A 16-big-blind shove with ace-seven suited decided Latin America's night at the GGMillion$. Ramon Kropmanns finished fourth in the weekly $10,000 High Rollers for $218,523, and Argentina's Marco Pérez took seventh for $100,193. The title went to Latvia: Aleks Ponakovs banked $476,603 after holding off a heads-up that had swung back to even. It was the final with two LatAm flags we previewed on Tuesday.
The facts: 252 entries and three hands that tell the story
The event drew 252 entries, cleared its $2 million guarantee comfortably and paid 30 places. Bruno Volkmann (15th, $29,416) and Hannes Jeschka (12th) fell short of the final, and Mikita Badziakouski burst the final-table bubble in tenth ($42,237).
The nine played on Tuesday night, and Johannes Straver was first out. He arrived seventh with about 23 big blinds, folded ace-jack to a three-bet (correctly: the opponent held ace-queen) and bled down to three big blinds. He shoved king-queen, Kropmanns called with ace-three and a 6-10-9-4-9 board changed nothing: ninth place, $59,575.
Malta's "SuperFish5555" (8th, $77,259), Pérez (7th), Austria's Max Buschmann (6th, $129,935) and Israel's Barak Wisbrod (5th, $168,504) followed. Then came the Brazilian's hand. With blinds at 125,000/250,000 and a 30,000 ante, Ponakovs min-raised from the cutoff and Kropmanns, in the big blind with 4,051,609 chips (roughly 16 big blinds), moved all in with A♣7♣. The Latvian snap-called with 9♦9♠, and the 10♠-5♠-4♥-K♠-5♦ runout never flipped the coin. Sven Andersson went out third ($283,390) with king-queen of clubs against ace-queen, and heads-up Guillaume Nolet, who started 2-to-1 behind, clawed back to even before losing his last all-in with pocket fours against Ponakovs' tens. The Canadian collected $367,511; the champion added a $10,000 ticket and a seat in the GGMillion$ Live at WSOP Paradise.
For Pérez it was a third GGMillion$ final table in 2026 (8th in June, 7th in August, 7th again now, and his best payout of the three). Kropmanns, who won the GGMasters anniversary edition in February, adds another elite final to a huge year.
Why it matters: Kropmanns played it right and still lost
This is the hardest lesson in poker to accept. Sixteen big blinds in the big blind, four-handed, facing a chip leader who min-raises a very wide range: ace-seven suited is a textbook shove. It blocks aces, holds up reasonably against the calling range and, above all, carries plenty of fold equity, the chance the opener simply folds and you collect blinds and antes without a showdown. Running into pocket nines is variance. The decision is the one we teach in push or fold, and its quality is judged by expected value, not by the outcome.
Straver supplied the second lesson by contrast: sliding from 23 big blinds to 3 without finding a spot is the silent final-table mistake. At 10-12 big blinds you still have fold equity; at 3, everyone calls and the decision is no longer yours. ICM asks for patience, not paralysis.
The third belongs to Pérez: three final tables in the toughest weekly online tournament on the calendar are not luck, they are volume and process. Tuesday's result stings; the method stays.
Would you jam ace-seven suited there or wait for a better hand? Tell us in the community: this is exactly the kind of spot we break down together, with numbers rather than hunches.