Lithuaniahas been a steady riser in the PocketFives Country Rankings. The Baltic nation was up two spots last week, jumping from #21 to #19 worldwide helped in part by a tidal wave of recent scores. Among those Lithuanian poker players that have made waves is pavasareja, who goes by the name Aleksas and chopped the PokerStars Sunday Million in late March.

The four-way deal saw Aleksas walk away with $166,000, the largest amount of anyone in the tournament. “I still cannot believe what actually happened,” he told us following the six-figure cash infusion. “I did not get that much sleep that night because I had to prepare for an important lecture in the university where I am still studying.” He added that it was, to say the least, a very long night, but one that ended in his largest tracked score to date.

Aleksas plays on PokerStars under the handle VyruAlusand outlasted nearly the entire field of 7,194 runners. He had just spiked a two-outer to take the lead when the chop happened and was willing to deal “because the tournament turned into a Turbo and because the chip leader can get good value in chopping. We were also playing for like 12 hours, so I felt kind of tired and the pay jumps were just amazing.”

Everyone who chopped secured at least $123,000.

Speaking of money, he’s swiftly closing in on a swank new $500,000 cash badge here on PocketFives, which will replace his existing $100,000 one. As far as his newfound riches, Aleksas earmarked it as follows: “I’ll probably put most of it in my bankroll and travel to some live event like an EPT. Of course, I have to buy something nice for my family.” The latter group is extremely supportive, according to Aleksas, and is deserving of a reward.

Lithuaniais a burgeoning country for online poker. Although it has yet to record a Triple Crownor Monthly PLBtitle, poker players in Lithuania have become a force to be reckoned with. “Poker is getting much more popular in our country,” Aleksas gleaned. “There are a lot of young players like me on the rise. For example, there is Dominykas Karmazinas, who is crushing live tournaments and won an Aussie Millions event recently. Kristijonas Andrulis is another good live player.”

He summarized, “Poker is getting popular here, people want to win big, and they are making an effort to do so.”

Aleksas said he became interested in the game of poker “probably like every young poker player who doesn’t want to work in an office.” He signed up for PocketFives on the 16th day of 2012 “mostly because the Lithuanian online poker community wanted all Lithuanian players who were making a profit on PokerStars to register on PocketFives to get a better country ranking. I was reading some blogs on PocketFives anyway; Assassinato (pictured) had one that was very exciting.”

Last November, Aleksas won the PokerStars Big $55 for $18,000. On the second-to-last day of February, he took down that room’s $55 Rebuy for $14,000. He’s the #3 player in the Sliding PLB for Lithuania and has about 10 tracked final tables since the beginning of March.

In case you’re wondering, here is the top 10 in the Lithuania Sliding PLB along with the number of PLB Points each person has generated:

1. baneris – 4,298.65
2. vinnetou – 4,144.01
3. pavasareja – 3,422.78
4. Liutas.a – 3,386.95
5. LTasdf – 3,271.29
6. selinantis – 3,040.49
7. vincelis – 2,981.13
8. JOKuERis – 2,909.93
9. dejwiz – 2,375.33
10. bagoch – 2,245.44

Visit PokerStars to sign up for this week’s Sunday Million.