GG Poker Super Millions Final Table Hand Review
While GG Poker’s weekly $10,000 buy-in Millions tournament usually draws a crowd, the field was even bigger when GG put on a SUPER Millions tournament for not just one, but five million dollars. With five players remaining and millions on the line, we review this hand where, as the title suggests, a million dollar risk was taken.
The Game: GG Poker Super Million Online Tournament, $10,000 Buy-In
Blinds: 150,000/300,000, 35,000 ante
Stacks Sizes: 25 Big Blinds Effective
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Strong Suited Connectors Preflop
For this virtual hand, we have the button facing the big blind head’s-up, with M Leikkonen (button) against Chris Rudolph (big blind). Folded to, Leikkonen looks down at A♣K♣, making the easy decision to min-raise it to two blinds. While you may see some players shoving with this hand late in tournaments, there is now obvious small stack player present in this hand. At 25 big blinds, AK-suited is a hand that can confidently raise and call off any preflop 3-bets or shoves. After a fold from the small blind, Rudolph looks down at J♦T♦, and makes the wise call. While Rudolph is certainly fine calling, hands like J-T and T-9 suited can potentially mix in some re-raises and shoves utilizing a quality GTO approach.
Rudolph Nails The Flop
The Pot: 1,525,000
The Board: 4♣-J♥-T♠
Effective Stack: 7,056,512
Rudolph’s preflop call walked him straight into a monster hand with top two pair, leaving Leikkonen very vulnerable with only a gutshot straight-draw. Holding a powerful hand, Rudolph could have certainly utilized his much larger stack (12,963,076) to apply pressure to Leikkonen, but elected to check it out of position. Leikkonen responds with a minimum bet of 300,00. telling his opponent that either he doesn’t have many nut hands (which isn’t the case here), or that he is betting with his entire range. Despite Leikkonen’s motivation, this move left him extremely vulnerable to a three-bet, which Rudolph made for 1,200,000.
After a well executed three-bet from Rudolph, Leikkonen is in an extremely tough spot. Does he give up on a potentially winning hand? Does he call and hope to improve on the turn? Or, does he make a move and shove, praying for a queen to save him? With the amount of cards that improve his hand on the turn, Leikkonen should have called in this spot, as not only would a queen give him the ultimate hand, but a club would provide the nut flush-draw, and a king or ace would provide even more outs. Ignoring what is the safer move, Leikkonen thinks for a few seconds, then rips it all-in, inducing a snap call from Rudolph. Dominated by two pair, Leikkonen prayed for a pretty queen or a runner-runner to keep his million dollar dreams alive.
The Result: The Queen Of The River
Getting a clutch 6♣ on the turn to provide even more outs, Leikkonen would hit the only card that ever mattered on fifth street, the Q♠, doubling up and taking pro Chris Rudolph to the cleaners. Leikkonen would not go on to win the GG Poker Super Millions, but this hand would push a significant amount of chips into his stack, to the left of chip leader Anatoly Filatov who would utilize position to bring home the win.
