PokerShares bettors who put their money down on Mexico-based grinder ‘vayacondios’ got paid off big at Tuesday’s GGPoker Super MILLION$ High Roller final table.
‘vayacondios’ entered final table play last in the chip counts, but managed to spin up a 12 big blind stack into an eventual victory in Episode 29 of the Super MILLION$. ‘vayacondios’ took home a $432,668 payday with the win in the final edition of the weekly $10,300 buy-in tournament this year on GGPoker.
PokerShares put 44-to-1 odds on ‘vayacondios’ going into final table play. The GGPoker Super MILLION$ continued its reputation as one of the toughest and most star-studded weekly events in the online poker realm.
The massive underdog ‘vayacondios’ battled through a final table lineup that included world-class competition like Kyle Menard (8th - $70,138) and Niklas Astedt (6th - $117,957).
Astedt, the world’s all-time online tournament earnings winner according to the PocketFives database, now stands at more than $5.5 million in career earnings on GGPoker. Astedt’s career totals in other recorded online events (outside of GGPoker) total more than $21.5 million.
‘vayacondios’ also looked up at top-flight players like Juan Dominguez (4th - $198,379), who began final table play with the chip lead. Dominguez came into the final nine as the overwhelming favorite on PokerShares, entering the final table with 150 big blinds.
Tuesday’s finish marked Dominguez’s second final table appearance in the Super MILLION$, and the nearly $200k payday pushed Dominguez’s GGPoker career earnings to just under the $3.9 million mark.
Final table action
Dominguez started the day with a big chip lead but went out in fourth place at the hands of ‘bombok032’ to set up three-handed play. All three remaining players (Martirosian, ‘vayacondios,’ and ‘bombok032’) went into the tournament’s final stretch relatively even in chips.
‘Bombok032’ broke out in the first 20 minutes of three-handed play, however, the player went into the break with more than two-thirds of the chips in play. The Macedonia-based player appeared poised for victory, but ‘vayacondios’ and Martirosian both took turns taking chunks out of the stack of ‘bombok032’ throughout the remainder of three-handed competition.
The tournament run ended for ‘bombok032’ (3rd - $257,266) at the hands of ‘vayacondios’ in an ace-nine suited versus king-seven offsuit all-in preflop battle. The king-seven of ‘vayacondios’ found a seven on the flop, and the top pair held up through the turn and river.
That hand sent ‘vayacondios’ into heads-up play with more than a two-to-one chip lead over Maritosian. The final duel lasted less than five minutes, with Martirosian (2nd - $333,632) finishing runner up.
The real-life identity of ‘vayacondios’ is unknown, but Tuesday’s finish pushed the player’s GGPoker career earnings to just under the $2.4 million mark.
Martirosian came up just short of his second career Super MILLION$ win, and now holds nearly $11 million in lifetime earnings on GGPoker. Martirosian’s latest Super MILLION$ run caps off a year in which the Russian tournament crusher warrants serious consideration as poker’s most successful player in 2020.
Featured image source: YouTube
