Aurimas Stanevicius Wins Kings of Vilnius Main Event

Legends are sometimes born but more often they are made. Lithuania’s Aurimas Stanevicius earned his legendary status in OlyBet and the poker world on Sunday evening when he defeated a field of 365 entries to win the 2024 Kings of Vilnius €1,100 Main Event for €61,455.

Stanevicius agreed to a deal when the heads-up match began against fellow Lithuanian Paulius Kostickis, guaranteeing Kostickis €53,275 and himself €49,955 with still €11,500 to play for before putting on a dominating heads-up performance to earn the title. Stanevicius already earned the most prestigious WSOP gold ring during the summer when he won the 2024 World Series of Poker Circuit Tallinn €1,500 Main Event for €167,600 and now will also be forever known as the first Kings of Vilnius Main Event champion. This was in addition to winning the 2023 OlyBet Showdown Vilnius €555 Main Event for €34,975 proving he will be a force to reckon with for years to come.

The festival itself was a massive success by all measures with 636 unique players from 27 countries create nearly €1 million in combined prize pools. The Main Event itself, made up for more than one-third of the prize pools with the €250,000 guarantee smashed by more than 40 percent with the 365 runners creating a €350,400 prize pool.

While Stanevicius was busy hunting down the Main Event title, two other players won trophies on the final day. Many eyes were on the two-day €555 NLH OlyBet Special with Lithuania’s Migle Kriksciunaite guaranteed to earn her biggest live tournament cash after advancing to the podium. She bowed out in third place for €7,100 before Lithuania’s Aivaras Kerusauskas and Spain’s Adria Comas I Roura agreed to a heads-up deal. Kerusauskas earned the trophy and the €13,895 top prize, while Roura also collected five-figures with a runner-up prize of €11,395.

Meanwhile, as the Main Event was wrapping up, the one-day €250 NLH Progressive KO was down to two players battling for the final trophy on the line with Norway’s Thomas Larsen and Lithuania’s Nikodemas Staniukaitis each locking up the €2,425 top prize with a massive bounty awaiting the winner. Staniukaitis eventually defeated his formidable opponent to earn the trophy.

Read on to learn more about Stanevicius’s road to victory in the 2024 Kings of Vilnius €1,100 Main Event.

Stanevicius’s Road to Victory in the Main Event

Aurimas Stanevicius began the final day in second place among the 19 players that each already locked up €3,850 and was only behind Marius Kudzmanas to start the day.

Players earned their first pay jump to €4,410 after 2020 Fisherman Challenge Main Event champion Martynas Racinskas and Ernestas Degtiariovas hit the rail. Lithuania’s Mykolas Savickas and Estonia’s Mati Pirn were the next to exit leaving the final 15 players with at least a €5,020 payout.

Latvia’s Arturs Putnins and Audrius Laimelis were both eliminated to earn the final 13 players another pay jump to €5,840, which was the prize claimed by Ignas Jasinevicius and Mantas Puidokas.

The final table bubble was reached after Deividas Butnoras exited in 11th place for €6,850. Norway’s Vidar Assersen earned the same prize as Butnoras after his king-ten didn’t improve against Stanevicius’s king-queen suited to start the final table. It was a bitter sweet ending for Assersen, who began the day by far with the shortest stack of eight big blinds and managed to hang around to nearly double his expect payout to start the day.

Stanevicius Kicks Off Final Table With Chip Lead

Stanevicius began the final table with the chip lead but Paulius Kostickis assumed control after winning a big pot with a flush holding queen-ten suited against Agnius Ismailovas seven-six suited straight out of the gate.

Kostickis padded his lead in a dramatic fashion that resulted in Algirdas Saveikis heading to the cashier in ninth place for €7,840. Saveikis committed his stack with big slick and improved to top two pair on the flop. He was far ahead of Kostickis’s pocket queens when Kostickis hit his two outer to the dismay of Saveikis.

Lithuania’s Albert Ostrovskij (eighth – €9,050) was unable to win a key flip against Sigitas Raila after his ace-queen didn’t connect with the board to win a flip against sevens. Kostickis was then back at it again and won a flip to eliminate the start-of-the-day chip leader Kudzmanas (seventh – €10,680) on a flip when ace-jack defeated nines.

A dinner break took place. Moments later, Mindaugas Kriauciunas (sixth – €12,960) lost his short stack on a bad beat to Sigitas Raila when his ace-king was ahead until the river against ace-queen.

Rokas Skridulis then doubled through Kostickis to get near the chip lead when his tens held against ace-four suited. Skridulis continued to pile on chips and had nearly half the chips in play with five players remaining when the next break took place.

Stanevicius had about 12 big blinds remaining and nearly lost most of that as well. Instead, he delivered a bad beat to Agnius Ismailovas (fifth – €16,520) when his ace-trey improved to a full house to defeat pocket eights. Shortly after, the eventual champion was once again short and below nine big blinds after he doubled Raila with king-four against king-queen. However, Stanevicius doubled back through Raila to gain some breathing room when his ace-ten suited defeated ace-seven.

Skridulis’s once huge chip lead then disappeared moments later on a massive cooler to Stanevicius. Skridulis held trips with ten-nine and doubled his opponent who turned a full house with queens for Stanevicius to earn first taste of the chip lead since the opening moments of the final table.

It wasn’t all smooth sailing from there for Stanevicius as he doubled Raila into the chip lead moments later when his king-nine suited didn’t do the job against Raila’s ace-four. Stanevicius briefly regained the lead before but this was also short-lived. Kostickis got back on top after doubling through Raila when his ace-six proved to be good against king-five.

Kostickis (fourth – €22,630) then padded his lead while also putting the nail in the coffin for Raila after his nine-eight suited won a flip against sixes. At this point, Skridulis was low on chips and jammed for four big blinds with ace-seven. Stanevicius called with king-six and improved to trips to eliminate Skridulis in third place for €30,390.

The clock was stopped to set the table up for the heads-up action including bringing the beautiful trophy onto the table with Kostickis holding a marginal lead over Stanevicius. A deal was agreed by both players leaving €11,500 to play for during this time.

Stanevicius put on a dominating display during the heads-up affair and quickly assumed control leaving his opponent with 16 big blinds when the final hand took place. Stanevicius limped the button with pocket fives. Kostickis jammed with queen-nine and Stanevicius called. Kostickis lost the flip to exit in second place for €53,275.

Meanwhile, Stanevicius had a big smile on his face and shook hands with Kostickis before chatting with friends and taking his official winner’s photo after winning the most coveted trophy of the Kings of Vilnius and earning €61,455 for his amazing performance.

2024 Kings of Vilnius Payouts