high roller regulars, and previous GGMillion$ winners, Radoja’s conquering of the bracelet winner Aleks Ponakovs heads-up put the crown on a performance fit for a king.
Brazil Lose Their Star First
This week, regular host Jeff Gross was joined at the mic by Mathias Joelsson, the Swedish professional poker player and streamer known as ‘The CasinoDaddy’. Leading the way into the final eight this week was Chris Brewer, the American playing from Mexico with a stack of 62 big blinds. Second in chips was Mark Radoja (51BB), with Germany’s Alexander Tkatschew (47BB) and Moldovan Pavel Plesuv (46BB) all in close contention.
Into the bottom half of the chipcounts, Czech player Roman Hrabec (37BB), Brazilian Alisson Piekazewicz (37BB), German player Leonard Maue (34BB), and the short stack Aleks Ponakovs (19BB) from Latvia all hope they wouldn’t be the first to leave the action.
As it happened, it was the Brazilian player Alisson Piekazewicz who busted first. Three-bet shoving with ace-king, he flopped a king against the pocket queens of Hrabec after all the chips had gone into the middle pre-flop. Sadly for the South American, a queen on the turn gave the Czech player a set and it was checkmate when an ace on the river ended Piekazewicz’s hopes, his elimination earning him $71,474 for the eighth-place finish.
Brewer Drops Early
Given he came into the action as the chip leader, two-time WSOP bracelet winner Chris Brewer will have been disappointed to crash out in seventh place. Almost an hour had elapsed by the time Brewer, so often a fixture in some of the biggest buy-in poker events in the live arena, committed his chips with ace-queen pre-flop. Roman Hrabec was again flipping and again held with his pair, this time nines. The board of T-6-5-4-8 never really looked like helping Brewer improve and he slid out in seventh for $91,156.
The next player to go was extremely unfortunate to do so. German pro, Leonard Maue three-bet shoved with pocket jacks and was snap-called by his countryman Alexander Tkatschew with pocket kings. The Teutonic battle initially looked to be a simple double-up for the at-risk Tkatschew. A flop of T-8-4 was followed by a three on the turn. But a jack on the river was a sucker punch and took out Tkatschew for $116,258 in sixth, boosting his fellow German in the process.
A blind-on-blind special played out twenty minutes later to reduce the field to four players. Pavel Plesuv shoved all in from the small blind with king-seven and Mark Radoja insta-called from the big blind with pocket queens. A board of Q-T-8-J-T played out as Radoja’s queens full sent the Moldovan home in fifth place for $148,273.
The Final Four
Down to four players, it was the Canadian Mark Radoja who led the way with 8.17 million chips. Trailing him, Maue was closest with 5.47m, with Ponakovs (4.01m) and Hrabec (2.40m) a little further back. Dropping even shorter, Hrabec was down to only four big blinds holding seven-deuce, and on a flop of 7-6-3 got it in good against Radoja’s ace-jack. But a jack on the turn was followed by an innocuous four and all the chips went the Canadian’s way, Hrabec departing for $189,103.
A thrilling pot with three left saw Radoja all but wrap it up. On a board showing K-J-4-K-3, Maue moved with pocket queens only to run into Radoja’s pocket aces, pushing Maue to the rail with a score of $241,177.
Heads-up, Radoja had the advantage and over 75% of the chips, a sizeable lead. That lead continued to grow by the time a flop of J-T-8 provoked Ponakovs to push with ten-nine. Radoja called with queen-eight of spades with two on the flop. The deuce of spades gave him an unassailable flush on the turn. It was a superb win for a dominant Radoja and it earned him a top prize of $392,293.
Watch all the action as it happened in the company of Jeff Gross and Mathias Joelsson right here:
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Mark Radoja | Canada | $392,293 |
| 2nd | Aleks Ponakovs | Latvia | $307,591 |
| 3rd | Leonard Maue | Germany | $241,177 |
| 4th | Roman Hrabec | Czech Republic | $189,103 |
| 5th | Pavel Plesuv | Moldova | $148,114 |
| 6th | Alexander Tkatschew | Germany | $116,258 |
| 7th | Chris Brewer | United States | $91,156 |
| 8th | Alisson Piekazewicz | Brazil | $71,474 |
| 9th | David Peters | Canada | $56,042 |
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.
