The first event of the 2023 Poker Masters saw Lithuanian player Vladas Tamasauskas win the title and top prize of $239,000 as 114 entrants saw 17 players reach the money. A thrilling denouement in the opening event saw Tamasauskas take the trophy after beating players such as Victoria Livschitz, Ren Lin and his heads-up opponent, Aram Zobian.

Seven Start the Final

After a busy first day in the event, the final table took place on Day 2 of the $10,000 buy-in opener and featured seven players. Scott Jacewicz-O’Kelly was one of five players at the final table who hailed from the United States, but he fell to fellow American Livschitz with all the chips in the middle pre-flop.

With the final table taking over four hours to play down to a winner, Jacewitz-O’Kelly was all-in pre-flop with , called by Livschitz with the worst hand of . The flop was a dangerous , and although Livschitz’ spade nut flush draw didn’t come in on the turn which ruled out tens as outs, the river was the and that gave the PokerStaker player, who sold action to her opening event on the Poker Masters Staking page.

After Jacewicz-O’Kelly had cashed for $57,000, the final six began to play down to a winner, with Livschitz taking over the chip lead on 3.43 million chips. Ren Lin (2.65m) and Samuel Laskowitz (2.23m) were in hot pursuit, with Aram Zobian (2.15m), Filipp Khzavin (1.92m) and the short-stacked Tamasauskas (1.88m) chasing the leader across a fairly balanced set of chipcounts.

Laskowitz and Livschitz Laid to Rest

Out in sixth place for $68,400 was Sam Laskowitz. This time, the all-in and at risk player did not have the best of it pre-flop, getting it in from the big blind for a micro-stack with . Ren Lin made the call with the much better . The flop of gave both players something, with Lin flopping middle set and Laskowitz clinging to the chances of a straight. That didn’t come in on the turn or river, and Lin chipped up at the expense of a second American to bust consecutively.

Livschitz, having doubled up Aram Zobian, busted next in fourth for $79,800. Check-raising all-in on a flop of , Livschitz had an open straight draw, holding . She was some way behind Tamasauskas with . The turn of did nothing to help Livschitz, and nor did the river of an .

That pot gave Tamasauskas the lead for the first time at the final table, but his domination didn’t last. Zobian took out Khavin as the fourth consecutive American player busted at the final table. Khavin’s was committed from under-the-gun position pre-flop but ran into Zobian’s , which easily rode out the board of to vault into a convincing chip lead. Khavin departed for a healthy score of $102,600.

Zobian Unable to See it Home

Three players remained, and with Zobian now on 7.52 million chips, Tamasauskas (4.65m) and Lin (207,500) were in different states of an uphill climb if they wanted to win the trophy and $239,000 top prize. Lin doubled once, through Tamasauskas, but eventually moved all-in from the button with and was crushed by Zobian’s to finish in third place for $125,400.

Heads-up, Tamasauskas had just 3,550,000 chips, some way short of Zobian with 10,700,000. A series of smallball pots without the cards being revealed saw the Lithuanian take the chip lead, but Zobian battled back to regain a much slimmer advantage. Tamasauskas got a full double when his held against Zobain’s with the trophy on the line, and suddenly, the Lithuanian had almost a 2:1 chip lead.

Winning another small pot, Tamasauskas had an almost 8:1 chip lead. Pre-flop, he limped with and that trap fell right on the head of Zobian, who shoved with . Tamasauskas snap-called and a board of pronounced him the winner, Zobian collecting the runner-up prize of $171,000.