It seems like whenever Michael Addamo shows up to play poker, he wins.
The high-stakes crusher who had taken time off playing live and online showed up for the $10,000 GGMillion$ High Roller on GGPoker, and he took it down for $423,610. World champ Lucas Jumalon and GG ambassador Jeff Gross commentated on the final table livestream.
Addamo, who has been mostly absent from the live poker world the past two years, dominated the final table, showing no rust as he eliminated seven of his final eight opponents. That included Pedro Neves, the runner-up.
Addamo Runs Hot
Addamo entered the tournament ranked third with over $8.6 million in GGMillion$ cashes and third in titles with eight. Artur Martirosian leads both categories with $11.1 million in cashes and 13 wins.
The final table began with Neves holding a slight chip lead over Guillaume Nolet. All other remaining players faced a sizeable deficit. But Addamo started his run with pocket kings, winning a massive pot against Nolet’s top pair.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Addamo | $423,610 |
| 2 | Pedro Neves | $326,647 |
| 3 | Xuanyi Wang | $251,880 |
| 4 | Guillaume Nolet | $194,226 |
| 5 | Ioannis Konstas | $149,768 |
| 6 | Roman Emelyanov | $115,487 |
| 7 | “Und3rdogg” | $89,053 |
| 8 | Aliaksandr Shylko | $68,669 |
| 9 | Nguyen Vi | $52,951 |
That hand changed everything at the final table because it propelled the most dangerous player up near the chip lead. Things got even worse for the table when the high roller superstar won a race to bust Nguyen Vi in ninth place ($52,951).
Luck was certainly on the eventual champion’s side, just ask Aliaksandr Shylko, who moved his small stack in with a bigger ace than Addamo called with, only to lose and bust in eighth place ($68,669).
Addamo did run into a setback during four-handed play with pocket aces when Nolet, on a flop of 4x4x2x moved all in with Qx2x and hit a deuce on the river to double up. Despite the bad beat, Addamo had built up such a massive stack at that point that he still had over half the chips in play.
Xuanyi Wang took his stab to double-up with three left and Qx7x but couldn’t improve against Addamo’s KxJx. Neves found himself in a deep hole once heads-up play began. To make matters worse, Addamo picked up pocket aces on the first hand, but didn’t get any action.
Still, his opponent had just 12 big blinds, but doubled up when he took a stand with Kx3x, which held up against 10x4x. Neves still trailed 6:1, but on the next hand, he set the trap, limping the button with A♥Q♠. Addamo fell for it and jammed 8♣7♣.
The best preflop hand was in even better shape on the turn with the board showing 2♥K♣3♥J♥. But the 8♦ on the river paired Addamo up to end the tournament. Had Neves won that hand, he would have been back in the ballgame. Instead, he had to settle for second place and $326,647.
Addamo collected $423,610 and his ninth GGMillion$ title in his return to online poker. He hasn’t played much live tournament poker the past couple years either. The champion winner has over $24 million in The Hendon Mob live tournament cashes
