Aido's path through a stacked final table
The $10,000 WSOP Online GGMillion$ High Roller awarded a bracelet as well as a first prize of $2,228,762. GGPoker's report places Roeland Peeks first at the nine-handed restart with 171 big blinds; Aido was second with 72. Aido navigated a final table that also included Niklas Astedt, Ole Schemion, Matheus Machado, and Chris Nguyen, then defeated Machado heads-up. The opening chip distribution makes the win interesting, but it does not, by itself, reveal a particular “secret strategy.”
Four-handed play began with stacks much closer: Peeks had about 49.8 million, Aido 46.4 million, Machado 42.1 million, and Nguyen 36.9 million. That near-parity matters. A large confrontation now affected not only immediate chip EV but each player's chance of surviving the next payout jump.
The published K-3 versus K-8 hand
REPORTED HAND / VISUAL REPLAY
K-3 stays ahead on K-3-2-2
Community cards
- 01PreflopThe public recap does not give the complete action.
- 02FlopK-3-2 gave Aido two pair; Nguyen had top pair.
- 03TurnA second deuce arrived; Nguyen check-shoved and Aido continued.
- 04RiverNo eight arrived; Nguyen was eliminated in fourth.
GGPoker reports a K-3-2-2 board through the turn. Aido held K-3 and Nguyen K-8. On the flop, Aido had kings and threes while Nguyen had one pair of kings. The paired deuce on the turn gave both players a board pair, but it did not erase Aido's stronger second pair: kings and threes still beat kings and deuces. Nguyen's eight on the river would have made kings and eights; the report says it did not arrive.
Why top pair was not enough here
A paired turn often invites a too-simple thought: “We both have the same board pair, so my king must be good.” That skips the five-card hand comparison. Aido can use his three to make a better second pair than the paired deuces available to Nguyen. Conversely, Aido was not unbeatable—full houses and stronger holdings are still possible in a complete range. The lesson is to compare complete hands and ranges, not labels such as “top pair.”
The source describes Nguyen's effective turn check-shove, but does not publish the complete preflop line, flop bets, effective turn size, or suits. Those missing details prevent a credible calculation of shove or call equity. It would be especially misleading to call Nguyen's play a solver error simply because Aido turned over a better two pair. Depending on prior action, Nguyen might have expected calls from worse hands, fold equity against some opponents, or both; the public record does not resolve that.
After Nguyen's fourth-place exit, Aido also took a key pot from Peeks on a paired board and later regained the lead against Machado with a flopped set of deuces. Those hands help explain the player performance, but should not be folded into a claim that this one K-3 pot alone won the title.
A review exercise
Set up the turn as K-3-2-2, then list value hands that could check-shove and draws that might bluff. Compare K-8, K-3, and a bare pocket pair as five-card hands. Finally add actual preflop and flop actions if you can find a full replay. A board-pairing turn is a range problem, not just a kicker contest.