Yuri Ishida Snags 42nd Flag at Kings of Vilnius

The inaugural 2024 Kings of Vilnius has brought players from far and near to Olympic Casino Lietuva for tons of poker action.

The heroes of the day usually are defined by winning trophies. This author, Jason Glatzer, won one in the one-day Event #20: €150 HORSE earlier in the day, while Dainius Pociukonis shipped the one-day Event #22: €150 NLH later in the evening.

However, Japan’s Yuri Ishida accomplished something special on Wednesday. Celebrations took place when Yuri Ishida cashed in third place in the €150 HORSE event. One might ask, why would we celebrate a min-cash. But in this instance, it was nearly as good as the coveted trophy she was also seeking as it clinched her 42nd different flag at The Hendon Mob, placing her in exclusive company.

The poker globetrotter wasn’t done quite yet, as she also hopped into the €150 NLH after completing the €150 HORSE and ran her stack all the way to fourth place.

Meanwhile, Matas Budginas bagged the overnight chip lead in the €2,000 NLH High Roller. The event attracted 52 entries on its opening day. Others can still join the 20 survivors with late registration remaining open until the conclusion of the first blind level of Day 2 with the action kicking off at 1 p.m. This author will put his trophy aside and focus on reporting the blow-by-blow action in the OlyBet.tv blog.

Read on to learn what transpired on Day 6 of the 2024 Kings of Vilnius:

Poker Journalist Wins Trophy

This author, Jason Glatzer, has been looking forward to the day that he could title an article “Poker Journalist Wins Trophy” and got that opportunity to do so today. However, as happy as I was about winning the trophy and took a little pride in eliminating my friend and 2023 WSOP Europe 8-Game bracelet winner Danius Antanaitis, I understood at the time that bigger history was being made with Ishida finding her way into the money circle.

The event attracted a bigger crowd watching than actually played with the inaugural €150 HORSE event gathering nine entries for a €1,123 payout.

A unique situation occurred and was handled brilliantly by the floor. The action was down to just four hopefuls when Finland’s Pasi Rantanen hit the rail.

“I will likely re-enter on the break,” shared Rantanen as he began to walk away.

The floor made sure Rantanen stayed at the table and explained to him and the others playing that if he doesn’t re-enter, players are in the money. Rantanen thought about it for a minute before deciding enough was enough and Ishida celebrated with this author and the short-stacked Reinis Kluss from Latvia her accomplishment of gaining her 42nd country flag at The Hendon Mob, which was her goal coming to Vilnius.

Kluss was down to under two big bets when he began to forge a comeback eventually leading to Ishida exiting in third place. This author had what appeared to be an insurmountable chip lead. However, Kluss was confident that he would come back and was hungry for the trophy.

Kluss won several pots in a row to start the heads-up affair before momentum went back to this author after showing his opponent a huge bluff in Stud Hi where he had jacks on the board showing. It was this author’s turn to celebrate moments later as he earned his first poker trophy on Lithuanian soil along with the €563 top prize.

Dainius Pociukonis Wins €150 NLH

While the €2,000 High Roller was attracting some of the heavy hitters, many others opted to play the €150 NLH with 119 runners creating a €14,851 prize pool.

The pressure was off Ishida at this point in time as she planned to head to her next destination on Friday assuming she already earned her Lithuanian flag. This didn’t stop Ishida from forging ahead as she advanced all the way to fourth place for €1,290 leaving three local players competing for the title.

The three Lithuanians agreed to a deal before Dainius Pociukonis earned the €2,900 top prize. Nerijus Palubinskas finished second for €2,600, while Gerardas Lukšėnas advanced to the podium before also earning €2,600 for his third-place performance.

2024 Kings of Vilnius Day 7 Schedule (Thursday, November 21)

Two more trophies are slated to be awarded on Thursday with the €2,000 NLH High Roller coming to a conclusion and the one-day €250 NLH Progressive Bounty kicking off late in the evening.

Today is also the grand opening of the Kings of Vilnius €1,100 Main Event, boasting the largest guarantee in Lithuanian poker history with at least €250,000 on the line with Day 1a kicking off at 4 p.m. While many players already qualified via satellites, a few more will punch their seats via a €30 satellite guaranteeing three seats beginning at noon.

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