When the doors swung open at the Merit Royal Diamond Hotel Casino & Spa in Northern Cyprus this morning, only a handful of opportunities remained to win an Onyx High Roller Series trophy. As quick as a flash, the latest chance to do so has vanished, with Paulius Vaitekunas taking down the $10,200 Bounty event after just over three hours of play.
Attracting just seven entries, the entire $32,200 regular prize pool was set aside for the champion; however, each player also had the chance to earn a $5,000 bounty for every opponent they eliminated.
Unsurprisingly, the eventual champion claimed the most bounties. Vaitekunas eliminated three of his six opponents to collect an additional $15,000, while also keeping his own $5,000 bounty, taking his total haul to $52,200.
Highlighting just how quickly he managed to take down the event, Vaitekunas pointed out that he wasn’t even registered from the start. One of just two late entrants, he played for more than an hour less than those who had been there from the beginning.
“Live, [this is] probably this was the quickest tournament [I’ve played]. I entered at Level 4, and now it’s Level 11, and it’s done!”
$10,200 Bounty Final Table Result
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Paulius Vaitekunas | Lithuania | $32,200 |
Signing Off in Style
The brevity of the night was certainly not lost on Vaitekunas, who was more than happy to have the tournament wrapped up before the evening had really begun.
“It’s not a very long night, which is important. We’ll get a good sleep, and yeah, I’m happy to win.”
His previous experience in fast-paced, short-handed poker also appeared to serve him well, with Vaitekunas comfortable navigating the wider ranges and different dynamics that came with such a small field.
“I used to play Spin & Gos, so yeah, obviously, I’m more experienced in different and wider ranges. Not that everyone isn’t experienced, but I think I have a bigger sample in it and I understand what’s going on a lot more, but I think more deeply.”
Vaitekunas then offered plenty of praise for the series as a whole, describing it as an “amazing series” and highlighting the venue and the people around it.
“Good people around, very nice venue. It’s one of the best places to play poker.”
And while he wasn’t ready to declare the series an overall success, the trophy he’d just collected seemed to make that assessment somewhat irrelevant.
“No [it wasn’t a successful series], but I got a trophy, so who cares?”
Vaitekunas’s Road to Success
The event kicked off with just five players, with two more joining in Level 4 to complete the seven-player field.
Vaitekunas may have been one of the last two players to join the action, but he was the first to claim a bounty, eliminating Manig Loeser in seventh place to collect $5,000 and immediately put half of his buy-in back in his pocket.
By the time the break arrived, signalling the final opportunity to enter, Moussa Ahmad was the only other player to have hit the rail, falling to Aleksandr Kirichenko in a preflop flip.
When the five remaining players returned from the break, and with no others joining the field, it was confirmed that the entire $32,200 prize pool would be awarded to the last player standing.
With that information now confirmed, and bounties very much the name of the game, the chips began to fly.
Felipe Ketzer, the shortest stack returning to the action, lasted just five minutes, with Chengyu Liao following him out the door moments later as Kirichenko claimed his second bounty of the tournament.
From that point onwards, it was all Vaitekunas. A few small pots saw him reel in Kirichenko before one much more substantial pot propelled him clear of both opponents.
Just moments later, Vaitekunas found a rivered three-outer to eliminate his compatriot Vladas Tamasauskas in third place, giving him a near three-to-one chip lead heading into heads-up play.
In keeping with the lightning-fast nature of the tournament, the heads-up battle lasted just a few hands. Kirichenko emptied the clip on an ill-timed bluff, with Vaitekunas snapping it off to bring the tournament to an end, claim the final two bounties and take the entire $32,200 prize pool for himself.
