GGPOKER

Vladimir Minko wins Second GGMillion$ Title – GGMillion$ Season 2026 Episode 41

A thrilling final table concluded this week in the $10,000 GGMillion$ on GGPoker with victory for the talented Russian player Vladimir Minko. With nine of the best online poker players in the world gathering at the final table, there was a sting in the tail of the action, as the Spanish overnight chip leader Juan Dominguez fell just short of winning his sixth title in the format. 

Pre-Match Betting Odds

As play got underway with regular host Jeff Gross, who was joined by the latest GGPoker Ambassador, streaming legend Lex Veldhuis, there was a clear leader at the final table. The experienced GGMillion$ winner and Spanish poker legend Juan Dominguez went into the action with 91 big blinds, and as such was a huge favorite at odds of 2.90 to win in the GGPoker client. While we rarely backed the short-odds leader, Dominguez had to be our choice.

Behind the chip leader sat a talented Russian trio: Osmirko Artem (65BB/5.68), Vladimir Minko (52BB/6.82), and Artur Martirosian (37BB/6.48), the GGMillion$ record holder. Despite holding less than half of Dominguez’s chips, Martirosian was among the betting favorites, largely because he was the only player in GGPoker history to have won more on the site than the chip leader and because of his experience and dominance in this format. 

German duo David Kaufmann (35BB/10.56) and Sebastian Gaehl (20BB/18.62) sat on either side of Finnish player Unelmavavy (32BB/11.38) in the counts, with another representative from Finland, Juho Suutari (18BB/17.90), as an extreme long shot. The rank outsider was the Belarusian Yahor Dambrouski, who started with just 4 big blinds and was a massive 68.88 to win this week’s showdown outright.

Key Moments from the Felt

It was only three hands into the action that we lost the first player from the final table. Yahor Dambrouski had been unable to gain any momentum, and with pocket eights on the button, called off David Kaufmann’s three-bet with pocket kings for his tournament life and just three big blinds. Vladimir Minko folded pocket tens away and saw the good news that he’d made the correct decision. No help came for Dambrouski, and he busted in ninth place for $50,545.

Juho Suutari was the next player to leave the action, falling out in eighth place for $65,549. All-in pre-flop with pocket sixes, he was called by the overnight leader Dominguez with pocket eights, only to have the board of K-5-5-T-7 send him home. Suutari soon had company on a busy virtual rail, with Russian legend Artur Martirosian out in seventh for $85,006. (1:25:35) Having previously survived a ‘Mystery Hand’, Martirosian went all-in with king-seven. Losing to his fellow Russian Osmirko Artem’s pocket nines, Martirosian’s elimination gave everyone hope given his vast experience at closing out over a dozen editions of this particular event.

Out in sixth place was the second Finnish casualty of the final table, ‘Unelmavavy’, who won $110,240. All-in with ace-four of clubs pre-flop, the Finnish player’s raising war saw him march into the ace-king of Juan Dominguez, as the Spaniards chip lead only got stronger with the dominating hand. 

Five became four when the determined German Sebastian Gaehl left in fifth place for $142,963. (2:00:10) Calling his countryman David Kaufmann’s min-raise pre-flop, Gaehl saw a flop of J-J-T with two diamonds, and check-raised all-in with his ace-ten, including the ace of diamonds. Kaufmann snapped him off with queen-jack when the board ran dry through the turn and river. 

With four players left, Dominguez was no longer the leader. Vladimir Minko (7.76m) had the edge over his Spanish opponent, with Dominguez on 7.57m. David Kaufmann trailed with 3.81m, and Osmirko Artem was the short-stack on 2.08 million chips. It was Artem who busted next, finishing in fourth place for $185,401. All-in pre-flop with ace-queen, Artem was in a dominating position over Minko with ace-jack, as an all-Russian clash ended badly for the at-risk player. The board ran out J-5-2-J-Q, with Artem drawing dead on the river. 

Dominguez had retaken the lead by this point, but it took him 80 more minutes to send play heads-up. Kaufmann was the unfortunate victim, losing with king-jack to Dominguez’s king-queen before shoving his short change into the middle with pocket tens on a raised flop of A-J-6. The German ran into the Spanish pro’s jack-nine, which rivered a full house. As Kaufmann left with $240,435 in third, Dominguez took a marginal lead into the heads-up battle.

Vladimir Minko won the early exchanges and, while out-flopping his opponent, put on a school on how to get value bets paid post-flop. Most of the time, those bets were thin, but over a brief period of dominance, they were enough to give the Russian the chip lead. When Dominguez raised it with a suited jack-ten, Minko shoved with an offsuit ace-three. He was called, and the Spanish player saw he was in big trouble, albeit with a pot of 15.2 million chips in the middle, almost 75% of the chips in play. 

A flop of K-K-4 put Minko well ahead, and after another four on the turn, Dominguez was in desperate need of either a jack or a ten. A queen landed on the river, giving Minko victory and his second GGMillion$ title, along with $404,362. Dominguez couldn’t seal his sixth win but came oh so close in second place, earning $311,806. 

This Week’s GGMillion$ Results – November 3rd, 2026

A thrilling final table was claimed by the Russian player Minko after an incredible heads-up battle.
“I was really impressed with how Minko was operating in the marginal spots,” said Lex Veldhuis. “It was inspiring and interesting to look into that stuff. There are lots of areas to get better. These guys play fearless, and it shows.”

“The favorite didn’t get it done led most of the way. Minko won $404k plus a $10,000 GGMillion$ seat in The Bahamas as part of WSOP Paradise.”

Last year’s $10m Super Main Event winner, Bernhard Binder, will be next week’s GGMillion$ co-commentator, but here’s how this week’s finalists lined up, with their winnings right next to them.

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1st	Vladimir Minko	Russia	$404,362
2nd	Juan Dominguez	Spain	$311,806
3rd	David Kaufmann	Germany	$240,435
4th	Osmirko Artem	Russia	$185,401
5th	Sebastian Gaehl	Germany	$142,963
6th	‘Unelmavavy’	Finland	$110,240
7th	Artur Martirosian	Russia	$85,006
8th	Juho Suutari	Finland	$65,549
9th	Yahor Dambrouski	Belarus	$50,545

Did Dominguez Take a Too Aggressive Stance?

The Spanish player led for so much of the final table but couldn’t book his half-dozenth victory, as Minko got him in the margins. But how was the Russian able to? Early in the heads-up battle, there’s no question that Minko ran better than his more decorated GGMillion$ opponent. But the Spaniard paid to see too many cards when behind, and that left his stack shorter than it needed to be when it mattered. Had he controlled a bigger stack, his raise with jack-ten might have either never happened or been a smaller percentage of his chips, meaning he could afford to fold to Minko’s quick shove. As it happened, Dominguez felt priced in to call, and while variance deserted him in the run-out, he wasn’t a favorite to win the hand and what would have been a 3:1 chip lead. Instead, he suffered a near miss and might look back on a few of those early heads-up hands as ones where he donated too many chips while chasing.

Watch all the action from this week’s GGMillion$ final table with Jeff Gross and Lex Veldhuis right here:

 

2026 Week 40                                          2026 Week 42

About the Author: Paul Seaton has written about poker for over 10 years, interviewing some of the best players ever to play the game such as Daniel Negreanu, Johnny Chan and Phil Hellmuth. Over the years, Paul has reported live from tournaments such as the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas and the European Poker Tour. He has also written for other poker brands where he was Head of Media, as well as BLUFF magazine, where he was Editor.

* The pre-game pick is the sole opinion of the author. It in no way reflects or affects the outcome of the final table.

---

Edited by Shawn A.