Tuesday was another fun day at the 2025 OlyBet Showdown Vilnius Ace Breaker, taking place from January 25 to February 2 at the luxurious Olympic Casino Lietuva, located steps away from the iconic Vilnius Old Town.
Iceland’s Steinn Thanh Du Karlsson, who recently visited Tallinn for the 2024 WSOP Circuit, won the biggest prize of the day after defeating the talented WSOP bracelet winner Vincas Tamasauskas heads-up to win the one-day Event #12: €350 NLH Turbo Deepstack for €5,291.
Meanwhile, after winning all of the opening titles, Lithuania was shut out from the winner’s circle for the first time in recent memory at a festival held on Lithuanian soil with Finland’s Pasi Rantanen shipping the one-day Event #13: €150 NLH/PLO for €2,336. Rantanen joined the action at the inaugural Kings of Vilnius at the end of 2024 and this time he was joined by countrymates Aki Pyysing, Ulf Bredenberg, Roope Keminen, and Jari Mahonen in hopes of putting the Finnish flag on top of payouts chart.
- Read more: PokerPro to Cover OlyBet Showdown Vilnius Ace Breaker Live
- Read more: Vilnius Zabarauskas Wins First Trophy
- Read more: Vilius Zabarauskas Wins Second Trophy
- Read more: Out-of-Towners Break Local Streak
Read on to learn more about what transpired on Day 4 of the 2025 Vilnius Ace Breaker at Olympic Casino Lietuva:
Pocket Aces Crush “Poker Journalist Wins Trophy” Headline
This author was invited to play until his heart was content until the start of reporting of Day 2 of the €1,100 High Roller taking place on Wednesday and Thursday. While it was brick city in the early events, this author had some momentum going in the €350 NLH Turbo Deepstack and was already with the chip lead when he delivered a horrible bad beat to Jonas Lapinskas when his queens got there on the turn against aces.
This author woke up with aces early at the final table and eliminated Sweden’s Stig Andersson and Portugal’s Jose Passos in the same hand to break the money bubble in an event that attracted 52 runners for a €15,561 prize pool.
The chip lead was maintained until Iceland’s Steinn Thanh Du Karlsson made a remarkable call with a bear seven with four spades on the board and also straights to be completed to chip up before waking up with rockets himself to take the rest of this author’s stack leaving Vincas Tamasauskas and Karlsson heads-up for the title.
Tamasauskas nearly didn’t even enter the event as he arrived last second for his first and only bullet before going on a remarkable run. However, time ran out at the end when Tamasauskas limped with king-queen. Karlsson jammed with ace-king and was crowned the champion after Tamasauskas bricked the board.
2025 Vilnius Ace Breaker Event #12: €350 NLH Turbo Deepstack Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Steinn Thanh Du Karlsson | Iceland | €5,291 |
| 2 |  Vincas Tamasauskas | Lithuania | €3,420 |
| 3 | Jason Glatzer | Lithuania | €2,490 |
| 4 | Edmundas Sipkus | Lithuania | €1,870 |
| 5 | Aurimas Bagdonas | Lithuania | €1,400 |
| 6 | Kazimieras Žukauskas | Lithuania | €1,090 |
Pasi Rantanen Earns First Trophy for Finland
Event #13: €150 NLH/PLO attracted 56 entries to create a €6,916 prize pool with the top seven players collecting at least a €360 min-cash.
The final table after the money bubble broke was a sight to see with three local players from Lithuania, three others from Finland, and one from Israel competing for the title.
It was looking like domination nation for Lithuania as a pair of Finns in Ulf Bredenberg and Aki Pyysing along with Israel’s Haim Naor being the first players to head to the cashier. However, Rantanen held on to win the title after the trio of Lithuanians, Egidijus Oleinik, Gytis Pažemeckas, and Erikas Fominas, hit the rail one-by-one.
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Pasi Rantanen | Finland | €2,336 |
| 2 | Egidijus Oleinik | Lithuania | €1,510 |
| 3 | Gytis Pažemeckas | Lithuania | €1,010 |
| 4 | Erikas Fominas | Lithuania | €720 |
| 5 | Ulf Bredenberg | Finland | €540 |
| 6 | Aki Pyysing | Finland | €440 |
| 7 |  Haim Naor | Israel | €360 |
2025 Vilnius Ace Breaker Schedule Day 5 (Wednesday, Jan. 29)
The fifth day of the 2025 Vilnius Ace Breaker will begin with a €80 qualifier at Noon guaranteeing two seats to the two-day €1,100 High Roller, which begins four hours later at 4 p.m. Our staff at poker.pro will begin live reporting this event starting on Thursday when cards are in the air for Day 2.
One trophy is on tap on Wednesday with players ready to battle at 6 p.m. in the €250 NLH Deepstack, while late-night owls can have some fun trying to get into the Main Event with a €30 satellite taking place at 10 p.m., which will award at least three seats to Thursday’s Day 1a of the Main Event.
Check out Wednesday’s schedule below or read our introduction of the Vilnius Ace Breaker festival to see the full schedule.
| Time | Event |
|---|---|
| 12:00 | Event #15: €80 Satellite to The €1,100 High Roller (2 Seats GTD) |
| 16:00 | Event #16: €1,100 NLH High Roller Day 1 |
| 18:00 | Event #17: €250 NLH Deepstack |
| 22:00 | Event #18: €30 Satellite to The €555 Main Event 1a |
