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Mikita Badziakouski Battles to Victory in Epic – GGMillion$ Season 2026 Episode 3

The weekly $10,000-entry GGMillion$ sorts the great from the very good on GGPoker. This Tuesday’s GGMillion$ featured stars of the online felt from Russia, Spain, Portugal, and Belarus, as players with over $75 million in GGPoker winnings between them did battle at the purple felt in hopes of winning the top prize of $1.75 million. In the end, Mikita Badziakouski proved exactly why he’s one of poker’s true elite as he took down the chip leader with a masterful display of MTT game control.

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Pre-Match Betting Odds

With just nine players remaining, the action was brought to life by the ever-reliable Jeff Gross, ably assisted by the Brazilian GGMillion$ superstar, Rodrigo Selouan. The chip leader going into the action at the final table was the Russian player Nikita Kuznetsov, and with 102 big blinds, it was no surprise to see odds of just 3.2 on offer in the GGPoker client. Behind the leader, Belarusian Mikita Badziakouski, who was our pick for the win, on 78 big blinds and at odds of 3.86.

German players Christopher Puetz (54BB/7.88) and Tobias Eichenseher (23BB/13.56) had very different stacks as they both bid to become the first German winner in 2026. The Portuguese Pedro Neves (36BB), was also a good pick at 8.9. But we loved the 9.9 on offer for one of poker’s modern greats, Adrian Mateos. Starting with 27 big blinds, the Spanish four-time WSOP bracelet winner offered excellent value to add to his GGMillion$ results.

Others in contention this week included Danish great Daniel Petersen (25BB/16.78) and Brazilian ‘gord1sc0’ (22BB/18.56), with the Chilean player, Mario Navarro, taking role of the short stack in the event, on just 12 big blinds. Available at odds of 31.26 in the client, Navarro was an outside bet strictly for believers in a big comeback.

Key Moments from the Felt

A big all-in and call came in the very first hand that led to an unfortunate exit for Brazil’s ‘gord1sc0’ in ninth place for $222,859. Putting all his chips into the middle pre-flop with ace-king offsuit, the Brazilian was against Pedro Neves with the same hand in spades (39:40). Three more spades fell on the flop to leave the Brazilian drawing dead and giving Neves a boost at an important moment.

A bit later, the field was reduced to seven, as the short stack at the start of play, Mario Navarro, 4-bet shoved with ace-jack and was called by Mikita Badziakouski’s ace-king. The flop teased a flush draw and a 2-pair chop, but no help came as Navarro cashed for $287,862 in eighth place. Soon after, another poker legend took his leave, as Adrian Mateos crashed out for a score of $372,158 in seventh place. All-in with ace-queen, he ran into Daniel Petersen’s ace-king in the next seat. Mateos couldn’t catch up on the nine-high board to reduce the field to six.

German player Chris Puetz was the next to leave, falling to the starting chip leader in sixth place for $481,478. Starting the hand as the big blind with Q-6 and just 5 bigs behind, he called the all-in shove from Kuzetsov, holding A-2, from the small blind. The K-Q-7 flop gave hope to the short stack, but that was short-lived as an ace came on the turn. The river offered no further assistance as Puetz went to the rail.

With six players left, two of them were German. By the time play was down to four players, that number was zero. The last remaining German, Tobias Eichenseher, busted next in fifth place for $623,249 when he effectively shove-called with ace-eight only to find out he was dominated by the Belarusian Badziakouski’s ace-queen. No drama came across the community cards, as the Russian Kuznetsov took a commanding lead with 53.8 million chips. His opponents were close to each other, but all in his wake, with Badziakouski (30.4m) ahead of Pedro Neves (26.7m), with Daniel Petersen last on 21.4m.

It was the Danish player who busted next, the victim of a terrible runout from flop to river (2:29:15). All-in pre-flop with ace-jack, Petersen was well ahead of Pedro Neves’ queen-five, especially considering both Kuznetsov and Badziakouski folded queens. The flop was a very safe A-7-6, making Petersen an 89.6% favorite to double-up. A five on the turn only improved Neves’ chances marginally to 88.6% but the last queen in the deck appeared on the river to break Petersen’s heart and send him home in fourth place with $807,101.

A pre-flop raising war between Kuznetsov and Badziakouski ended with the latter’s ace-king forcing a fold from the Russian’s nine-three. That hand switched the momentum i favor of the Belarusian, who took over as the chip leader. Finding himself as the short stack some hands later, Pedro Neves’s shove with ace-five was called off by Badziakouski with king-six. The board ran out J-J-6-2-2 to send the Portuguese player home with $1,045,529 in third. 

Heads-up, Badziakouski held the chip lead, with 90.6m playing Kuznetsov’s 41.8m. Sitting better than 2:1, and the earlier pre-flop skirmish had made the battle more difficult for Kuznetsov. The Russian eventually found himself as a 4:1 underdog. His final all-in move with king-jack was called by Badziakouski holding ace-ten. (3:30:30) The flop was a K-9-3 miracle for Kuznetsov, and the ten made no difference on the turn. But an ace on the river handed the pot and victory to Badziakouski as a stunning runner-runner ending put the cap on a thrilling tournament in the most appropriate way.

This Week’s GGMillion$ Results – January 27th, 2026

A brilliant ending to this week’s GGMillion$ action saw two runner-runner hands late on decide the drama. That meant a deep run but no victory for the overnight Russian leader, Kuznetsov, as Mikita Badziakouoski stormed through to take the top prize of $1.75 million, one of the biggest GGMillion$ top prizes ever and the largest so far in 2026. 

Other big names were unable to get going, with Adrian Mateos stuck on 25 big blinds or less for his entire final table. Portuguese player Pedro Neves deserves a lot of credit; he timed his attacks well and laddered all the way to a third-place score of $1.04m, not much less than the $1.35 million that Kuznetsov won as runner-up. In the end, however, the cards deserted Neves, and he missed out on the heads-up challenge.

Here are all of this week’s winners in the third GGMillion$ final table of the year.

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1st	Mikita Badziakouski	Belarus	$1,755,815
2nd	Nikita Kuznetsov	Russia	$1,35,732
3rd	Pedro Neves	Portugal	$1,045,529
4th	Daniel Petersen	Denmark	$807,101
5th	Tobias Eichenseher	Germany	$623,249
6th	Christopher Puetz	Germany	$481,478
7th	Adrian Mateos	Spain	$372,158
8th	Mario Navarro	Chile	$287,862
9th	‘gord1sc0’	Brazil	$222,859

Did Experience Force Victory for Badziakouski?

Over the course of a fun final table this week, our pick came through every small fight along the way with his nose unbloodied, as Mikita Badziakouski surged to victory in one of the larger GGMillion$ finals in recent memory. It certainly wasn’t an easy win for him, but did his eventual heads-up opponent make it easier for him? 

The chip leader, Russian player Nikita Kuznetsov, deserved to run deep after exerting pressure in the early stages, dominating opponents on numerous occasions and utilising his hand strength… until he didn’t. One massive bluff when three-handed saw him try to bully Badziakouski. The Russian only held nine-three, but the bets kept coming until he was forced into a fold to a shove. Was it naivete from a player no one could name a novice? Perhaps. It could also be that kind of raising war that takes place between two players who know each other’s games very well and are deliberately playing differently in an attempt to usurp the other. Whatever the reason, Kuznetsov never recovered his lead through the remainder of the event and, as a result, may revise his strategy should the two men meet again heads-up. 

You can watch all the action from this week’s GGMillion$ final table in the company of Jeff Gross and Rodrigo Selouan right here:

 

2026 Week 2                                          2026 Week 4

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.