Stars are often born, but some stars take matters into their own hands as they grow brightly in the sky. Tuesday witnessed a new star born on the international stage with Rytis Pranarauskas securing his first internationally recorded victory at The Hendon Mob in a live poker tournament after shipping the 2025 OlyBet Showdown Vilnius €2,200 High Roller for €13,320 on the fourth day of the 2025 OlyBet Showdown Vilnius at Olympic Casino Lietuva.
It was a dominating performance for Pranarauskas as he entered the final table with a substantial chip lead before going coast-to-coast, including defeating Rokas Asipauskas heads-up en route to the title.
While Pranarauskas was easily the star of the day, he wasn’t the only trophy winner. Rokas Šermukšnis defeated fellow Lithuanian Vygerdas Jonikas heads-up to win the €2,739 top prize in the €150 NLH.
Additionally, the second of two opening flights in the €555 NLH Championship was in the books, with 168 entries adding €79,800 to the prize pool, with 46 players remaining. The field and prize pool will continue to grow on Wednesday’s Day 2, with late registration open for the first two 40-minute blind levels after the action commences at Noon. The poker.pro team will shift gears from the High Roller to cover the €555 Championship in detail over the next two days until a winner is crowned.
There is still plenty of time to battle in what promises to be a memorable OlyBet Showdown Vilnius from May 17-25 with 30 action-packed events. While this might be short notice for a last-minute plan, OlyBet is thrilled to announce the return of the third WSOP Circuit Tallinn on July 25 to August 3 at Olympic Park Casino.
Read more to learn more about the fourth day at the 2025 OlyBet Showdown Vilnius.
- Read more: Dates and Schedule Released for the 2025 WSOPC Tallinn
- Read more: 2025 OlyBet Showdown Vilnius Schedule and More at OlyBet Events.
- Read more: The OlyBet Showdown Vilnius Showcases a New Look (May 17-25)
- Read more: 2025 OlyBet Showdown Vilnius Boasts €1,100 Main Event
- Read more: 2025 OlyBet Showdown Vilnius Day 1: Packed Opening Day Sets the Stage
- Read more: 2025 OlyBet Showdown Vilnius Day 2: Sunday-Funday Awards Three Trophies
- Read more: 2025 OlyBet Showdown Vilnius Day 3: Bahadir Hatipoglu Wins Five Card Omaha
- Read more: €2,200 High Roller live reporting coverage at poker.pro
- Read more: €555 NLH live reporting coverage at poker.pro
Rare Final Table Action as Pranarauskas Cruises to Victory by Live Reporter Christoffer Karlen
Live reporter Christoffer Karlen was on the scene reporting the €2,200 High Roller after late registration was closed until a winner was crowned. Here’s a look at how the action went down.
The fourth day of the 2025 OlyBet Vilnius Showdown featured many delicacies on the menu. Perhaps, the €2,200 High Roller was the event that tickled the most feathers. This was the tournament poker.pro had set out to cover, and considering the rare, entertaining, and astonishing conclusion the tournament had, we’re glad we had the opportunity to stay ’til the end.
Let’s Get Ready to Rumble
The €2,200 High Roller was scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. With its deep structure and juicy buy-in, the tournament looked very appealing from a spectator’s perspective. It was hard not to think about the success of the last High Roller event at the Olympic Casino Lithuania, which was played during the 2025 OlyBet Showdown Vilnius Ace Breaker. The €1,100 tournament attracted 96 entries, and it was hard to estimate how many players would take their shot in a tournament with a twice as large buy-in.
The poker.pro live reporting team started following the tournament around 7 p.m., about one hour before the dinner break was scheduled. At this point, 11 players remained out of 18 entries. While this number may have been lower than last year, the tournament had attracted some big names including the number two on the Lithuania all-time money list Matas Cimbolas, 2024 Kings of Tallinn winner Edgaras Kausinis, and 2025 Ace Breaker Vilnius winner Rasmus Sihvonen were just a handful of the very competent players still in the mix.
One of the first happenings we were able to cover was the elimination of Artiom Gončarenko. All his chips went the way of Rytis Pranarauskas, and the terminator kept adding to his stack, as it wasn’t long before he eliminated Sihvonen, right before the 45-minute dinner break.
No One’s Hungry
Considering that only nine players remained at this point, they collectively suggested to the floor that the dinner break be shortened. Eventually, it was deemed that the time for supper would be reduced from 45 to 30 minutes, and if no one else registered during this time, the nine-handed final table would be set.
This would be the case as registration closed at 18 entries, creating a €34,560 prize pool and four pay-outs. The nine players took their seats and prepared to fight for eternal poker glory and the €13,820 first-place prize.
The first one to go was Cimbolas, as his kings were cracked. Presumably, the rest of the tables welcomed this news, considering Cimbolas’s successful career. Rumors have it we will see him return to the €1,100 Main Event later this week.
The next one to fall was the only lady in the tournament. Always with a smile on her lips and bringing nothing but good vibes to the poker table, Iryna Tsikhanskaya displayed some great poker throughout the tournament, but eventually, she fell to Rokas Asipauskas.
Worth mentioning is that while all of this went down, Pranarauskas was still the chipleader, and had been such since the second the poker.pro team set foot in the Olympic Casino Lithuania. He was miles ahead of everyone else. Eventually, Kausinis found himself all in against Asipauskas, and with the latter one pulling the longest straw, he closed in on 200,000 which at least in theory could make a dent in the Pranarauskas stack. The charismatic Kausinis was eliminated in seventh place three hands later.
End Game
Eventually, Mantas Bagočius was eliminated in sixth place, and the remaining five players decided to take €500 from every payout position and add a fifth bubble prize. Said and done, Aleksandras Rusinovas got his stack in against the aces of – you guessed it – Pranarauskas, and as he received no help, he was eliminated in fifth place for €2,000.
Then, when four players remained, the most insane thing of the day went down, as Pranarauskas managed to eliminate Mindaugas Kriaučiūnas and Jungevičius in the same hand. This meant that he eventually would commence Heads-up against Asipauskas with 700,000 against 200,000.
Heads-up play didn’t last much longer than perhaps 15 minutes before Asipauskas suggested an all in “in the dark” encounter. Pranarauskas accepted the offer, and as his King High was good on the runout, he eliminated Asipauskas, claimed the title, and the newly-adjusted €13,320 first-place payout.
| Place | Player | Country | Payout |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Rytis Pranarauskas | Lithuania | €13,320 |
| 2 | Rokas Asipauskas | Lithuania | €9,180 |
| 3 | Kęstutis Jungevičius | Lithuania | €5,720 |
| 4 | Mindaugas Kriaučiūnas | Lithuania | €4,340 |
| 5 | Aleksandras Rusinovas | Lithuania | €2,000 |
To sum it all up; Pranarauskas held the chip lead from the moment we set foot in the room until he stood there with the trophy. He displayed great poker throughout the day, and it’ll be a thrill to follow him during the remainder of the week.
Rokas Šermukšnis Wins €150 NLH
The €150 NLH attracted 74 entries, creating a €9,139 prize pool. Despite players from nearby Baltic countries, Latvia and Estonia, being locked out of the final table, it was still an international affair. More than half the field was from Lithuania, along with two Americans, Michael Brautigam (fourth – €935) and Arnestas Armonas (sixth – €560), a player from Germany Thomas Danielmeier (fifth – €680) and a sole player from Finland Niklas Breilin (ninth – €295).
Gintaras Naglius was the first to earn a four-figure prize after bowing out in third place for €1,280 before Vygerdas Jonikas fell victim heads-up to Rokas Šermukšnis to earn the €1,825 runner-up prize.
Meanwhile, congrats to Rokas Šermukšnis for winning a coveted trophy at the 2025 OlyBet Showdown Vilnius for €2,739 in the €150 NLH.
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rokas Šermukšnis | Lithuania | €2,739 |
| 2 | Vygerdas Jonikas | Lithuania | €1,825 |
| 3 | Gintaras Naglius | Lithuania | €1,280 |
| 4 |  Michael Brautigam | United States | €935 |
| 5 |  Thomas Danielmeier | Germany | €680 |
| 6 | Arnestas Armonas | United States | €560 |
| 7 | Algimantas Jablonskas | Lithuania | €460 |
| 8 | Svajūnas Šeduikis | Lithuania | €365 |
| 9 |  Niklas Breilin | Finland | €295 |
€555 NLH Championship Day 2 Seat Draw
| Table | Seat | Player | Country | Chips | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 2 | Vidas Encius | Lithuania | 126,000 | 63 |
| 2 | 3 | Jouni Huovila | Finland | 107,000 | 54 |
| 2 | 5 | Darius Šimkus | Lithuania | 29,000 | 15 |
| 2 | 6 |  Drea Karlsen | Norway | 37,000 | 19 |
| 2 | 7 | Osku Karttunen | Finland | 21,500 | 11 |
| 2 | 8 | Vygerdas Jonikas | Lithuania | 70,000 | 35 |
| 2 | 9 | Dmitri Dudakov | Estonia | 100,000 | 50 |
| 3 | 1 | Jonas Lapinskas | Lithuania | 176,000 | 88 |
| 3 | 3 | Erikas Goriacevskis | Lithuania | 108,500 | 54 |
| 3 | 4 | Nerius Rutkauskas | Lithuania | 149,500 | 75 |
| 3 | 5 | Stanislovas Viničenka | Lithuania | 249,000 | 125 |
| 3 | 6 | Alenas Pelegrimas | Lithuania | 68,000 | 34 |
| 3 | 7 | Edgaras Petkevičius | Lithuania | 91,000 | 46 |
| 3 | 9 | Povilas Latvėnas | Lithuania | 77,000 | 39 |
| 4 | 2 | Jarmo Salonen | Finland | 36,000 | 18 |
| 4 | 3 | Ridas Bitauskas | Lithuania | 175,000 | 88 |
| 4 | 4 |  Miguel Fernandez | Spain | 99,000 | 50 |
| 4 | 6 | Rokas Skridulis | Lithuania | 35,500 | 18 |
| 4 | 7 | Paulius Gaidulevicius | Lithuania | 228,000 | 114 |
| 4 | 8 | Edvinas Tarasevičius | Lithuania | 101,000 | 51 |
| 4 | 9 | Arturas Drepinas | Lithuania | 89,500 | 45 |
| 5 | 1 | Orintas Petkevičius | Lithuania | 24,500 | 12 |
| 5 | 3 | Marius Vaičiulis | Lithuania | 220,000 | 110 |
| 5 | 4 | Mantas Ungulaitis | Lithuania | 133,000 | 67 |
| 5 | 5 | Kazimieras Ramaška | Lithuania | 184,500 | 92 |
| 5 | 6 | Vitalijus Briazkala | Lithuania | 105,000 | 53 |
| 5 | 7 | Modestas Kryžanauskas | Lithuania | 51,500 | 26 |
| 5 | 9 | Marek Žigel | Lithuania | 78,000 | 39 |
| 6 | 1 | Liutauras Armanavičius | Lithuania | 118,500 | 59 |
| 6 | 2 |  Bruno Rejs Corns | Latvia | 151,500 | 76 |
| 6 | 3 | Audrius Navickas | Lithuania | 113,500 | 57 |
| 6 | 4 | Raimundas Sapiega | Lithuania | 88,500 | 44 |
| 6 | 8 | Jurgis Garšva | Lithuania | 133,500 | 67 |
| 6 | 9 | Kęstutis Jungevičius | Lithuania | 10,500 | 5 |
| 7 | 1 | Arnestas Armonas | United States | 149,000 | 75 |
| 7 | 3 | Paulius Jucys | Lithuania | 208,500 | 104 |
| 7 | 4 | Aurelijus Sipavičius | Lithuania | 201,000 | 101 |
| 7 | 5 | Mindaugas Biriukovas | Lithuania | 185,500 | 93 |
| 7 | 6 | Andrius Mažeika | Lithuania | 69,500 | 35 |
| 7 | 8 | Marijus Dirgela | Lithuania | 36,500 | 18 |
| 8 | 1 | Vidar Assersen | Norway | 54,000 | 27 |
| 8 | 2 | Kevinas Korsakas | Lithuania | 21,000 | 11 |
| 8 | 4 | Lukas Poškus | Lithuania | 51,500 | 26 |
| 8 | 6 | Lukas Peteška | Lithuania | 125,000 | 63 |
| 8 | 7 | Aivaras Kerušauskas | Lithuania | 289,000 | 145 |
| 8 | 8 | Vasilijus Piskunovas | Lithuania | 82,500 | 41 |
2025 OlyBet Showdown Vilnius Day 5 Schedule (Wednesday, May 21)
Players will not only be battling down to a final table in the €555 NLH Championship at 12 p.m., Wednesday also marks the start of the crown-jewel of the festival in the €1,100 NLH Main Event with Day 1a kicking off three hours later at 3 p.m.
While trophies won’t be awarded in either of those events, players will have one chance at glory at Wednesday in the one-day €250 PLO4/PLO5 Progressive Bounty at 7 p.m.
The day ends with tons of value with four seats guaranteed to the €1,100 Main Event in the €80 Mega Satellite at 9:30 p.m.
Check out today’s schedule below or head to the OlyBet Events website for the full schedule.
| Time | Event |
|---|---|
| 12:00 | Event #9: €555 NLH Championship Day 2 |
| 15:00 | Event #15: €1,100 NLH Main Event Day 1a |
| 19:00 | Event #16: €250 PLO4/PLO5 Progressive Bounty |
| 21:30 | Event #17: €80 Mega Satellite to €1,100 Main Event (4 Seats GTD) |
