Ivan Luca Denies Wiktor Malinowski His Third Super MILLION$ Title
Ivan Luca spoiled Wiktor Malinowski's comeback party by defeating the Polish high-stakes cash game guru when heads-up in the GGPoker Super MILLION$. Malinowski navigated his way from seventh-place at the start of the final table to heads-up, but the night belonged to Luca, who won his first Super MILLION$ title at his first such final table.
Super MILLION$ Season 2 Episode 47 Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ivan Luca | Russia | $247,727 |
| 2 | Wiktor Malinowski | Macau | $193,464 |
| 3 | Chunlei Zhou | Hong Kong | $151,088 |
| 4 | Konstantin Maslak | Russia | $117,993 |
| 5 | Vlad Martynenko | Ukraine | $92,148 |
| 6 | Yen-Liang "yao_poker" Yao | Taiwan | $71,963 |
| 7 | Michael Addamo | Hong Kong | $56,200 |
| 8 | Markus Prinz | Austria | $43,890 |
| 10 | Lucio "WizardOfAz" Lima | Brazil | $34,276 |
Lucio "WizardOfAz" Lima sat down at the final table with the shortest stack and was the first of the nine finalists to bow out. Lima's tournament ended when he open-shoved for 360,748 chips from the small blind, and Malinowski called the 10.5 big blind shove from the big blind. Lima showed ace-five, Malinowski the queen-jack, and the latter turned a straight to reduce the player count by one. Ninth place weighed in at $34,276.
Eighth place was decided a short time later and it was Malinowski who claimed the scalp. Malinowski min-raised to 70,000 from under the gun with pocket jacks, Markus Prinz three-bet to 175,000 from the next seat along, doing so with an inferior pair of tens in the hole. Malinowski four-bet enough to put Prinz in for his last 272,745, and Prinz called. An ace-high board sent Prinz to the rail with $43,890 to show for his efforts.
Michael Addamo, a five-time winner of the Super MILLION$, was the next player eliminated. The aggressive Australian almost all his stack when Konstantin Maslak opened from middle position with pocket kings to 73,500, Addamo three-bet to 192,500 with pocket jacks, and then called when Maslak ripped it in for 1,162,442. Maslak's king remained true and Addamo was left nursing a 204,059 stack with the blinds at 17,500/35,000/4,500a. Those chips went into the middle on the very next hand with pocket sevens, which lost to the pocket queens of fellow short stack Vlad Martynenko. Addamo bowed out in seventh for $56,200.
Sixth place and $71,963 went to Taiwan's Yen-Liang "yao_poker" Yao. Malinowski opted to min-raise to 100,000 with the lowly ten-deuce of spades, and only Yao called, from the big blind with king-jack. A nine-jack-queen flop saw Yao check-call a 182,700 continuation bet from his Polish opponent. The turn was a king, improving Yao to two pair but Malinowski to a straight. Yao initially checked but then check-raised all-in for 724,210 when Malinowski tested the waters with a 160,000 bet. Malinowski instantly called, his hand held, and Yao fell by the wayside.
The final five became four with the elimination of Martynenko; the Ukrainian banked $92,148 for this deep run. Martynenko min-raised to 100,000 with ace-queen from under the gun, only for Luca to three-bet to 250,000 on the button with a pair of kings in the hole. Martynenko jammed all in for 1,059,335, and Luca made one of the easier calls of his career. The board ran out nine-high, and Martynenko was gone.
Maslak busted in fourth and collected $117,993. The Russian was down to around 12 big blinds when his internet connection cut out, and not for the first time. Malinowski asked his table mates to wait a while, but Maslak never reconnected. He was eventually all-in from the small blind with seven-six and lost to the ace-ten of Luca.
Three-handed play lasted more than 90-minutes and ended when Chunlei Zhou open-shoved for 20 big blinds from the small blind with ace-trey. Malinowski, never one to turn down a coinflip, called with pocket fours. The fours held on a king-high board, and Zhou headed to the cashier's desk to collect $151,088.
Malinowski took a commanding 7,762,232 to 3,637,768 chip lead into the heads-up battle against Luca. The stacks drew level before Luca claimed the chip lead for himself after Malinowski got a little frisky bluffing and then missing a draw. Luca never looked back from that point on.
The final hand saw Malinowski limp on the button with eight-four, and Luca check with the jack-five of hearts. A flop reading queen-six-ace with two hearts saw Luca check-call a 250,000 continuation bet. Luca checked again when an offsuit nine landed on the turn. Malinowski, who had no timebank left at this stage, bet 1,050,000 into the 1,060,000 pot with nothing but air. Luca called. A five on the river was greeted by another check from Luca. Malinowski emptied the clip and pushed all in for 2,161,444, only for Luca to tank-call with his pair of fives, busting Malinowski in second place for $193,464 and claiming the $247,727 top prize for himself.
