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Pedro Neves Wins Fourth GGMillion$ Title After Hero Call – GGMillion$ Season 2026 Episode 18

A GGMillion$ final table packed with stars, with one big chip leader waiting to be taken down. This week’s $10,000 weekly showdown on GGPoker, as part of the $300 million guaranteed GG World Festival, was another great one, and when the dust settled on a fast-paced final, which took just 150 minutes to conclude, it was the Portuguese professional Pedro Neves who had earned his fourth GGMillion$ title and a top prize of $481,199.

Joining regular host Jeff Gross on commentary duties this week was one of the best players ever to do it, as online tournament legend Chris Moorman, who also has $11m in live tournament earnings and multiple titles, including two WSOP bracelets, ran the rule over some of his poker peers. 

Pre-Match Betting Odds

As the final table began, it was the German player Sebastian Gaehl who led the way with a massive stack of 92 big blinds. He was a betting favorite at 3.66 as a result, with fans able to bet on their chosen winner in the GGPoker client. Second favorite was our pick, the Polish player Wiktor Malinowski, who started with 74 big blinds and was available to back at 4.26, while Portuguese player Pedro Neves (71BB/4.84) was sitting third in chips with just four blinds fewer in his stack, all represented terrific value.

German player Yannick Schneider (35BB/10.94) had half the stack of Neves, while Romanian Pavel Plesuv (35BB/9.56) was a good outside bet. The experienced final table regular Ilya Anatski from Belarus started on 34 big blinds at odds of 9.58, but behind that talented trio, GGPoker punters considered the other players outsiders based on the money put on before the final table began.

Uruguay’s Rodrigo Peceli (26BB/15.52) had almost double the chips of another Rodrigo, that being the talented Rodrigo Selouan from Brazil, who, with 11 big blinds, was an outsider at odds of 29.76. The Russian player ‘Minthon’ was the table short stack, starting with just 10 big blinds and long, long odds of 40.54. 

Key Moments from the Felt

The first elimination of the final table took a long time to come, nearly 40 minutes, but when it did, it was the expected victim, Minthon, who left for $60,149 in ninth place. The Russian was unlucky to depart as Schneider had made a fairly wild shove with king-seven from the button. The move got a fold from Peceli but a call from Minthon with the dominating king-queen. A seven on the river was the cruelest card of all, and with less than 7% to come as per the on-screen graphics on GGPoker, alerting us to the in-game odds of victory for each player.

Rodrigo Peceli was still short-stacked despite avoiding that clash and survived for another half-hour until he was all-in and at risk for his tournament life. Holding ace-seven, he was in bad shape against the ace-queen of Pedro Neves. The Portugal player’s dominating hand held up to win the day and send Peceli to the rail in eighth with $78,004.

There was another quick exit that followed, the Belarusian regular Ilya Anatski, who was on the wrong side of it (2:07:45). Holding ace-queen, he was outdrawn in brutal circumstances when the flop presented the Belarusian with top pair but his Polish opponent received an open-ended straight draw with his pocket tens. The straight did not arrive, but a ten on the turn gave the Polish pro a set, and Anatski failed to redraw to a straight, busting for $101,159 in seventh place.

Romanian Pavel Plesuv departed a two hands later in sixth for $131,187 when his ace-deuce couldn’t overcome Sebastian Gaehl’s ace-king. Then, six minutes later, the table was down to four as a frantic flurry of bustouts concluded with the exit of Rodrigo Selouan in fifth for $170,129. All-in with a different ace-deuce, he fell to Yannick Schneider’s ace-ten, as a board of Q-T-3-8-8 paired up Schneider on the flop while teasing Selouan with a flush draw that never came.

Four-handed, Pedro Neves’ smart play throughout the final table had given him the lead with 11.3 million chips, with the overnight leader Gaehl in second on 7.3m. Both of Chris Moorman’s pre-game picks were in the lead while Jeff Gross was pinning his hopes on Wiktor Malinowski (5.2m) to upset the odds. Schneider, who was now the short stack, was the outsider hanging on with 3.1m chips. 

Sebastian Gaehl lost a big chunk of his chips with king-seven to Schneider’s pocket eights, meaning the two Germans swapped ranks in the event. Soon, Gaehl was on the outside looking in, cashing for $220,630 in fourth place. All-in with ace-queen (2:45:50), he was always up against it with Neves holding ace-king and one queen already in the muck. The flop of K-T-2 actually added one out to Gaehl, as he now needed one of four jacks in addition to the two queens, but a paint-free turn and river sent him from the event instead, giving Neves a dominant lead.

While the Portuguese player was riding high, both Malinowski and Schneider were battling to reach the heads-up alongside him. The pivotal hand in that battle came when Malinowski shoved with ace-jack and ran into Schneider’s ace-queen. The German player’s hand stayed ahead through the board, and suddenly Malinowski was super-short. The Polish online poker legend got one double through Neves, but the next time he was all-in, it all went wrong. On a flop of T-5-2, Malinowski made what Chris Moorman called a ‘loose defend’ (3:03:10) to a min-raise with six-four then shoved the flop, which was snap-called by the German holding pocket queens. The board held, and Malinowski was seen off for a score of $286,122.

Heads-up, Pedro Neves had 60% of the chips in play, and although the heads-up match was deep-stacked, Moorman was right when he said that neither player was afraid to put the chips in the middle. On a board with four hearts, Yannick Schneider was keen to bluff with nine-seven offsuit and no hearts. Neves had a tough call with only the six of hearts, but he found the call and, in doing so, took a huge lead with 22.8 million chips to Schneider’s 4.32m. 

From there, the German was not able to find his way back, and soon all the chips belonged to Neves. All-in pre-flop with king-ten of hearts (3:10:20), Schneider was called by the ace-six of Neves, and the Portuguese player rode out a safe board to claim his fourth GGMillion$ title and the top prize of $481,199, with Schneider deservedly claiming $371,055 as runner-up.

This Week’s GGMillion$ Results – May 12th, 2026

After coming through from the following pack to take the lead early, it was a masterclass in tournament poker play.

“What a performance. Right from hand one, he was in there and once he got his chip lead he played really well in those blind-on-blind spots against Wiktor, who is a tough cookie to play in a heads-up pot. Pedro seemed to get the better of him in those spots and that propelled him to the win.”

“He was one of the favorites but he really got a hold of the chip lead and never gave it back.” Said Jeff Gross after the dust settled on a superb final table. 

Here’s how every player finished after a dramatic race to the line in this week’s GGMillion$.

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1st	Pedro Neves	Portugal	$481,199
2nd	Yannick Schneider	Germany	$371,055
3rd	Wiktor Malinowski	Poland	$286,122
4th	Sebastian Gaehl	Germany	$220,630
5th	Rodrigo Selouan	Brazil	$170,129
6th	Ravel Plesuv	Romania	$131,187
7th	Ilya Anatski	Belarus	$101,159
8th	Podrigo Peceli	Uruguay	$78,004
9th	‘Minithon’	Russia	$60,149

Did Gaehl’s Aggression Play in Pedro Neves’ Hands?

When the chip leader, Sebastian Gaehl, came into play, he had a very strong chip lead and was looking to make his mark from the start. Several times, that led to strong plays, but in several cases, he got too aggressive with the similarly trigger-happy Yannick Schneider to his left. Shoving with king-seven into Schneider’s pocket eights was one example of a few occasions where Gaehl needed to take his medicine, adjust to Neves taking the chip lead early in the final, and adapt to his new stack.

But it was not just Gaehl who gave Neves some chips by way of over-aggression. That late, loose bluff from Yannick Schneider without a flush card was polarising in its style but flawed in its execution. Neves sniffed it out, and while it looks like an easy call when we see the cards. In reality, it’s anything but easy, particularly as Schneider could feasibly have the nine of hearts in his hand and make exactly the same play, just as Chris Moorman highlighted. 

Watch this week’s GGMillion$ final table play down to a winner with regular host Jeff Gross and his special guest, online poker legend Chris Moorman right here:

2026 Week 17                                          2026 Week 19

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.

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Edited by Shawn A.