2013 World Poker Tour Baden Day 4: Rettenmaier Makes Final Table, Eyes Third WPT Title

February 23 2013, Brett Collson

In the 11-year history of the World Poker Tour, only two players have won three Main Events: Gus Hansen and Carlos Mortensen. On Sunday, Marvin Rettenmaier can join that elite group with a victory at WPT Baden.

Rettenmaier was one of six players to reach the final table late Saturday night after a long day on the felts. He'll enter the final table second in chips, trailing only Vladimir Bozinovic, who takes 1,985,000 into the final day.

2013 WPT Baden Final Table

Day 4 of the World Poker Tour Baden Main Event began with 20 of the original 254 players eyeing WPT glory and a top prize of $272,258. Bozinovic entered play with the chip lead but several notables were still in contention, including Rettenmaier, Martin Staszko, Ismael Bojang, and Bodo Sbrzesny, who was looking to make back-to-back WPT final tables in Europe.

Bojang was among the early exits after arriving late and being blinded off for part of the first level. He showed up just in time to run his into Robert Przygoda's . Others like Arpad Kovecses, Rien De Vries, and Staszko quickly followed.

Staszko, best known for his runner-up finish at the 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event, lost most of his stack when his came up short against Gabor Peteri's . The rest of his stack went to Lauri Pesonen on the next hand.

Sbrzesny's run at another WPT final table came up short when he moved his short stack in preflop with and Paul Berende called with . The Dutchman Berende got a scare as the flop rolled out , giving Sbrzesny two pair, but the on the turn counterfeited Sbrzesny's three and shot Berende into the lead. The on the river changed nothing, and Sbrzesny made his way to the rail in 11th place.

Although he ended Day 4 second in chips, Rettenmaier was one card away from elimination with just eight players remaining. According to the WPT Live Updates team, Rettenmaier min-raised preflop to 60,000 from late position and Bozinovic responded by three-betting to 175,000 from the button. Action folded back to Rettenmaier, who took some time before deciding to four-bet shove for around 850,000. Bozinovic called, and the cards were turned up.

Rettenmaier:
Bozinovic:

Marvin was caught making a move, but he was still drawing very live for a double-up. The flop came , bringing no help to Rettenmaier, and the on the turn left him only six outs with one card to come. Sure enough, the spiked on the river to give him two pair and a pot worth around 1.8 million chips.

Przygoda exited in eighth place a short while later, and then it took another 90 minutes to burst the final table bubble. First, Adrian Appman moved all-in from the button with and Kimmo Kurko called with . The board ran out and Kurko doubled up, leaving Appman with less than a big blind. Appman then got his remaining 10,000 chips in the middle preflop with against the of Bozinovich, and the seven-high board left Appman as the last casualty before the final table.

Bozinovich will be the man to catch on Sunday, but all eyes will be on Rettenmaier. The German superstar is currently tied with 16 players with two WPT titles, including Antonio Esfandiari, Barry Greenstein, Tommy Vedes, Daniel Negreanu, Erick Lindgren, and Matt Giannetti, who won his second earlier this month.

The WPT Baden final table will kick off at 14:00 CET on Sunday and play won't end until the next WPT champion is crowned. Be sure to check back to PokerNews for a full recap of the day’s action.

_{*Lead photo courtesy of WPT Blog.}

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Comments

flintsword
02-24-2013 04:48

Three WPT titles is such an amazing result it will make news for sure.

It is interesting that now that the Online Poker Prohibition in the U.S. has effectively frozen out poker talent in the birthplace of poker ... all of these multiple winners are uber-strong Europeans.

Of course 15 out of the 17 poker players with two WPT titles are Americans so that might even out in the future despite the puritanical anti-poker regulations in the U.S. but let's keep in mind that the first American to win a WPT event outside of the U.S. was Matthew Waxman in the 2011 WPT Paris after over a decade of WPT play.

To be fair I think it is quite likely that the list of double WT title winners will get a lot bigger ... and that all of the new list members being European.

I look at the final table and you see names that are completely recognizable if you are following the Global poker boom currently under way.