George Wolff limped the small blind and Mikita Badziakouski raised to 152,000 in the big blind. Wolff ripped it in for 1,325,006 and Badziakouski used the "good luck" emoji before snap-calling.
George Wolff:
Mikita Badziakouski:
The dominated pair found no help on the board and Wolff was eliminated in 12th place.
Darren Elias made it 126,000 to go from the hijack and Sebastian "TheodoreRhye" Trisch got his stack of 797,576 in from the cutoff. Elias gave it some thought and eventually called.
Sebastian "TheodoreRhye" Trisch:
Darren Elias:
The flop gave Trisch top pair and the turn locked up his double with trips tens, the river was a formality.
Elio Fox raised it up to 120,000 in the hijack and Samuel Vousden three-bet to 240,000 in the small blind. Fox then piled it in for 2,150,673 and Vousden called for the 1,048,012 he had behind to create a pot of more than 3 million.
Samuel Vousden:
Elio Fox:
The flop gave Fox trips aces and Vousden needed a jack or running clubs to stay alive. He picked up equity on the turn but the river ended his run in 11th place for $58,416.
Darren Elias got the far shortest stack of fewer than four blinds in from the hijack and Ronny Kaiser reshoved with the second-shortest stack on the button. Sean Winter and Elio Fox both let go in the blinds and the following battle of the short stacks ensued.
Darren Elias:
Ronny Kaiser:
The flop left Elias in desperate shape and he was drawing dead on the turn, making the river a formality. With that, Day 1 comes to an end with nine players remaining. The chip counts and a recap of today's action are to follow.
The third and final edition of the $25,500 Sunday 5 Million as part of the 2021 GG Spring Festival has reached the final table. Out of a field of 208 entries, only nine players remain to battle for the lion's share of the $5,200,000 prize pool. In order to get there, the 107 unique entries fired an extraordinary 101 re-entries and four of the finalists entered multiple times.
Elio Foxed ended up as the chip leader with a stack of 3,656,185 while Mikita Badziakouski follows fewer than half a big blind behind with 3,632,732. Timofey Kuznetsov completes the overnight podium with 3,338,980 chips. Among the finalists is also Michael Zhang, who required six bullets to run up the stack and finished Day 1 with 1,833,032, good enough for the sixth position.
Final Table Line-Up GGSF Event H-75: $25,500 Sunday 5 Million
Position
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Elio Fox
United States
3,656,185
73
2
Mikita Badziakouski
Belarus
3,632,732
73
3
Timofey Kuznetsov
Russia
3,338,980
67
4
Matthew "Nator" Hyman
Mexico
2,475,159
50
5
Michel "CrossfireX" Dattani
Portugal
1,929,184
39
6
Michael Zhang
United Kingdom
1,833,032
37
7
Sebastian "TheodoreRhye" Trisch
Germany
1,595,152
32
8
Sean Winter
United States
1,271,052
25
9
Ronny Kaiser
Switzerland
1,068,524
21
Ronny Kaiser, who just took down GGSF Event H-57: $25,500 Super High Roller a few days ago, also made the cut and will return with a stack of 21 blinds. Ioannis Angelou-Konstas ended up as the bubble boy when he ran with kings into aces and Darren Elias became the final casualty of the night.
The Action of the Day
More than 50 players were seated when the cards went in the air and the action was fast-paced from the get-go. Christian Rudolph became the first of many casualties and the list of notables on the rail kept growing during the registration period. Especially Wiktor Malinowski and Artur Martirosian were eliminated multiple times. There was no happy end for Malinowski as he was eliminated prior to the money bubble by Daniyar Aubakirov.
Many other well-known pros came up short of the cash prizes such as Fedor Holz, Justin Bonomo, Niklas Astedt, Nick Petrangelo, Michael Addamo, Joao Vieira, and Isaac Haxton to name all but a few of poker's superstars in contention. Ioannis Angelou-Konstas went on a hot streak during the final stages of the registration period to become the first player above a million in chips. However, his fortune ran out on the money bubble when he lost with kings to aces.
The frantic post-bubble stage shook up the leaderboard significantly. Among those to bust in the money were Sosia "Aunty_Ninja" Jiang, Jason Koon, Seth Davies, Sami Kelopuro and four-time GGSF champion Lev "LevMeAlone" Gottlieb.
As the day raced to a conclusion with rapid-fire eliminations on the final two tables, it was Elio Fox who appeared at the top of the leaderboard after winning a flip against Samuel Vousden. Mikita Badziakouski follows just a shade behind and has the chance to better his runner-up finish to Kaiser in Event H-57: $25,500 Super High Roller.
The final table will commence on Monday, April 19 at 7.05 pm GMT. Blinds will be rolled back to 25,000/50,000 with a running ante of 6,000 to ensure an average of at least 40 big blinds for the high-stakes showdown. All levels will now feature 20 hands each and the PokerNews team will be back then to provide all key hands until a winner is crowned.