Robertas Sakinis Wins Kings of Vilnius €2,000 High Roller

The Kings of Vilnius continues to deliver with Thursday proving to be another exciting day at Olympic Casino Lietuva.

Lithuania’s Robertas Sakinis was the star of the day after winning a hard-fought back-and-forth heads up affair against Netherlands’s Tobias Napel to win the two-day Event #19: €2,000 NLH High Roller for the €36,190 top prize.

Another Lithuanian won the only other trophy of the day after Valdemaras Apolianskas defeated Andrius Dubietis heads-up in the one-day Event #24: €250 Progressive Knockout for €2,080 plus bounties.

In other news, Thursday marked the start of what promises to be the largest poker tournament in Lithuanian poker history in the €250,000 guaranteed Kings of Vilnius €1,100 Main Event. The event is off to a rocking start with already 142 entries in the mix during the first of three opening flights. Lithuania’s Mindaugas Kriaučiūnas, who recently appeared at the final table only to bow out in ninth place in the 2024 WSOP Circuit Tallinn €1,500 Main Event, is looking to improve on that result. So far, so good, as Kriaučiūnas bagged the overnight chip lead after parlaying his 30,000 opening stack into 388,000. Nobody else is even close with Sigitas Raila bagging the second-largest stack of 200,000.

Read on to learn more about the €2,000 High Roller and the plan for Friday:

Sakinis Defeats Talented High Roller Field

The two-day €2,000 NLH High Roller attracted 59 entries, including seven late entries on Day 2, to create a €105,876 prize pool.

Lithaunia’s Matas Budginis kicked off the final day with the chip lead with Robertas Sakinis in the middle of the pack. Just 23 players remained by the time late registration closed with just seven players getting paid.

Glen Gaines began the nine-player final table with the chip lead after his ace-king held against ace-five to eliminate Greece’s Konstantinos Tzinis on the final table bubble. The money bubble was reached soon after when Tobias Napel jammed jack-seven suited and hit his seven to eliminate Lithuania’s Sergej Babincev on a bad beat with ace-jack.

Shortly after, Sakinis had his first taste with the chip lead at the final table and padded that with applause from around the room after his ace-king held strong against ace-nine to eliminate the formidable Kasparas Klezys on the money bubble.

The flood gates then opened for Sakinis as he quickly eliminated two more players. He first won a coin flip with ace-queen against tens to eliminate the start-of-the-day chip leader Budginis in seventh place for €5,296. Shortly after, he delivered a bad beat to Mantas Bagocius (sixth – €6,620) when his ace-nine nailed a nine on the turn to get ahead of ace-queen.

Napel then ousted the short-stacked Audrius Stakelis in fifth place for €8,300 after they got the money in on the flop with top pair against middle pair.

Italy’s Michael Uguccioni (fourth – €10,960) managed to double through Sakinis only to fall to the chip leader shortly after when his queen-nine suited bricked the board against king-five suited.

Gaines eventually regained the lead during three-handed play. But the lead bounced back to Sakinis with Gaines eventually sliding down to third place. Gaines committed his stack with king-deuce suited on the five-trey-deuce flop with also a backdoor flush draw and headed to the cashier to collect his third-place prize of €15,400 after not improving against Napel’s sevens.

Sakinis held a marginal chip lead to kick off the heads-up action.

“Do you want to agree to making a deal and playing for €5,000?” asked Napel shortly before the heads-up action began.

Sakinis wasnt interested in dealing and may have regretted that early on as it was a back-and-forth four-level heads-up battle with constant lead changes. Eventually, Napel committed his stack with ace-five and was eliminated one player shy of the trophy after getting ahead of Sakinis’s big slick to earn the runner-up prize of €23,110.

Meanwhile, a massive congratulations is in order for Lithuania’s Robertas Sakinis for entering his name in the Lithuanian poker history books with a massive €2,000 NLH High Roller victory for €36,190.

2024 Kings of Vilnius Day 8 Schedule (Friday, November 22)

Get ready for some fun and excitement on Friday, November 23 as the weekend approaches. Friday not only boasts the final two opening flights on the €250,000 guaranteed Kings of Vilnius €1,100 Main Event but also will award three trophies including in the first-ever €250 PL Sviten Championship.

Two hold’em trophies will be on the line in hold’em events as well, and, of course, cash games will be running nonstop throughout the weekend.

Check out the full schedule below and head to OlyBetEvents to see what is coming up the rest of the weekend.