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Pocket Aces Twice! Lefrancois Crushes Elite Field With Incredible Heater for $443K Victory!

April 15, 2026 7 min Read

Lefrancois Wins First GGMillion$ After Incredible Heater – GGMillion$ Season 2026 Episode 14

The $10,000-entry GGMillion$ tournament sorts the good from the great on a weekly basis, but this week’s final table was something spectacular. Canadian player Pascal Lefrancois jumped from the middle of the pack to win in stunning fashion, twice having pocket aces when short-handed poker to slay some of the best in the business on his way to victory. 

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Pre-Match Betting Odds

Heading into the action, it was a very familiar name at the top of the chipcounts. Austrian professional Bernhard Binder is more than just one of the regulars at the final table of the weekly $10,000-entry GGMillion$. He’s the 2025 WSOP Paradise Super Main Event champion, an event that earned him $10 million, as well as a Triton Poker Series event winner. Used to seven-figure scores, his stack of 89 big blinds made him a deserved favorite to take home the top prize, and he was available at generous odds of 4.08 in the GGPoker client.

Behind the chip leader was a comparatively new name in Daniel Lakerveld. The Dutch player began on 65 big blinds and was 6.34 to win, longer odds than the final table regular Barak Wisbrod from Israel, who started the final a fair bit behind with 51 big blinds at 5.92. A second Dutch player, Jans Arends, was fourth on the leaderboard (43BB/8.24) and was certainly someone who could do damage with that stack.

A little further back in the field, a player who ran very deep in the 2010 WSOP Main Event, Pascal Lefrancois (41BB/8.82), was well within range of finding glory, while Russian Anton Yakuba (36BB/10.28) represented amazing value. Our pick of the night, if anyone was to stop Bernhard Binder, was the recent WSOP Europe bracelet winner Ole Schemion. The German player started short on just 27 big blinds but could hardly be in better form and was a 10.84 shot to win. Outsiders Tamas Adamszki from Hungary (27BB/13.26) and ‘Papo MC’ – Alejandro Lococo – from Argentina (18BB/17.48) were hoping a great start would fire them back into the match.

Key Moments from the Felt

‘PapoMC’ a.k.a. Alejandro Lococo never really got going at the final table and, as it happened, was the first to bust, claiming $55,402 in ninth place. (41:00) All-in on the second hand of the night after the turn with ace-seven of diamonds, he needed to improve against the pocket eights of Bernhard Binder with the board showing 9-8-5-2 with two diamonds left him needing a miracle. Despite the GGPoker in-client hand odds display showing us the Argentinian had a 22.73% chance of winning the hand, the diamond that came on fifth street sent Lococo to the virtual rail. That’s because it was the last eight in the deck. The phrase ‘Death by Quads’ took shape as the table and commentators alike reacted with astonishment.

The Hungarian player Tamas Adamszki cashed next for $71,848 in eighth place. All-in with queen-jack on a board showing Q-T-6-5-4, he was wrong to call off his stack, as Jans Arends had shoved the river with a pair of aces. Seven became six soon after, as a shock exit propelled the usually proficient Barak Wisbrod from the running in seventh place for $93,175. (1:18:30) All-in with pocket nines on a flop of 8-5-4, he was crushed by the two-pair eights and fives belonging to Binder. Another eight on the turn meant Wisbrod was drawing dead to a nine on the river, which didn’t come, sending the Israeli GGMillion$ regular home early.

Daniel Lakerveld came into the action with more chips than his compatriot Arends but lost the last of his chips to him as a stunning straight-over-straight played out (2:23:00). On a flop of T-7-6, Lakerveld had the best of it, flopping the straight with eight-nine, but an eight on the turn gave Arends an even better straight with jack-nine, and when he raised Lakerveld, the less-experienced Dutchman shipped his chips to his doom, cashing for $120,834 in sixth place.

Russian player Anton Yakuba lost a flip for his tournament life with pocket threes to bust in fifth place, cashing for $156,702 when Binder’s ace-jack hit the nut flush on the turn. Amazingly, the three in Yakuba’s hand still left him with two outs to a miraculous straight flush, but neither came in, reducing the field to four players. 

With just four left, Jans Arends had a huge lead, his 10.3 million chip stack almost as much as his three competitors’ stacks combined. Pascal Lefrancois was sitting second with 4.9m, and the overnight leader Binder was sitting at 4.8m, while Ole Schemion was playing the role of small stack with 3.7m. It was the German who cashed for $203,218 in fourth place when he ripped for 17 bigs pre-flop with ace-deuce only to run into Lefrancois’ pocket aces, while a board of T-4-2-8-3 sent play three-handed. 

Jans Arends went from hero to zero when his over 11m stack was decimated over two hands. Arends’ pocket kings were all-in pre-flop against Lefrancois’ pocket aces, as the Canadian once again had the best hand in poker, and this time it was three-handed against the second-best hand! Then, Arends lost his final chips to Binder when the Dutch player’s pocket fives were no match for the Austrian’s pocket eights, cashing for $263,541 in third place. 

After knocking out Arends, Binder only had a stack of 3.7 million chips while Lefrancois was sitting on over 20 million, as what should have been a quick heads-up battle began. That, however, wasn’t the case. Binder bullied his way into a slim lead before the defining hand of the final duel sent his stack spiraling. All-in with pocket fours, Binder saw Lefrancois call it off with ace-king. After a Q-J-6 flop, an eight on the turn, the Canadian needed an ace, king, or ten to stay alive. A ten on the river did appear, saving the Canadian, and, more importantly, putting him back on top with a massive lead of 18 million to 5 million chips. 

In the final hand, (3:45:00), a board of Q-9-3-J-6 had fallen when Lefrancois shoved with queen-eight. Binder was out-kicked with queen-five, but only had five seconds remaining in his time bank before he was auto-folded. With just 1 second showing on his clock, he clicked the call and was defeated, relegated to second place for $341,770, while Lefrancois emerged victorious for the top prize of $443,221. 

Who Won This Week’s GGMillion$? – April 14th, 2026

A stunning victory for ‘72oooo’ was not the only comeback of the final table, where several players who started with small stacks overcame the big names near the top. It was a show of poker mastery as ‘72oooo’ took the long road to the championship. Originally buying into a $10 satellite, winning to step up to a $108 satellite, which turned into a $1,050 satellite that ended with a seat in the $10,000 GGMillion$. Forget Chris Moneymaker, this is the true dream-come-true poker story. 

While ‘72oooo’ was living the high life, both Aram Oganyan and Bernhard Binder were unable to turn their superior starting stacks into any serious momentum, busting in eighth and seventh places, respectively. 

By contrast, the bottom two players, each of whom had 14 big blinds when play began, rose to the top half of the eventual leaderboard. Chris Rudolph won six figures in fourth place, and the German’s achievements were still put in the shade by the eventual winner, Austria’s ‘72oooo’. 

Here are the final results from a thrilling week at the GGMillion$ felt.

Place Player Country Prize
1st Pascal Lefrancois Canada $443,222
2nd Bernhard Binder Austria $341,770
3rd Jans Arends Netherlands $263,541
4th Ole Schemion Germany $203,218
5th Anton Yakuba Russia $156,702
6th Daniel Lakerveld Netherlands $120,834
7th Barak Wisbrod Israel $93,175
8th Tamas Adamszki Hungary $71,848
9th Alejandro Lococo Argentina $55,402

Did Pascal Lefrancois Bring His Rabbit’s Foot?

At a pulsating final table, Pascal Lefrancois took out both Ole Schemion in fourth and then crippled Jans Arends for a 16 million chip pot with pocket aces. Pocket aces only come along every 220 hands, but the French-Canadian managed to find them at the absolutely perfect times to take out two of his most dangerous opponents. 

Given the stack sizes, Lefrancois having aces in those two particular spots was outrageously fortunate, and there was little Schemion or the Arends could do to sniff them out. To lose three-handed with pocket kings is unlucky, but to be behind pre-flop is so rare, and Arends, who came into play fourth and finished third, can feel aggrieved at running into such a cold deck. 

From there, Lefrancois didn’t make any big errors with his huge stack, a not insubstantial achievement given how often we’ve seen a chip leader fail to carry it to the finish in recent weeks. But his task was made all the simpler by those two monumental strokes of luck, while the rest of us can only marvel at the benevolence of the Poker Gods in such moments. Add to those moments a late coinflip to survive heads-up, and maybe Pascal Lefrancois should be encouraged to enter the lottery this week… or start selling rabbit’s feet!

Watch Jeff Gross and Kelvin Kerber bring this week’s stunning GGMillion$ win for Pascal Lefrancois to life here: 

 

2026 Week 13                                         2026 Week 15

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.

Edited by: Shawn Altbaum

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