The year has gotten off to a good start for Darren Elias. The American poker pro just won the first GGPoker Super MILLION$ of 2021, defeating some of the world’s best poker pros.
Elias survived a thrilling heads-up battle against Swedish poker pro Niklas Astedt who was ahead by a large margin when the one-on-one match got underway. Elias, who currently holds the record for most World Poker Tour (WPT) wins with four, managed to bounce back in epic fashion and ultimately secured the title for $448,842.
Final Table Results
The final table began with Enrico Camosci leading the chips; Elias came in 4^th. One of the superstars at the final table, Seth Davies, was sixth in chips when the action kicked off, but he was the first player to bow out of the tournament after initially losing a big pot to Aleks Ponakovs, and then losing all of his remaining chips to Camosci with straight versus full house. Davies earned $56,105 for his 9^th place finish.
The second elimination occurred just two hands later when Bert Stevens moved all-in preflop for 13 big blinds from the button holding king-queen. With a pair of jacks, Rui Ferreira three-bet-all-in for 2,605,295. He made a set on the flop, defeating Stevens’ straight draw. The Belgian player won $72,759 for finishing in eight place.
Camosci knocked another player off during seven-handed play, this time it was Ponakovs who was sent home following a battle of the blinds. Ponakovs took home $94,357 for finishing in seventh place.
One of the big names at the final table was Adrian Mateos, but unfortunately for the Spanish poker pro, a sixth place finish was all he could book, and the elimination took place just before the first break, courtesy of Ferreira.
The hand began with a 140,000 min-raise from Camosci who held pocket threes. Holding ace-king, Ferreira called on the button, with Astedt putting a calling amount into the pot with deuces. Mateos raised all-in for 1,497,707 with pocket tens, prompting a call from Ferreira, the latter flopping an ace to secure the pot. Mateos’ performance earned him $122,366.
Ferreira grabbed the lead thereafter, but he quickly went down to just 3.8 big blinds after losing multiple pots. His fate was finally sealed when he moved all-in with jack-five against Astedt’s ace-jack. Astedt won the hand and Ferreira settled for fifth place for $158,689.
The next player to go was Camosci. With queen-nine, he called a 400,000 raise from Astedt who had pocket fives. He then put all of his chips in the middle with queen-nine. It was snap-called by Astedt who flopped a set. Camosci found no further help, exiting in fourth place for $205,795.
Heads-up play was set following Ami Barer’s exit. The Canadian ended his bid in third place after losing a hand against Elias. Barer walked away with $266,833 for his efforts.
Heads-Up Battle
Astedt began the one-one-one match pretty confident as he was holding a massive chip advantage – 14,160,341 to 8,039,659. At the time it looked like he would finally take home his first GGPoker Super MILLION$ title, but Elias isn’t someone who would easily give up. The American poker pro managed to turn things around and just before the final hand was dealt, he was already leading the game, 12 million to 10 million.
The final hand came when Astedt min-raised to 700,000, Elias jammed for 12,078,400 with ace-seven. The eventual runner-up called with pocket queens. Elias successfully picked up an ace on the turn, the river bricked, and Astedt would settle for second place, winning $346,104.
The final table action was up for betting on Poker Shares before play started and among those who were happy with Elias’ victory was Max Pescatori. He placed a bet on Elias taking down the tournament, and saw his $511 grow to $3,781.49 as the final results came in.
Super MILLION$ continues on GGPoker and you can take part in the $10,300 buy-in tournament for a fraction of the price via satellites which are available for as low as $100. Check out the GGPoker website for more details.