Vladas Tamasauskas Wins Poker Masters Event #3 for $208,800

The scorching start to the 2023 Poker Masters continued for Vladas Tamasauskas, as he notched his second victory of the series and increased his lead in the quest for the prestigious Purple Jacket.

Tamasauskas came into the final table of Event #3: $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em as the shortest stack of the six remaining players. After holding steady for the first hour, Tamasauskas had Chance Kornuth slightly covered in the first all-in confrontation of the final table. Tamasauskas' better hand held up to leave five players remaining. A full house-versus-full house cooler came next against Michael Rocco, and Tamasauskas was on the winning end to vault into the chip lead.

In the end, Tamasauskas topped Ren Lin in heads-up play. He began with nearly a 3-to-1 chip lead, and although Lin doubled into the lead briefly, Tamasauskas made a big river call to retake the lead en route to his second victory of the series, besting the field of 87 entries.

2023 Poker Masters Event #3 Results

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1st	Vladas Tamasauskas	Lithuania	$208,800
2nd	Ren Lin	China	$147,900
3rd	Daniel Rezaei	Austria	$104,400
4th	Alex Foxen	United States	$87,000
5th	Michael Rocco	United States	$69,600
6th	Chance Kornuth	United States	$52,200
7th	Andrew Lichtenberger	United States	$43,500
8th	Dan Shak	United States	$34,800
9th	Filipp Khavin	United States	$34,800
10th	Jose Diaz	United States	$26,100
11th	Ryan Riess	United States	$26,100
12th	Brock Wilson	United States	$17,400
13th	Jeremy Becker	United States	$17,400

The first to exit the final table was the aforementioned Chance Kornuth in sixth place, who got short and got it in with ace-three against the pocket queens of Tamasauskas. The queens held and Tamasauskas' rise to the top was underway.

Not long after was the full house-against-full house cooler for Tamasauskas against Michael Rocco, who had started the final table as the chip leader. Tamasauskas flopped a set of sevens, Rocco flopped queens and fives for top and bottom pair, and another five came on the river to give both a full house. The chips got in after that river and Rocco was left with less than a big blind, busting shortly thereafter in fifth place.

Alex Foxen was the next to go, also by way of a cooler. Daniel Rezaei flopped a set of eights, Foxen floated the flop with ace-six, paired the ace on the turn, and improved to two pair with a six on the river. The chips went in and Foxen was out in fourth place.

Rezaei took the chip lead a little while later, but a picked-off bluff sent him tumbling down the counts. On a three-spade board, Rezaei check-raised with that chip-leading stack holding the ace of spades, but Tamasauskas found a call with top pair. Rezaei fell soon after in third place.

Tamasauskas had a solid lead over Ren Lin to begin heads-up play. A standard race quickly into the heads-up duel saw Lin's pocket sixes hold against Tamasauskas' ace-queen, giving Lin the lead. It was short-lived, though, as Tamasauskas found another big river call to pull back ahead. On the final hand, Tamasauskas' queen-three held against Lin's jack-nine to lock up the victory.

Tamasauskas extended his lead on the Poker Masters series leaderboard and is a clear 233 points out front. Lin jumped into second place with his runner-up finish.

2023 Poker Masters Leaderboard Top 10

Place	Player	Wins	Cashes	Winnings	Points
1st	Vladas Tamasauskas	2	3	$506,400	506
2nd	Ren Lin	0	2	$273,300	273
3rd	Darren Elias	1	1	$223,100	223
4th	Aram Zobian	0	1	$171,000	171
5th	Eric Baldwin	0	1	$155,200	155
6th	Filipp Khavin	0	2	$137,400	138
7th	Alex Foxen	0	2	$135,500	136
T-8th	Bin Weng	0	2	$133,500	133
T-8th	Daniel Rezaei	0	2	$133,500	133
10th	Michael Rocco	0	2	$108,400	109

The 2023 Poker Masters series continues through September 26. The series consists of 10 high-stakes poker tournaments, culminating in the $50,000 NL Hold'em finale. The player to accumulate the most PGT leaderboard points during the series will be crowned Poker Masters champion, winning the Purple Jacket and $50,000 championship bonus. For full schedule details, visit pgt.com/schedule.

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