Paulius Plausinaitis won the largest WSOP Circuit event in history, earning an almost unthinkable $1.2 million for his efforts. He defeated a massive field of 6,395 players on the GGPoker site. In doing so, he earned a gold Circuit ring and life-changing money.
Plausinaitis certainly isn't a household name among the poker community. In live tournaments, the Lithuanian champion has just $53,000 in winnings. But he now has a huge score to his name and perhaps with his increased bankroll, we'll now see him compete in more major events.
The champion took down the $1,700 WSOP Circuit Online Main Event on GGPoker, a two-day tournament that attracted the largest field in WSOPC history. Many poker players missed out on an opportunity to also cash in on his victory. That is because Plausinaitis tried selling off a piece of his action before the tournament but didn't find any takers. He'll gladly accept all of the $1,236,361 he won, however.
Plausinaitis entered the final table of nine with a fairly large chip lead at 95 big blinds. Artem "Amsterq" Prostak from Belarus had the second largest stack with 68 big blinds. Despite his sizable lead, four players had 59 or more big blinds when the final table began. That included the great Joseph Cheong, a 2019 WSOP bracelet winner and the third place finisher in the 2010 WSOP Main Event.
So, the champ had to earn that victory against some tough competition. The breaks went his way throughout much of the final table, but he did lose that chip lead at one point during heads-up play against an unknown Israeli player using the screen name "turkey1."
Plausinaitis loses lead, battles back
After Cheong was eliminated in 3rd place, good for $692,276, Plausinaitis began heads-up play with a 5-1 chip advantage. It took "turkey1" very little time to double-up, as he did with A-Q against pocket 4's — all-in pre-flop — on a board that ran out K-K-8-J-A. The river saved "turkey1" and kept his hopes alive.
The Israelia poker player then added some more chips over the next few hands and was all of a sudden only down a bit. Before long, "turkey1" had grinded his way into a 2-1 chip lead, completely erasing a massive deficit.
But Plausinaitis, with the queen of spades in his hand, doubled up on a four-spade board against the jack of spades, and regained a big lead.
He then put away his opponent thanks to a fortunate turn card, although he was ahead when all the money went in. On the final hand, "turkey1" moved all-in with Q-9 and got a call from A-10. The flop came out 9-3-3, a beautiful sight for "turkey1." But the A on the turn and 8 on the river gave Plausinaitis a winning hand with top-pair and ended the two-day event.
For his runner-up finish, "turkey1" received $923,165. Not a bad consolation prize at all.
Featured image source: Twitter
