Presumably, no one who woke up in Riga this morning was under the impression that this would be like any other Saturday in the Latvian capital. No, this twenty-seventh of September was deemed to be something extraordinary, and it all would be going down at the Olympic Voodoo Casino. On the schedule? The most intense day of the 2025 OlyBet Showdown Riga Voodoo Autumn Edition, and most importantly, the final day of the €1,100 Main Event.
From Idle to Chaos
The aforementioned Main Event had not disappointed up to the final day. A total of 150 entries had created a €142,500 prize pool, with a big €33,330 first-place payout awaiting the winner. When Day 2 concluded yesterday, i.e., September 26, ten players bagged their chips and, hopefully, got some good hours of sleep to be prepared for the grand finale.
The contestants arrived at the poker room shortly before 12:00 and took their seats. All presumptions were there for an affair to be remembered; would Roberts Krīgers be able to defend his Main Event title from the Spring Edition? Would the well-experienced Gabi Livshitz be able to make a legendary comeback from just six Big Blinds? Would the disciplined Ēriks Krūmiņš be able to follow up the great results he’s had recently? Or, would someone else come knocking out of left field? Only time would tell.
Considering there were ten of them, play started with two five-handed tables. It didn’t take too long before Henrik Veldhoen busted, which resulted in the floor quickly conducting a new seat draw. What followed then were two somewhat idle hours; some chips were trading owners back and forth, but overall, it was a very calm start to the final table. Of course, this was somewhat expected, as the payjumps were quite hefty.
When the final table started, Krūmiņš was the chipleader, and Krigers was not far behind. What’s more, Livshitz had managed to double up his stack twice prior to the final table and was now once again a force to be reckoned with.
The first major happening for the day was when Konstantin Arber found himself all-in against Edgars Beizaks, lost the coin flip, and survived with less than one Big Blind. In miraculous fashion, he managed to double up twice during one orbit – one time by cracking the aces of Arunas Satkus – and before you knew it, his stack had again reached respectable proportions.
That whole sequence was the spark that ignited the fire. From a somewhat calm preamble for the final day, it now became a certified bustout bonanza. The first victim on the final table would soon prove to be Edgars Beizaks; his pocket queens came up short to the ace-jack of Satkus, who had a top-three stack after that pot.
Satkus wasn’t done yet, though. He was out for blood, and his next victim would be the sole Finn at the final table, Pekka Ikonen. Ikonen was looking really good to double up and make a dent in the Satkus stack, but the Lithuanian managed to find a two-outer on the river, which saw Ikonen hitting the rail in somewhat brutal fashion.
Meanwhile, Arber’s stack had grown bigger after winning some chips here and some pots there. Eventually, he reached the threshold where he had Israelian Alexander Levin covered. Levin hung on to his relatively few chips for quite some time, but eventually, he couldn’t crack the pocket queens of Arber. Levin busted in seventh place.
Back to Satkus, who not only had been displaying great aggressive plays, but he also ran well. He picked up kings and knocked out Livshitz, who picked up ace-king at the worst time imaginable. The Satkus stack was now massive; in fact, with five players left, he had roughly 45 % of the chips in play. Speaking of ace-king versus pocket kings, that would also soon become the fate of Krūmiņš. There’s no doubt that Krūmiņš was the most active player on the table, and he showed why he’s a very prominent poker player. He lost 99 % of his stack to Arber, and Yaniv Peretz then delivered the final blow.
Krūmiņš and Krīgers have sort of the same vibe and aura; they both feel very serious about their poker and leave nothing to chance. Krīgers had done a great job surviving with a non-optimal amount of chips for some time and taking a couple of payjumps, but, eventually, Arber out-kicked the Latvian, who had to settle with a fourth-place finish.
Naturally, Satkus was the big stack with 50 % of the chips in play when three-handed play started. Peretz and Arber had pretty similar stacks in the beginning, but Peretz lost a couple of key hands, which drastically reduced his total number of chips. He soon thereafter lost a coin flip to Arber, and with Peretz out in third, the stage was set for a heads-up.
It can’t be said enough; what Arber was on the verge of achieving would go down in the international poker history books. Coming back in such a major tournament when having less than one Big Blind…it sounds like a Cinderella story. Unfortunately for him, the Satkus mountain was too big to climb. After not many more than ten hands, all the money was in the middle. It was a classic coinflip situation, and when Satkus hit one of his overcards on the flop, Arber wasn’t able to catch up.
With that, Satkus was crowned the winner of the €1,100 Main Event during the 2025 OlyBet Showdown Riga Voodoo Autumn Edition. He takes home the coveted trophy and the €33,330 first-place prize; by far the Lithuanians biggest live cash.
€1,100 Main Event – Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Arunas Satkus | Lithuania | €33,330 |
| 2 |  Konstantin Arber | Gemany | €22,060 |
| 3 |  Yaniv Peretz | Latvia | €15,950 |
| 4 | Roberts Krīgers | Latvia | €12,430 |
| 5 | Ēriks Krūmiņš | Latvia | €9,650 |
| 6 |  Gabi Livshitz | Israel | €7,510 |
| 7 | Alexander Levin | Israel | €5,850 |
| 8 |  Pekka Ikonen | Finland | €4,730 |
| 9 | Edgars Beizaks | Latvia | €3,800 |
While that’s a wrap for the Main Event and the poker.pro live coverage, the festival is not quite finished yet. The schedule for tomorrow (Sunday, September 28) features the final day of the €350 OlyBOOST Mystery Bounty, a €250 NLH Deepstack, and a €20 Satellite to the aforementioned Deepstack.
The OlyBet Showdown Riga Voodoo should be a must on all poker enthusiasts’ calendars. It’s an absolute stellar event; everything from the staff, the venue, the tournament structures…it’s flawless. Big credit goes to everyone who’s been working day and night to create such a nice atmosphere.
