Meet The Festival Series Friend: Dainius Antanaitis
Many people don't might know it but Poker Festivals are like tram lines. They start with one place, then goes somewhere, but in the end, they will always come back. The same is with The Festival Malta. The tram starts with a date announcement, then comes a lot of stops what we can call it here as "online qualifiers" and to be honest with all of you, we actually don't know where it ends. But one thing we know about our "Optibet" station that now Lithuanian players can also be allowed to officially stay there.
To get more info about Lithuanians, we send voice messages to one of our dearest friends from Lithuania - Dainius Antanaitis.
The Festival Media Team: You are a well-known player in Lithuanian poker. Could you tell us a bit about yourself for those who may not be familiar with your activities?
Dainius: I started playing poker many years ago when I was 16 years. Started in freerolls, but soon I find Fixed Limit Holdem games which grows fast to be my main summertime grind. I made like $3K playing exclusively $2/$4 Fixed Limit Holdem but the games died so I need to switch to mixed game MTTs and cash games on Full Tilt. Pretty soon got a huge MTT hit on Full Tilt’s FTOPS Series for $47K by finishing 2 / 623 in the $530 HORSE Event. It was a lifetime-changing moment for a boy who was 21-22 years old at that moment, but as all poker players who played during that period know, I also experienced Black Friday and was forced to once again adapt and learn new games like No Limit Holdem MTTs and SNGs. I moved to Pokerstars where I had success by winning SCOOP events, 3 WCOOP Trophies within a period of 3 weeks, and a couple of wins in the Winter Series. I don't complain at all.
For the last 2 years, I have been switching to almost exclusively live poker and I would consider my main game to be 5-Card PLO Private cash games, but I also had decent results in NLHE MTTs - 8 / 716 in Kings of Tallinn €1100 Main Event and 5-way ICM chop in 100K Gtd MTT in Bratislava. I also won the 550 euro 8-Game Main Event of the Mixed Game Series in Bratislava where I battled Heads Up against a very good player for 3.5 hours.
The Festival Media Team: You look like you enjoy visiting poker events abroad. Even now when we do this interview, you are playing in Monte Carlo. What's your plan with Malta?
Dainius: Yes traveling and changing atmosphere and surrounding is probably one of the biggest advantages of being a professional poker player. Last year I only had like 6 to 8 poker trips, but definitely planning to travel way more from here on now, and online poker is always like a backup plan 
I knew I am going to The Festival in Malta like 99%. Actually, I had some spare time from Easter till the end of May so I bought a flight ticket to Bratislava on April 11 one way and a one-way ticket from Malta to Kaunas on the 21st of May. Wasn't sure where the mood and life takes me between those two dates. Now I am here in Monte and we will see in Malta.
The Festival Media Team: Speaking about our stops, you had visited us many times before and the Bratislava stop back in 2022 you got there some nice results. How you would describe The Festival Series to a player who has never visited us? What is good and what is bad?
Dainius: Well for someone who has never visited any of The Festival events I would like to say: “Shame on you!!!”. If you like and enjoy playing poker as entertainment and doesn't even matter if you are a professional player or poker is just a hobby for you and a way to get away from your daily routine, work, and life problems then The Festival is a must-go destination. I have never been in my life to any poker series or festival that has been any more fun than The Festival Series in Bratislava 2022, in October. It is coming to Malta where you can bring family for vacation! So book your stay now!
Bratislava is now a city where I got lucky both in the cards and in my love life hopefully it will last thousand years I already have signed some papers to move there to live permanently
The Festival Media Team: Nice! We hope that you have found your true aces now, but changing the subject, as you know, recently a Lithuanian gambling law changed a little bit so now one of our online satellites partner, Optibet, has an official license to operate in the Lithuanian market and offer their poker games. What do you think about that? How it affects the market?
Dainius: I have heard that Optibet is a part of the partypoker network and is legally joining the Lithuanian market. But that's about all I know, so can’t give you any honest opinion on that. But any good options for Lithuanians are good options - we are the best players on the planet.
The Festival Media Team: Speaking about best players...We have heard rumors, that all the best poker players come from Estonia, and our dear neighbors, Latvians, are one of the worst ones. Is it true?
Dainius: Nice try, good bluff gone wrong. Lithuanians are still the best ones
Thanks for a nice interview and as you all just witnessed, Dainius read our bluff and made an amazing call. But where we are not bluffing is that tomorrow you can again qualify at Optibet.
- Tournament name: The Festival Sunday Final
- Starting time: 30.04.2023, 18:30 CET
- Buy-in: €150 (Re-Entries)
- Prize: 1 x €1,600 The Festival Malta package guaranteed
Details: €1,600 Optibet package
- €550 buy-in to The Festival Main Event
- 125 € buy-in to Casino Tournament (you can choose between Blackjack or Roulette)
- 125 € buy-in to Poker Tournament (free choice)
- 800€ pocket money for travel expenses, or for accommodation (will be paid out directly in your Optibet account)
» More Info: Optibet Satellites
