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Giya Gets Debut GGMillion$ Title in Style – GGMillion$ Season 2026 Episode 2

This week’s GGMillion$ saw a $2,530,000 prize pool, and Johan Guilbert, a.k.a. ‘YoHViral’, in the commentary booth alongside the returning Jeff Gross. It was a blockbuster event on GGPoker’s YouTube channel, featuring one of the closest leaderboards in recent months to start. At the end of a passionately fought poker game, it was ‘Giya’ who won, taking down the starting chip leader with a superb display of short field play.

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Pre-Match Betting Odds

When play began, it was the Swedish player Simon Mattsson who started the final table with the biggest stack, 92 big blinds. As a result, he was the red-hot favorite to win at odds of 2.84 in the GGPoker client, with Russian player ‘Giya’ second favorite at 4.44 on 86 big blinds. There was a small gap back to the Argentina-based Russian, Ilia Streltsov, (77BB), putting him at 5.16 to win. 

Behind the leaders, the odds were spread out and great value for a chasing pack winner. Austrian ‘sOOnShine’ started with 30 big blinds at odds of 14.08, but we chose Estonian GGMillion$ regular Ottomar Ladva as our pick to win with 26 big blinds at odds of 10.7. Behind him, the super-consistent live tournament Bulgarian Fahredin Mustafov was also good value, starting with 20 bigs at odds of 14.6. 

The three shortest stacks all had less than 20 big blinds to play with, and there wasn’t much to choose between Slovakian ‘bzvz’ (17BB/20.8), Croatia’s Goran Mandic (16BB/23.26), or the German player Simon Beckmann (12BB/22.84), who had all the experience but the shortest stack of all to start with.

Key Moments from the Felt

No sooner had the play begun than we saw an elimination. Beckmann thought he’d found the perfect moment to raise it up with pocket tens and four-bet shoved with his pocket pair. Sadly for him, he had done so against ‘Giya’ who had picked up pocket aces. The Russian snap-called and held through the jack-high board, sending Beckmann home with $61,662 in ninth place.

Players were busting in order of stacks, with Goran Mandic the next to bow out. He got all the chips in before the flop with jack-ten, but lost to Simon Mattsson’s suited queen-five. The Croatian’s departure for $79,965 in eighth was followed by the order changing slightly when ‘sOOnShine’ departed in seventh for $103,702. All-in with king-ten on the flop of T-8-4, having put 90% of his stack into the middle pre-flop, ‘Giya’ was priced in to call with ace-seven. The six on the turn opened up straight outs, but he didn’t need them, the Russian hitting an ace on the river to send play six-handed in what was shaping up to be one of the fastest final tables in history. 

Six became five just as quickly, as a massive cooler played out (1:14:10). Ilia Streltsov was all-in pre-flop with the third-best pre-flop hand in poker, pocket queens. Unfortunately, he ran into the pocket kings of Simon Mattsson, which matched the suits of Streltsov’s ladies. There was no reprieve on the flop, a spread of J-9-5 landing to keep the Swede ahead. A king on the turn gave Mattsson a set, but it provided the chance of one of four tens coming to fulfil a miraculous straight. Unhappily for Streltsov, that didn’t happen, and he bowed out for a result worth $134,485. 

Soon after, Slovakia’s ‘bzvz’ busted in fifth for $174,406. All-in pre-flop with ace-ten, he ran into Fahredin Mustafov’s ace-jack, and the Bulgarian’s hand held through flop, turn, and river. That left the Slovakian with scraps that went in the next hand, his pocket fives losing to Giya’s queen-ten when a queen landed on the flop, and improved to a flush, going runner-runner to the river. 

Ottomar Ladva had already doubled up through Simon Mattsson when he saw another opportunity to do so with ace-jack of diamonds. Moving half of his stack in pre-flop for 19 big blinds, he then called off Mattsson’s shove and got the bad news as the Swede had woken up again with pocket aces (1:45:10). A clean board of Q-8-6-6-3 played out, and the Estonian cashed for $226,176 in fourth place. 

It was another 25 minutes before play went heads-up, as the Bulgarian Fahredin Mustafov lost with the better hand (2:20:30). All-in pre-flop with ace-four, he couldn’t hold against the queen-jack belonging to ‘Giya’, and the big stack got lucky when a jack on the flop and an unfulfilled flush draw meant Mustafov busted for $293,314. 

The top two going into the final table were the heads-up opponents, but the roles had been reversed from the start, with Simon Mattsson no longer the chip leader. The Swede started with 7.7 million chips, less than half of the 19.0 million belonging to ‘Giya’, as the Russian would soon rubber-stamp his victory. On a board showing 7-7-6-T-6, ‘Giya’ bet 3.4m into a pot of 2.85m with jack-seven. Simon Mattsson held pocket kings, and with GTO Wizard telling him to call 94% of the time and only fold 6% of the time, the Swede called, losing more than half of his stack. On the next hand, queen-nine lost to three-four as a three landed on the flop and nothing came to help the Swedish player, with another three on the river ending the event in the Russian’s favor. 

This Week’s GGMillion$ Results – January 13th, 2026

With stirring fightbacks, stunning use of chips, and some outstanding short stack play, this week’s GGMillion$ was one for the purists, where every decision mattered. ‘Giya’ got the job done, winning the top prize of $493,294, but Simon Mattsson deserves a lot of credit too, for one of the best chip leader showings in recent weeks. 

“It’s in the books, my man!” said Johan, celebrating ‘Giya’s victory.

“You picked him from the start.” Jeff admitted. “You brought the energy!” 

Our pick for the top Ottomar Ladva wasn’t able to see it through, and both he and Fahredin Mustafov can count themselves unlucky that after they brilliantly played their way back into contention, fortune deserted them and they ran into monsters. Both men will be pleased to have improved their result from their starting position. 

Here’s how everyone finished on the leaderboard at this week’s GGMillion$ final table:

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1st	‘Giya’	Russia	$493,294
2nd	Simon Mattsson	Sweden	$380,381
3rd	Fahredin Mustafov	Bulgaria	$293,314
4th	Otomar Ladva	Estonia	$226,176
5th	‘bzvz’	Slovakia	$174,406
6th	Ilia Streltsov	Russia	$134,485
7th	‘sOOnShine’	Austria	$103,702
8th	Goran Mandic	Croatia	$79,965
9th	Simon Beckmann	Germany	$61,662

How Did Giya Get Mattsson’s Number?

Value-betting is often discussed in poker strategy, but it seldom could have dominated the final of a GGMillion$ event more. Giya started second in chips but always seemed to make maximum value. Against a player as good as Simon Mattsson, that is crucial. The Swede hit pocket aces in two beautiful spots to dominate the early stages but when four-handed play began, it almost felt like the next stage of the tournament, and Giya stepped up. 

“I put 80% of my coins on Giya and I deserved my win. That dinner will be amazing.” Johan even scrolled through the viewers and fired off $100 to a very lucky GGPoker player on the stream!

Consistently mixing things up and value-betting perfectly, their sense of when to bet and, more vitally, how much to bet was exemplary. Never was this more evident than in the penultimate hand. Getting an overpair to call off two bets on turn and river, where there was first a set, then a full house is tricky. On both the turn and river, ‘Giya’ teased his opponent, and Mattsson sacrificed almost all of his stack when he couldn’t afford to give away any. 

From there, ‘Giya’ had victory virtually sewn up and, although he was lucky to win the final hand, the 20:1 lead he had established was all skill and a masterful demonstration of betting at the right time and with the right amount of chips. 

Watch all the action with Jeff Gross and Johan ‘YoH Viral’ Guilbert right here and see which special poker guest Johan brought along for some of the ride.

2026 Week 1                                          2026 Week 3

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.

* The pre-game pick is the sole opinion of the author. It in no way reflects or affects the outcome of the final table.