Marius Kudzmanas Wins KPC King's Main Event for USD 533,800

Marius Kudzmanas has won the King's Main Event at the KPC Poker October Series, beating Peng Huang heads-up to claim USD 533,800 at LES A Casino in Jeju, South Korea.

The USD 15,000 buy-in event drew 169 entries across three flights to build a USD 2,372,760 prize pool, with 26 places paid.

After three final table finishes earlier in the series, the Lithuanian pro finally got over the line, denying KPC Main Event champion Huang a second Main Event title in the process. Huang collected USD 350,000 as runner-up.

King's Main Event Final Table Results

The Final Table

Overnight chip leader Martin Sedlak wasted no time, picking up the first elimination when his ace-queen caught a queen on the turn against Xiaoyu Li's pocket eights. Li went out in ninth for USD 54,000, and Sedlak climbed to 25 million.

The short stacks then hit back. Zhuoqun Zhang, who started the day with just 410,000, doubled with pocket jacks against Tony Lin's pocket threes after Lin had repeatedly shoved into his big blind. Kudzmanas also found a key double when his pocket jacks held against Sedlak's ace-ten.

Michael Nam fell in eighth for USD 66,000 when his ten-nine of diamonds turned top pair but lost to Xueying Zhao's rivered flush. Jian Zhu then tripled up with a flush in a three-way pot against Zhao's pocket aces and Sedlak's king-jack, before Lin went out in seventh for USD 84,000, his ace-four failing to catch up against Zhao's king-queen.

Huang looked to be on his way out when Zhang's pocket kings beat his king-eight in a 16.5 million pot, leaving him with just 2.4 million. Instead, he fought back to 9.6 million and then doubled through Sedlak with pocket kings against ace-ten.

Zhu was eliminated in sixth for USD 110,000 when his queen-five ran into Kudzmanas' ace-nine, and Sedlak followed in fifth for USD 145,000. Zhao shoved ace-three from the small blind, Sedlak called with pocket kings, and a three-queen-ace flop gave Zhao two pair. That put her on 46 million, more than half the chips in play.

Zhao kept the pressure on, forcing Huang to fold a pair of aces with a river shove holding two pair, and then eliminated Zhang in fourth for USD 190,000 when her king-ten overtook his ace-jack.

Kudzmanas Takes Over

Three-handed, the momentum shifted. Kudzmanas four-bet bluffed Zhao with nine-five of clubs to take a good-sized pot, and Huang then filled up with sevens full of threes, getting a quick call from Zhao's ace-high on the river.

Zhao never recovered. She moved all in on a nine-jack-queen flop with top pair, only for Kudzmanas to have flopped a straight with king-ten. Zhao finished third for USD 250,000, and Kudzmanas took a 61 million to 23 million lead into heads-up play.

Heads Up

The match lasted around 90 minutes, with Kudzmanas steadily grinding Huang down to around 12 million. Huang doubled when his ace-nine held against pocket jacks, but Kudzmanas soon regained control. On the final hand, Kudzmanas moved all in on the button with jack-eight, and Huang called with ace-three. Kudzmanas paired his jack on the queen-deuce-jack flop, and the three on the turn and five on the river were not enough for Huang.

Lithuania's "Second King"

Kudzmanas was in great spirits after the win, which came after a series of near misses in Jeju.

"I had three final tables before this, and I finished, I think, 7th, 7th and 6th," he said. "So coming in today into the final table, I thought to myself that it would be finally nice to win one here."

He was also well aware of what Huang was chasing heads-up. "I just heard that he won the mini main just before we started playing three-handed," Kudzmanas said. "In my head, I thought, I cannot let the guy win two mains in one series. It's going to be too big of a story for him to make, so I had to make sure that somebody denies it."

Asked about Mindaugas, the only crowned King of Lithuania, Kudzmanas embraced his new title. "If you're only going to have a king every 800 years, it's nice to be one of the guys who actually does it," he joked.

On his first KPC experience, he singled out the hospitality. "They're taking care of you so, so good. You just no need to worry about anything, just playing cards, and it's like, what else can you ask?" His only suggestion was to reduce schedule overlaps, having run deep in so many events that he missed others, and he confirmed he will be back to "defend the title."

Players can view the complete KPC Poker October Series schedule on Somuchpoker.

Images and data courtesy of KPC.