Wiktor Malinowski Wins Third Super MILLION$ for $273k

Polish poker superstar Wiktor Malinowski won his third Super MILLION$ title this week when he conquered the popular weekly online tournament for the second time in just a month. Taking down a final table that included Canadian Daniel Dvoress, American modern poker legends Isaac Haxton and Chris Klodnicki, Malinowski earned a top prize of $273,804.

Malinowski Joins Legends of the Series

It’s been a bust time at the felt in the Super MILLION$ series, with last week’s winner Ivan Luca going wire-to-wire. This week, however, belonged to Malinowski. Back in early June, the Polish online crusher booked his second Super MILLION$ win worth $306,000 and this victory puts him in highly esteemed company on three wins, along with Isaac Haxton and Andras Nemeth. That trio sit behind the current leaders on five titles, Swedish pro Niklas Astedt, Russian poker powerhouse Artur Martirosian, and record-breaking Australian Michael Addamo.

The first hour of this week’s final table, which lasted around 200 minutes in total, was very much a sparring session, but the knockouts soon began. American player Chris Klodnicki busted in ninth place for $37,884 when he lost with king-queen against the pocket kings of Brazilian Dennys Ramos.

Russian player Andrei Nikonorov was the next man to leave, as he fell in eighth for $48,510. Nikonorov moved all-in on the flop, since he had a straight and flush draw. He was called quickly by Ramos again, this time holding pocket aces. The turn and river bricked out to send the Russian home short of the really big payouts.

Ramos Ploughs Through Field Single-Handedly

Canadian player Daniel Dvoress cashed in seventh for $62,116 when the former Super MILLION$ champion missed out on the chance to add to his online titles with a close run that just missed out on glory. Having come into the final table in last place chips-wise, he moved all-in from late position with king-queen, only to be called by Diego Zeiter with ace-king.

The Swiss player Zeiter was the next to fall despite winning that hand, as he cashed for $79,538 in sixth place. Playing from Austria, Zeiter lost out with queen-jack against ace-seven when Ramos’ high card was enough with all the chips in from the flop when Zeiter had been looking to complete an open-ended straight draw.

Ramos was looking to take apart the whole final table and he continued his one-man war on his opponents when he busted Austrian player ‘Mr_Jiben’ for $101,847 in fifth place. Ramos had king-seven and was in horrible shape against king-queen, but the board came 9-5-3-4-6 to give the Brazilian an incredible runner-runner straight and reduce the field to four.

Malinowski Goes from Zero to Hero

With four players remaining, Malinowski was the short-stack, but he played like a man with nothing to lose and reaped the rewards in style. Denis Peganov from Lithuania busted in fourth after Malinowski had doubled up with kings against Haxton’s pocket tens. Peganov did not have the same fortune with ace-deuce, running into Malinowski’s pocket tens and failing to hit an ace to slide out of contention for $130,413.

Haxton had lost that crucial double-up to Malinowski and suffered an exit in third place for $166,992 when he ran queen-ten of diamonds into Ramos’ ace-jack. The Brazilian had no trouble holding and suddenly had 11 million chips compared to Malinowski’s 1.6 million. With an almost 6:1 lead, Ramos failed to press home his advantage, however, and soon the stacks were dead level.

In the final hand, Malinowski’s king-jack of hearts triumphed over Ramos’ nine-seven after all the chips went in on a flop of 2-2-9. A king on the turn and a blank on the river gave the title to Malinowski – playing from Macau – as well as a top prize of $273,804, with Brazil’s Ramos claiming the $213,829 runner-up prize.

With Jeff Gross joined by Matas Cimbolas on the live stream on YouTube, the 48^th episode of the second season of GGPoker Super MILLION$ events was a belter and will be hard to top next week. GGPoker, just like Malinowski did this week, will shoot for gold all over again.