The third Poker Masters Event of this year’s festival saw a double winner emerge from the fray as Lithuanian player Valdas Tamasauskas won the $10,000-entry Event #3 for a top prize of $208,800. Incredibly, it was Tamasauskas’ second win in three opening events to this series after he crushed the opening event field for a score of $239,000. Incredibly, he made it two out of three.

Kornuth Goes from Hero to Zero

“People talk about fold equity, but I’m all about the show equity.”

In Event #2, it was the four-time WPT Main Event winner Darren Elias who ruled the roost but the New Jersey native didn’t make the final six of Event #3. Instead, of the final six players, Michael Rocco was the slightly less familiar name that headed the chipcounts. Leading the final six with 2.74 million, Tamasauskas found himself the short stack, with just 1.11 million to his name. How the tables would turn.

With 87 entrants in total, the event saw a ‘lucky’ 13 players paid, including stars such as Brock Wilson (12^th), Ryan Riess (11^th) and Dan Shak (8^th) before Andrew ‘Chewy’ Lichtenberger busted in 7^th place to bring about the final half dozen. Chance Kornuth was among the finalists but needed to double up to stay in contention. Early on, he tried to do so by shoving with and upon his opponent – Ren Lin – folding, quipped, “People talk about fold equity, but I’m all about the show equity.”

Soon after, Kornuth moved all-in pre-flop, having fallen behind fellow shortie Vladas Tamasauskas. Calling it off with , Kornuth was well behind pre-flop, as the Lithuanian turned over and easily survived a ten-high board to scalp Kornuth, sending the triple WSOP bracelet winner home with $52,200.

Rocco Hits the Rail

Five players remained, but not for long. With one of the most important pots of the entire tournament going against the overnight chip leader Michael Rocco, a flop of was checked by Rocco to Tamasauskas, and his bet was only called. On the turn of a , Rocco check-called a bet of over twice the size and both players saw a river of . Tamasauskas bet almost all of his remaining stack and Rocco called it off, showing for a full house, fives over queens. It wasn’t good enough to take the pot of 4.9 million chips, however, as the Lithuanian’s hand was for a superior full house of sevens over fives.

Rocco, down to just 45,000 chips, chopped a hand to double up but found himself all-in for 125,000 on the button with . That ended up being no good against Daniel Rezaei’s as the Austrian had flopped two pair, and no king or ten arrived on 4^th street. Rocco’s cash in fifth place was $69,600.

The chips changed hands on multiple occasions over the next hour, but while Alex Foxen at one point sat pretty in third place, the Jack Reacher lookalike eventually got knocked out. On a board showing , Foxen check-raised all-in with . His rivered two pair looked good, but it wasn’t as good as Rezaei’s slow-played gave him top set on the flop and was good enough to see off Foxen for a cash of $87,000.

Lin Loses Out at the Last

Three players remained, but with Tamasauskas and Rezaei holding around 90% of the remaining chips, it would have been easy to write off the chances of Ren Lin. As many has discovered recently, however, you do so at your peril. The Chinese player attacks the game of No Limit Hold’em like few others and he played fearlessly to battle back. Lin doubled through Rezaei before the latter then lost a big pot to Tamasauskas with the Lithuanian hero calling on the river.

A short time later, Lin was all-in with and the short-stacked Rezaei called with two live cards, holding . The board of didn’t help the Austrian as he slid out for $104,400, the first six-figure score of the event. Heads-up was about to begin and Tamasauskas had put himself in the box seat, holding 7,925,000 chips. Lin was the underdog, starting with 2.95 million chips himself.

Lin doubled into the lead after winning a coinflip with against Tamasauskas’ . It looked like disaster when a queen was in the window, but a six behind it gave Lin the advantage. That turned on its head when Tamasauskas made a quite brilliant call with bottom pair on a board where Lin’s bluff was almost equally inspired.

The Lithuanian led when he shoved with . Lin called it off with , and the board of pronounced Tamasauskas the winner of the third event to match his victory in Event #1. What a start to the 2023 Poker Masters.

If you’re a PokerGO subscriber, then you can watch all the action from Event #3 of the 2023 Poker Masters right here.