'blakjak19' outduels Stephen Chidwick heads-up, takes home $344,407
The GGPoker $10,300 Super MILLION$ High Roller attracts some of the toughest fields of any regularly-occurring weekly tournament in the online poker realm. The winner of the latest edition of the $1.5 million guaranteed tournament faced the challenge of trying to conquer perhaps the world's best tournament player heads-up for the title.
The player known by the screen name 'blakjak19' did just that, winning a final head-to-head battle against Stephen Chidwick and claiming $344,407 Tuesday. Hailing from Cyprus, 'blakjak19' came through with the victory at a final table that included Chidwick, Alex Foxen, and Dario Sammartino, among others.
Foxen and Chidwick have been engaged in a battle at the top of the Global Poker Index rankings for the better part of the last three years, with Foxen currently sitting at No. 1 and Chidwick at No. 5. Both players have proven reputations as elite tournament competitors, as does Sammartino, the 2019 World Series of Poker Main Event runner-up.
That tough competition didn't stop 'blakjak19' from claiming the title in the latest edition of what's becoming one of the most star-laden weekly tournaments in the world.
Chidwick, Foxen, Sammartino all post top-five finishes
Chidwick (2nd - $263,791) came up just short of adding another accolade to one of the most impressive resumes in the game. Sammartino (3rd - $202,045), 'V@der' (4th - $154,752), and Foxen (5th - $118,529) rounded out the top five in a tournament that finished with one of the toughest lineups imaginable.
The heads-up battle came down to Chidwick (just under 44 big blinds) and 'blakjak19' (91 big blinds), and with those stack depths it looked like viewers on the GGPoker Twitch Channel were in for an extended battle featuring 'blakjak19' against the battle-tested Chidwick.
The match between the final two lasted only a single hand, however. With the blinds at 50,000/100,000, Chidwick opened to 220,000 with 6♠4♠, 'blakjak19' three-bet to 840,000 with A♠J♦️, and Chidwick made the call.
The flop came 2♦️3♦️5♦️, bringing in a straight for Chidwick against a jack-high flush draw and gutshot straight draw for 'blakjak19'. Out of position, 'blakjak19' bet 426,250, Chidwick raised to 1,052,500, 'blakjak19' shoved over the top, and Chidwick committed the remainder of his stack.
The turn fell a safe 2♠ for Chidwick, but the river slowly peeled off the winning T♦️ for 'blakjak19' in trademark dramatic fashion for the GGPoker client.
Other final table finishers outside the top five included Morroco's Idris Ambraisse (6th - $90,785), Belarusian 'winnerwsop' (7th - $69,534), Canada's Niklas Astedt (8th - $53,258) and Brazil's Rica Copag (9th - $40,792).
Big weekly guarantees at GGPoker
The $10,300 Super MILLION$ High Roller makes up part of a weekly slate of tournaments promising huge money at GGPoker.
The current weekly schedule at GGPoker includes the Super MILLION$ High Roller, $500,000 guaranteed GGMasters High Roller, $2 million guaranteed High Roller MILLION$, $1 million guaranteed Global MILLION$, and ¥1,000,000 guaranteed Zodiac MILLION$, which is exclusively for players in the Asia Pacific region.
These weekly tournaments add up to nearly $8 million in guarantees, as GGPoker continues to go big with its regular slate of tournament offerings.
Featured image source: YouTube
