Lithuanian poker star Gytis Lazauninkas is no stranger to playing five-figure buy-ins around the world. It was thus no surprise when he showed up at Merit Royal Diamond Hotel Casino & Spa to play the $10,400 Onyx High Roller at the 2025 Mediterranean Poker Party.
Lazauninkas was one of the 149 entries in the event, but ended up as the only one remaining after a four-way deal and subsequent flip crowned him the champion. Lazauninkas was chipleader when the deal was made, granting him the largest portion of the $1,430,400 prize pool as he took home $227,085. Alessio Isaia, Yiannis Liperis, and Nichan Khorchidian were the other three players involved in the deal, and, as the stacks were relatively close, they were awarded hefty six-figure sums of their own.
$10,400 Onyx High Roller Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gytis Lazauninkas | Lithuania | $227,085* |
| 2 | Nichan Khorchidian | Lebanon | $189,963* |
| 3 | Yiannis Liperis | Cyprus | $216,084* |
| 4 | Alessio Isaia | Italy | $226,858* |
| 5 | Konstantin Voronin | Russia | $85,000 |
| 6 | Oshri Lahmani | Israel | $65,000 |
| 7 | Ramzi Karam | Lebanon | $50,000 |
| 8 | Vedat Yilmaz | Turkey | $40,000 |
* = Denotes four-way ICM deal
Day 2 Action
The field of 35 players who returned for the final day of the High Roller needed to be thinned before the money could be distributed. The 23 paid spots were soon reached, however, as after only one hour after the restart, Canadian grinder Ami Barer became the bubble boy after an unlucky ace came on the flop.
At the final three tables, the eventual top four finishers were all in the middle of the pack, but soon enough, they started picking up steam.Lazauninkas was responsible for the elimination of Ravil Khamatgareev (21st - $17,500), while Isaia took care of Natan Chauskin (18th - $20,000). Not much later, Khorchidian was the first player to reach an eight-figure stack when Mikalai Vaskaboinikau jammed his top pair into Khorchidian's flush, knocking the Belarusian out a few hands after.
Meanwhile, Isaia kept scoring bust-outs, eliminating Aren Bezhanyan in 12th ($27,000) before dooming last year's fifth-place finisher Nikita Kalinin to the fate of final table bubble (9th - $32,900).
Final Table
Khorchidian had maintained his chip lead up until the final table, and scored some early pots as the finale got underway. However, a crucial hand saw Khorchidian four-bet jam ace-six into the nines of Lazauninkas. The eventual champion doubled up and took over the chip lead, and Khorchidian would go on to criticize his own move multiple times throughout the rest of the tournament.
Lazauninkis put his newly acquired chips to good use,busting Vedat Yilmaz in eighth, and Oshri Lahmani in sixth.
Five-handed, Liperis and start-of-day chipleader Konstantin Voronin, who was on his second major final table of the festival, went all in against each other no less than five times. Eventually, Liperis got the best of Voronin,eliminating the final Russian player in fifth.
A deal was briefly discussed after Voronin's bust-out, but when Lazauninkas, who still had a big lead at that time, asked for $30,000 more than ICM, it was quickly struck down. It only took a few minutes to restart the discussions; Lazauninkas doubled up Alessio, and the stacks evened out a bit.
Lazauninkas quickly changed his tune and agreed to an ICM chop without any additional money, and the players then flipped for the trophy. Lazauninkas still had a small lead, so it only seemed appropriate that he won the flip and was declared the victor, picking up his first-ever victory at a Merit establishment and taking a beautiful trophy back home to Lithuania.
With the High Roller wrapped up, this edition of the MPP is in the books. The next event at Merit will be the Dolce Vita, which runs from July 27 until August 8. Until then, check out the PokerNews live reporting hub for poker action from all over the globe.
