The Rise and Rise of Vladas Tamasauskas
Of all the players who have travelled to Jeju in South Korea to play the recent Triton Poker Series, Vladas Tamasauskas might have been more excited than most. Far from a veteran of such events, Vlad’s buy-in levels have been more around the $5,000-$10,000 mark over the past few years. Recent results in high rollers in last year’s WSOP Paradise and a year ago in Barcelona gave Vladas a bankroll boost of over $1.12 million. Now he is putting it to use in the Far East.
The Humble Beginnings of a Poker Hero
Today, Vladas has just eclipsed $5.2 million in lifetime earnings, and sits inside the world’s top 500 poker players in the history of the game. But his beginnings in the live arena were humble. A cash for $21,164 in an EPT Prague side event in 2015 was followed up on six days later by another, worth just $1,216. The places – 11th of 1,893 and 14th from 143 entries – showed promise, but neither result was a major score.
What followed next changed everything. Winning the EPT Dublin Main Event in February 2016 for $198,681 wasn’t just a breakthrough result but one that stunned the poker world. The final table contained hurdles of varying height everywhere. The experienced online crusher Sam Vousden was overcome in fifth place. Two Irish heroes were outlasted in the final three, as Mark Reilly and Dave Pollock were beaten by Vladas. It was the first really big win in his career.
If that result should have proven a catapult to other signature wins, they didn’t immediately come. No cash above four figures entered the books until December of that year when a return trip to Prague yielded Vladas’ second six-figure score of his career. Winning $201,794 in the Eureka Main Event showed two things; Vladas could outlast massive multi-table tournament fields as well as anyone – 2,029 opponents in this case – and applying the same principles to his game when the stakes were at their highest didn’t faze him at all.
Becoming a Top Pro
Winning a couple of six-figure scores can set a poker player up for the next stage of their career, but it cannot play the cards for them. Over the next six years, nothing came close to Vladas’ victories in Prague and Dublin. It would be six years until his runner-up result in Prague was overtaken in monetary terms, when he came fourth in the WSOP Europe Main Event. This time in Rozvadov, the Czech Republic was a happy hunting ground for Vladas as he took home $451,112 in falling just short of the winning player, Swedish pro Omar Eljach.
This time, Vladas’ big result was followed by a spate of other six-figure scores. Just nine months later, he came third in the EPT High Roller in Barcelona for $439,650. A fortnight later, he’d won not one but two Poker Masters events, claiming over $447,000 in the process. And in August of last year, Vladas took home $829,766 for coming second in an EPT Barcelona High Roller event.
Amazingly, each of the times he’d won over six figures until this point came in events where the buy-in was $10,000 or less. That’s an astonishing return on investment and Vladas used PokerStake to mitigate his entry fees along the way, winning plenty for investors on the site, too.
Winning Big in Jeju
Across the first four events he played in Jeju, South Korea this week, Vladas has cashed in three of them, reaching a final table too. In Event #1, the entry fee of $15,000 was turned into $32,000 after Vladas came 21st in the event. In Event #2, Vladas made it to the brink of the final table, coming 10th for $66,000, another considerable return on the $20,000 buy-in.
In Event #5, Vladas won $95,000, reaching eighth place as he battled for success in the $25,000-entry No Limit Hold’em event. His exit was unfortunate too, Vladas moving all-in with pocket queens and losing to the eventual winner Aliaksei Boika’s ace-queen when a three-outer ace landed on the turn.
More winnings are surely to come in Jeju, as the South Korean city continues to play to Vladas’ tune. You can invest in his next events by signing up to PokerStake as a buyer via his official seller page, where you can see all his previous wins on the site. With Vladas Tamasauskas on the charge, you won’t want to miss out on his latest win.