GG Spring Festival Headliner Champions Crowned; Gottlieb Wins Fourth Title

Will Shillibier
Managing Editor
5 min read
Connor Drinan Juan Pardo GG Spring Festival

It was another night of intense poker action on GGPoker with the continuation of the GG Spring Festival. The series, which features a line-up of 110 events across three tiers each including two $10M guaranteed tournaments, is on pace to outstrip the $185M tournament series record set by PokerStars last year.

On the penultimate weekend, PokerNews was on hand with extensive live reporting of five different events, with three winners crowned in the $400 PLO-NL Headliner-M, the $400 NLHE Headliner-M and the Bounty Hunters Main Event.

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Connor Drinan Wins Headliner By Completing Epic Comeback in Record Time

Connor Drinan

The GGSF Headliner-M: $400 PLO-NL, $1M GTD saw 1,962 unique players rebuy 709 times. That meant the 2,671-entry field resulted in a $1,004,296 prize pool. On Day 2, 451 players returned to action looking to play down to a winner.

After 8.5 hours of play, it was poker pro Connor Drinan walking away with the title and accompanying $127,453 first-place prize. Drinan’s win was especially impressive given he was down to just one big blind during three-handed play, but only 10 minutes later he was the last player standing.

It was a testament to the big swings involved in a pot-limit Omaha variant that featured no-limit action after the flop.


Read More: GGPoker Launches New 'OmahaSquad'


GGSF Headliner-M: $400 PLO-NL Final Table Results

PLACEPLAYERCOUNTRYPRIZE
1Connor DrinanCanada$127,453
2Mads AmotNorway$92,150
3Rui FerreiraBrazil$66,626
4Kosei IchinoseJapan$48,172
5Ami BarerCanada$34,830
6Jin “JackLuck” SuChina$25,182
7Mark BerenteHungary$18,207

Read Full Updates on Drinan's Comeback Win


Juan Pardo Wins GGSF Headliner-M: $400 NLHE, $2.5M GTD for $381,668

Juan Pardo Dominguez

After almost nine hours of play, Juan Pardo came out on top of the GGSF Headliner-M: $400 NLHE, $2.5M GTD. He made it through more than 9,000 Day 1 runners, and 1,365 Day 2 players to take down the top prize of more than $380,000. That was the biggest share of a prize pool that ended up at $3,403,176, well over the $2.5 million guarantee.

Pardo is no stranger to the winner's circle or big prizes. With more than $3 million in live poker winnings, this score would only rank fifth on his best live cashes. His biggest score came in 2019 at EPT Barcelona where he won the €50,000 No-Limit Hold'em for more than $1.1 million.

GGSF Headliner-M: $400 NLHE Final Table Results

PLACEPLAYERCOUNTRYPRIZE
1Juan PardoSpain$381,668
2v_NistelrooyRussia$286,206
3Elliott "gr00thedegen" PetermanUnited Kingdom$214,624
4Daniel SmiljkovicAustria$160,945
5Byron KavermanUnited States$120,692
6Anton WiggSweden$90,506
75Dinks4allAndorra$67,870
8Joshua "IyasusSake" GebissaGermany$50,895
9HazesAustria$38,166

Read Full Updates from the $400 NLHE Headliner-M


Lev "LevMeAlone" Gottlieb Wins Fourth GGSF Title in $5,250 Bounty Hunters Main Event ($316,692)

Lev Gottlieb Wins H-72 for $316,692

After winning three GGSF events so far, Lev "LevMeAlone" Gottlieb has now made it four by taking down the 2021 GG Spring Festival H-72: $5,250 Bounty Hunters Main Event for a whopping $316,692 which including an amazing $214,297 in bounties. The tournament attracted 228 unique players who reentered 89 times. This created a prize pool of $1,585,000 with 44 players cashing.

After winning H-05: $10,300 Super MILLION$ for $586,075, H-15: $10,3000 Super Tuesday for $320,729, and H-35: $10,300 PLO-NL High Roller for $199,771, Gottlieb has increased his total winnings on GGPoker to $2,210,839 which is an incredible achievement in itself. The WSOP online bracelet winner was near the top of the counts for most of the day and came into the final table second in chips to close it out in the end by defeating Chris Klodnicki heads-up.

H-72: $5,250 Bounty Hunters Main Event Final Table Results

PLACEPLAYER BOUNTYPRIZETOTAL
1Lev "LevMeAlone" GottliebMexico$214,297$102,395$316,692
2Chris KlodnickiUnited States$36,719$102,237$138,956
3Gergely "Land on it!" KulcsarHungary$41,406$78,467$119,874
4Arie MullerGermany$10,156$60,178$70,334
5Sami KelopuroFinland$11,250$46,151$57,401
6Ottomar LadvaEstonia$7,188$35,394$42,582
7Hannes "BlackFortuna" SpeiserAustria$19,375$27,144$46,519
8Anton WiggSweden$32,422$20,817$53,239
9Darrell GohAustria$15,469$15,965$31,434

Check Out Updates from Gottlieb's Fourth GGSF Win


GGSF Final Tables confirmed

Two final tables were confirmed last night in Event H-75: $25,500 Sunday 5 Million and GGPoker Spring Festival Super MILLION$ $10,300 ME-H.

Be sure to head to the PokerNews GG Spring Festival Live Reporting Hub to follow along until a winner is crowned!

Fox and Badziakouski Lead Star-Studded Sunday 5 Million Final Table

Elio Fox

Out of a field of 208 entries, only nine players remain in the $25,500 Sunday 5 Million 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 Fox 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.

POSITIONPLAYERCOUNTRYCHIP COUNTBIG BLINDS
1Elio FoxUnited States3,656,18573
2Mikita BadziakouskiBelarus3,632,73273
3Timofey KuznetsovRussia3,338,98067
4Matthew "Nator" HymanMexico2,475,15950
5Michel "CrossfireX" DattaniPortugal1,929,18439
6Michael ZhangUnited Kingdom1,833,03237
7Sebastian "TheodoreRhye" TrischGermany1,595,15232
8Sean WinterUnited States1,271,05225
9Ronny KaiserSwitzerland1,068,52421

Joakim Andersson Leads GGSF Super MILLION$ $10,300 ME-H Final Nine

Joakim Andersson GGPoker Super MILLION$

In one of the biggest online poker events of the year, a field of 1,089 — across five starting flights — in the GGPoker Spring Festival Super MILLION$ $10,300 ME-H has been reduced to a final table of nine after about seven hours of Day 2 play.

The remaining players have a very handsome prize of $1,537,605 waiting the champ, with everyone having locked up $192,201.

The player who has best positioned himself for that career-defining score is Joakim Andersson. A Swedish player without much in the way of live cashes, Andersson has been a consistent force in the biggest online stuff over the past year or so, and he'll bring a very impressive stack of more than 100 big blinds into the final day.

The final table participants get the next day off before convening on Tuesday afternoon at 2 p.m. EDT for the live-streamed final table. Come back to PokerNews and the GGPoker channels to find out who becomes the next poker millionaire.

PLAYERCOUNTRYCHIPSBIG BLINDS
Joakim AnderssonTunisia31,727,557105
level29India22,041,77673
Julian StuerAustria15,894,31253
Roman "RRomashka" EmelyanovRussia8,691,02029
Darrell GohAustria8,518,25728
Stevan "Steve Austin" ChewIndonesia7,026,74423
Alex FoxenCanada6,281,78420
Gergely "Land on it!" KulcsarHungary5,797,12619
Taylor PaurCanada2,921,4249

Be sure to watch the final table live stream this Tuesday on GGPoker.TV and follow along with the PokerNews live updates.

Sign Up for a GGPoker Account Through PokerNews

If you want to play in this record-setting festival, you'll need to sign up for an account at GGPoker. The great news is if you don't have an account you can help yourself to an amazing welcome package.

Simply, download GGPoker via PokerNews and you will be awarded a huge welcome bonus with your first deposit 100 percent matched up to a maximum of $600, setting you up nicely in time for the Spring Festival.

The bonus releases into your account in $10 increments each time you earn 6,000 Fish Buffet Points, which is the equivalent of $60 in rake or tournament fees.

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Will Shillibier
Managing Editor

Based in the United Kingdom, Will started working for PokerNews as a freelance live reporter in 2015 and joined the full-time staff in 2019. He now works as Managing Editor. He graduated from the University of Kent in 2017 with a B.A. in German. He also holds an NCTJ Diploma in Sports Journalism.

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