THE DAILY SCOOP – Super MILLION$ Season 2023 Episode 9

David Yan Wins Second Super MILLION$ Title for $428,624

This week’s GGPoker Super MILLION$ was one of the quickest in recent memory, as New Zealand’s David Yan went wire-to-wire, becoming the latest double winner of the prestigious weekly tournament. Players such as Niklas Astedt, Eelis Parssinen, and Barak Wisbrod all missed out on the chance of glory as Yan’s superb temperament counted for plenty at a final table that concluded in less than two hours.

Frantic Action Kicks Off Final

With $2,120,000 in the prize pool, New Zealander David Yan began the final table with the chip lead, but it was a slim advantage. Across the last nine, the chips were fairly evenly spread, with Yan holding 74 big blinds, a touch clear of Brazilian ‘BrunoBernardino’ with 66 big blinds. Yan was a previous winner of the event, along with Niklas Astedt, who was going for title #3 with 58 big blinds to start with.

Another former two-time winner, ‘mamasherlock’ was playing off 49 big blinds from Mexico, with the other former champions, Pablo Silva (44 big blinds), triple winner Barak Wisbrod (33 big blinds) and Eelis Parssinen (14 blinds) having very different approaches to how they needed to start the final table.

It was a very short opening to the final table for the Finnish former champion Eelis Parssinen, who didn’t even make it five minutes into proceedings before crashing out in ninth place for $53,578. He was followed from the felt soon after by the Czech Republic player Roman Hrabec, whose ace-queen was in dire trouble pre-flop after Barak Wisbrod called the shove with pocket queens. They held with ease to send Hrabec home with a score of $69,482.

Astedt Ousted to Deny Triple Win

Mikalai Vaskaboinikau was at risk when he shoved from the small blind with ace-seven of clubs. Called by Barak Wisbrod with king-jack of hearts, Vaskaboinikau remained ahead after the T-8-7 flop with two clubs, but a nine of diamonds on the turn changed all that, giving Wisbrod the straight. The Israeli player faded the world on the six of spades river, meaning Vaskaboinikau cashed for $90,107 in seventh place.

Brazilian player ‘BrunoBernardino’ came into play with plenty of chips but committed his last of them, behind in the odds. All-in with king-queen, he needed to hit against his fellow countryman Pablo Silva, who called with ace-jack. The flop of K-T-6 was a good one for the at-risk player, but despite the turn being safe, the river wasn’t, as BrunoBernardino cashed for $116,854 in sixth place.

Niklas Astedt was aiming for his third Super MILLION$ title, but although he ran deep, he never managed to impose himself on the final table. All-in with ace-king in the small blind, he lost out to the eventual winner David Yan, whose queen-ten hit to deny the Swede victory. Astedt, so often the man who controls the final table in this format – and more generally online – was unable to reach the promised land of heads-up, cashing in fifth for $151,541.

Yan Takes Charge, Wins Three-Way All-In

The final stages of the dramatic final table kicked off with a massive three-way all-in that went a long way to deciding the winner. Pablo Silva shoved with the shortest stack with pocket deuces, David Yan called with ace-six, then, to everyone’s surprise, ‘mamassherlock’ from Mexico called with nine-seven offsuit, holding a slightly bigger stack than Silva. The flop of 8-5-5 kept Silva ahead and gave the Mexican a gutshot, but after the ten on the turn made it even more likely ‘mamassherlock’ would win, an ‘ace from space’ landed from nowhere on the river to give Yan the pot and two eliminations.

While Yan won that pot, it didn’t put him in the lead for a heads-up match against Barak Wisbrod. The Israeli held 11.5 million chips to Yan’s 9.6 million, and as ‘mamassherlock’ won $254,861 to Silva’s $196,525, the heads-up match got underway. Wisbrod was going for his third title while Yan was aiming for his second Super MILLION$ win.

The match was decided in fairly short order, as Wisbrod fell behind and then faced a decision for his tournament life with a board showing 5-4-3-K-4. Yan bet around three-quarters of the pot with king-queen, and Wisbrod shoved with jack-five. Yan had to call for the win and did so, taking home the $428,624 top prize, with Wisbrod winning $330,514 in second place.

This week’s special guest co-commentator was Anthony Venturini, who alongside regular host Jeff Gross did a sterling job bringing the action to life. Check out the full final table replay right here:

GGPoker Super MILLION$ 2nd May 2023 Final Table Results:
Place	Player	Country	Prize
1st	David Yan	New Zealand	$428,624
2nd	Barak Wisbrod	Israel	$330,514
3rd	mamassherlock	Mexico	$254,861
4th	Pablo Silva	Brazil	$196,525
5th	Niklas Astedt	Sweden	$151,541
6th	BrunoBernardino	Brazil	$116,854
7th	Mikalai Vaskaboinikau	Belarus	$90,107
8th	Roman Hrabec	Czech Republic	$69,482
9th	Eelis Parssinen	Finland	$53,578