The €5,000 Highroller at the ten-year anniversary of Kings of Tallinn brought out the players at Olympic Park Casino with the deepest pockets. Together, they made 58 entries, of which Kestutis Jungevicius from Lithuania was the last man standing after the 15-hour day was all said and done.
Jungevicius won a career-high score of €90,380 and a beautiful Kings of Tallinn trophy to add to his prize cabinet. Jungevicius disposed of his final opponent Matiss Celmins after an otherwise uneventful heads-up culminated in a big flip. Celmins’ consolation prize of €58,250 also meant a new all-time best for him as he nearly doubled his total live earnings.
Other notable names who made the money and received a part of the €264,480 prize pool include online legend Renan Bruschi (4th – €27,400) and Finnish Kings of Tallinn regulars Aleksi Naski (6th – €16,350) and Tommi Lankinen (7th – €12,600).
€5,000 High Roller Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Kestutis Jungevicius | Lithuania | €90,380 |
| 2 |  Matiss Celmins | Latvia | €58,250 |
| 3 |  Joonas Helin | Finland | €38,450 |
| 4 |  Renan Bruschi | Brazil | €27,400 |
| 5 |  Zdenek Zizka | Czechia | €21,050 |
| 6 | Aleksi Naski | Finland | €16,350 |
| 7 | Tommi Lankinen | Finland | €12,600 |
Action of the Day
The highroller started with plenty of big names in the field, but the likes of Vladas Tamasauskas, Martin Kabrhel, Autumn Edition highroller champion Juha Helppi, and €200 PL Razz winner Blaz Zerjav all met their end early on. At the final three tables, Tarmo Tammel and Harry Lodge were eliminated, as was Igor Pihela Jr., who joined his father at the rail.
With 12 left and just seven spots paid, the tension in the room started to rise. About 90 minutes went by without any eliminations, but once Roope Tarmi busted in 12th it seemed like a curse had been lifted. Within the span of ten minutes, Piotr Sztenkiel, 2024 highroller champion and final Estonian remaining Markkos Ladev, and Irish poker legend Michael Dwyer busted, leaving the field on the stone bubble.
The tournament was still quite deep, so an hour of big pots went by without any reaching all-in and call status. Eventually, Ludvig Sterner pushed in 13 big blinds with pocket nines, only to book a sour exit against the pocket eights of Bruschi, bursting the bubble and setting the final table of seven.
Lankinen was first to go from the final table after doubling up Bruschi with jacks against ace-king and being left critically short. Next in line was Naski, who got his queens in preflop for a chiplead pot but was forced to look on as Jungevicius’ jacks outflopped him.
Zdenek Zizka started the final table as the overwhelming chipleader after abusing the bubble dynamics, but his hyper-aggressive style would come back to bite him. Zizka was involved in many pots but started losing most of them, eventually being left with six big blinds. Those went in preflop against Joonas Helin, who flopped better and sent Zizka to the rail in fifth.
Bruschi’s stack had dwindled as well, being left with about two big blinds at one point during four-handed play. After a triple-up and hitting a four-outer to double right after, a comeback seemed to be in the cards for the Brazilian grinder. However, he was no match for the wrath of Jungevicius, who eliminated Bruschi in a blind-on-blind preflop clash.
Mere minutes later, Helin pushed his stack in the middle against Jungevicius as well. His fives were outclassed by the nines of Jungevicius, however, sending the final Finnish player out in third place.
Jungevicius started the heads-up with a chiplead of about three to one. After some small pots went back and forth, Celmins got in his last 15 big blinds preflop with king-queen against the pocket fives of Jungevicius. In style, Jungevicius made a set to secure his victory in the highroller, overcoming a field with the best of the best that the Nordic and Baltic poker scene has to offer and being rewarded with his first-ever Kings of Tallinn trophy.
Thus concludes the live report for the highroller. We will be back tomorrow for the thrilling conclusion of the €1,100 PLO Championship, so tune back in then for more Kings of Tallinn action.
