Day 1a of the €1,100 Main Event has concluded, and that’s a wrap for today’s live coverage of the 2025 OlyBet Showdown Riga Voodoo Autumn Edition from poker.pro. It’s been a long day, but, as always is the case with OlyBet events, it’s been massive fun, and the poker has been mesmerizing at times.
This poker.pro live reporter had an initial plan to focus solely on the aforementioned Main Event starting-day flight, but the €555 NLH Championship deserved its fair share of attention. This particular tournament has become a recurring affair on the OlyBet Showdown schedules in Tallinn, Riga, and Vilnius, and this turned out to be a record-breaking edition with 185 entries. This translated to a €87,875 prize pool, and a juicy €19,845 first-place payout.
The total number of entries was eventually reduced to 23, meaning those still alive in the tournament all were guaranteed a €1,120 min-cash. From that moment, the 2024 Queens of Tallinn Main Event winner Saara Fatiha Benlamine pretty much held the chip lead until only six players remained. She didn’t manage to bring it all home, though, as she busted out in fifth place.
We managed to pick up the action again when only two players remained. These were Latvian Jānis Meņģelis, who tried to secure yet another win for Latvia, and Xavier Lyu. The latter of the two had been all in for his tournament life with pocket jacks a couple of hours earlier and had managed to win a flip against the ace-queen of his opponent.
When the poker.pro live coverage team (consisting of Christoffer Karlén and Glenn Brown) picked up the action, Lyu held a three-to-one chip lead on Meņģelis. After some small- and medium-sized pots which saw the two contestants trading some chips back and forth, all the money eventually went in the middle pre-flop. Meņģelis got there on the river in dramatic fashion, and as such, he was crowned the winner of the biggest-ever edition of an OlyBet €555 NLH Championship.
€555 NLH Championship – Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Jānis Meņģelis | Latvia | € 19,845 |
| 2 |  Xavier Lyu | United States | € 12,840 |
| 3 | Eimantas Adomavičius | Lithuania | € 9,150 |
| 4 |  Stanislav Šmeljov | Estonia | € 7,120 |
| 5 |  Saara Fatiha Benlamine | Finland | € 5,490 |
| 6 | Tomas Bulkšas | Lithuania | € 4,270 |
| 7 |  Jānis Vasiļjevs | Latvia | € 3,400 |
| 8 |  Bahadir Hatipoglu | Turkey | € 2,840 |
| 9 |  Mathies Harbo Boesen | Denmark | € 2,420 |
In terms of Day 1a of the Main Event, the inaugural flight attracted 35 entries, meaning €32,300 was collected towards the prize pool. Some of the more familiar names in the mix were Gabi Livshitz, Aurimas Stanevicius, and Guillermo Gordo. Just as planned, Day 1a concluded at the end of Level 12. When the dust had settled, X players still stood tall, and they all received a bag for Day 2 each. Topping the chip counts after the first flight is Guillermo “GGordo” Gordo with 133,000.
€1,100 Main Event – Day 1a Chip Counts
| Position | Player | Country | Chips |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Guillermo Gordo | Spain | 133,000 |
| 2 | Victor Amat | Spain | 128,000 |
| 3 | Arunas Satkus | Lithuania | 119,500 |
| 4 |  Gabi Livshitz | Israel | 113,500 |
| 5 | Yaniv Peretz | Latvia | 94,500 |
| 6 | Ēriks Krūmiņš | Latvia | 78,500 |
| 7 | Dalius Balčiūnas | Lithuania | 73,000 |
| 8 | Gregory Telman | Israel | 68,000 |
| 9 | Jordi Baixas | Spain | 63,500 |
| 10 |  Andrei Silencov | Moldova | 58,000 |
| 11 | Jonas Lapinskas | Lithuania | 50,500 |
| 12 | Jon Alba | Spain | 38,000 |
The “Dream Team” that is Christoffer Karlén and Glenn Brown thanks everyone who’s been following along with the live action today. Now, a few hours’ sleep await before tomorrow’s live coverage kicks off at 12:00, when Day 1b of the Main Event starts. Also, poker.pro CEO Jason Glatzer will, as per usual, post a more thorough recap of today’s action tomorrow, including all the results from the side events.
