Vladas Tamasauskas Claims the Title and $239,600 First Place Prize in Event #1 $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em

Vladas Tamasauskas came into the Final Table of the record-setting Event #1 $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em six of seventh in chips and, despite back-and-forth swings all day, emerged victorious after defeating start-of-day chip leader Aram Zobian heads-up for the $239,000 first place prize. 

Heads-up play began as a methodical affair as both players traded the chip lead on multiple occasions, but with the close of registration for Event #2 looming, the pace of play quickened, and the deck began to favor the young Lithuanian with three straight hands to close out the tournament. 

With Zobian holding a two-to-one chip lead, the tide quickly turned in Tamasauskas' favor as he won a race with ace-five off against the king-seven suited of Zobian with an ace on the flop to double into the chip lead.

The deck again would favor Tamasauskas, as his king-eight would out turn the ace-eight of Zobian on an eight-jack-jack-king board to give the Russian twelve-to-one chip lead. 

The final hand in the sequence saw Tamasauskas limp the button with nines as Zobian moved all-in for his last 2,125,000 with queen-duece off. Following a snap call by Tamasauskas, the board ran out clean, and Zobian collected the $171,000 second-place prize. 

How the Rest of the Final Table Played Out

 Scott Jacewicz-O'Kelly came into the day third in chips, having already secured the biggest cash of his tournament career, but after having his ace-king bested by the ace-queen of Samuel Laskowitz, he found himself on the short stack when he picked up ace-king against the ace-ten suited of Victoria Livschitz. 

A king on the turn left Jacewicz-O'Kelly in great shape to double, but when a spade hit the river, Livschitz made the nut flush to eliminate him in seventh place for $57,000. 

A plethora of double-ups would follow as the short stacks traded positions up and down the chip counts until, finally, it was Samuel Laskowitz who ran his king-queen into the pocket queens of Tamasauskas to leave himself with just over a big blind. 

A hand later, Laskowitz would find himself all-in in the dark with six-five off against the pocket sevens of Ren Lin. Lin flopped a set, but Laskowitz held an open-ender. The turn and river left Laskowitz unimproved as he headed to the cage to collect the $68,400 sixth-place prize. 

Victoria Livschitz came into the day second in chips but would battle Zobian for the chip lead for much of the early part of the final table, but her tournament would come to an end at the hands of Tamasauskas when her flopped open-ender could not improve against the top two pair of Tamasauskas as she walked away with $79,800 for the fifth place finish. 

Filipp Khavin came into the day sixth of seventh in chips and was able to parlay his 30 big blind stack into a fourth-place finish after running his ace-ten into the pocket kings of Zobian, taking home the $102,600 fourth-place prize for his highest career tournament cash to date. 

Ren Lin began the day third in chips, and that is where he found himself as three-handed play began, but he would quickly find a double through Tamasauskas to pull even with the Lithuanian. 

Lin would eventually fall in third place for $125,400 when his king-ten was outkicked by the king-queen of Zobian for his last 1.4 million in chips. 

With the knockout, Zobian found himself with a nearly three-to-one chip lead to begin heads-up play against Tamasauskas and after battling back and forth for just over an hour before running into it over the last three hands. 

Event #1 $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em, saw a record-setting 114 entrants pass through the PokerGo Studio, with the top seventeen players finding a cash, collecting the PGT points, and earning their share of the $1,140,000 prize pool. Notables to finish just outside the final table included Jesse Lonis in 8th place for $45,600, Dylan Linde in 11th place for $34,000, Ryan Riess in 15th place for $22,800 and Anthony Zinno in 17th place for $17,100. 

2023 Poker Masters Event #1 Payouts

Place	Player	Country	Payout	PGT Points
1	Vladas Tamasauskas	Lithuania	$239,400	239
2	Aram Zobian	United States	$171,000	171
3	Ren Lin	China	$125,400	125
4	Filipp Khavin	United States	$102,600	103
5	Victoria Livschitz	United States	$79,800	80
6	Samuel Laskowitz	United State	$68,400	68
7	Scott Jacewicz-O'Kelly	United States	$57,000	57
8	Jesse Lonis	United States	$45,600	46
9	Ben Yu	United States	$45,600	46
10	John Krpan	Canada	$34,200	34
11	Dylan Linde	United States	$34,200	34
12	Byron Kaverman	United States	$34,200	34
13	Ping Liu	United States	$22,800	23
14	Matt Bond	United States	$22,800	23
15	Ryan Riess	United States	$22,800	23
16	Bin Weng	United States	$17,100	17
17	Anthony Zinno	United States	$17,100	17

The 2023 Poker Masters continues with Event #2 $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em and the PGT Live Reporting team will be on sight at the PokerGo Studio until a winner of the purple jacket is crowned on September 28th. 

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