Lithuanian player Paulius Plausinaitis took control of the $1,700-entry WSOPC Winter Main Event on Sunday to take victory and claim the $1,236,361 top prize on GGPoker.
With nine players making the final table from a mammoth 6,395 total entries, the biggest prizes of the $10.3 million prizepool were up for grabs on Sunday and some superstars of the game were at the virtual felt on GGPoker to battle it out for the title.
The action was fast and furious, with the final playing out over just three hours and it was ‘BetAddict’ from Israel who busted first. Starting with just 20 big blinds, they couldn’t resist moving all-in with ace-king and the pocket jacks of Artem Prostak held after the Belarussian called to reduce the field to eight.
Next to go was ‘DaiMing141319’ of China, who dwindled down to just a couple of blinds before they moved all-in with king-queen, which couldn’t hold against WSOP bracelet winner Joseph Cheong’s eight-ten. Cheong scored a second consecutive elimination when Alexandru Papazian lost out with ace-five as Cheong had pocket jacks soon afterwards.
Just six players remained in double-quick time and Prostak would be next to bust. After losing a coinflip, he then lost with pocket aces against the pocket jacks of ‘likeboy’ from China. Prostak’s eviction was complete just a couple of hands later, and he was followed by Finnish player Joni Jouhkimainen in fifth place. Jouhkimainen’s king-ten suited couldn’t catch Cheong’s ace-king.
Cheong’s luck would run out, however, and he would bust after ‘likeboy’ bowed out in 4th place when ace-four was no good against the Lithuanian Plausinaitis’ pocket queens. The elimination for Cheong couldn’t have come at a better time for Plausinaitis, who went into the heads-up battle with a 5:1 chip lead, and he sealed victory after losing the lead, dropping to level before pushing his opponent, Turkish player ‘turkey1’ into the runner-up spot when ace-ten was too good for queen-nine.
For the Lithuanian, that meant he won a first-ever WSOP Circuit ring and the top prize of a massive $1,236,361. You can watch the final table play out in full with coverage from Jeff Platt and Brent Hanks right here:
GGPoker WSOP Circuit Winter Main Event Final Table Results:
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
| 1st | Paulius Plausinaitis | Lithuania | $1,236,361 |
| 2nd | ‘turkey1’ | Turkey | $923,165 |
| 3rd | Joseph Cheong | U.S.A. | $692,276 |
| 4th | ‘likeboy’ | China | $519,134 |
| 5th | Joni Jouhkimainen | Finland | $389,295 |
| 6th | Artem Prostak | Belarus | $291,931 |
| 7th | Alexandru Papazian | Romania | $218,917 |
| 8th | ‘DaiMing141319’ | China | $164,165 |
| 9th | ‘BetAddict’ | Israel | $123,106 |
With thanks to PokerNews for player name conversion via their live reporting updates.
