€5,300 Main Event
Day 1a Started
€5,300 Main Event
Day 1a Started
What stop on the first season of the EPT attracted the most players? You might be surprised to learn that it was the EPT Vienna with 297 players (the next closest was the EPT French Open with 243 players). It was a successful penultimate stop for Season 1, but little did everyone know that the city wouldn’t play host to an EPT again for half a decade.
The EPT returned to Vienna for its seventh season from October 26-31, 2010. The return to the Austrian capital was well received by the players, 587 of who turned out to create a prize pool of €2,935,000. By then the EPT had grown in both size and prestige, but after 20-year-old economics student and Sunday Million winner Michael “mae9690” Eiler captured the €700,000 first-place prize, the stop once again disappeared from the EPT schedule.
That's changed here in Season 10 as Vienna plays host to an EPT for the third time. Today's €5,300 Main Event is part of a 40-event tournament schedule held in conjunction with the Eureka Poker Tour that include mores innovative and fun game variants than any other festival up to date.
“The EPT is all about fun, celebrating the excitement of the game and gathering players together for a good time, and we really wanted to make a splash on our return to Vienna," said Neil Johnson, Head of Live Poker Operations for the EPT. "The EPT is known for game innovation, variety and we pride ourselves on providing game types in tournament format that you simply don’t find at other live events.”
The stunning Hofburg Palace is the venue, and early numbers indicate that it's going to be a smashing success. Day 1a of the Main Event is set to kick off at Noon local time, and then the second starting flight will take place at the same time on Monday. Registration is open until the start of Day 2, so official numbers won't be available until Tuesday.
Action is set to kick off in a few hours time, so be sure to join the PokerNews Live Reporting Team then as we bring you all the latest and greatest from the EPT10 Vienna.
Who will join this prestigious list of EPT Vienna winners? We'll have the answer in a week's time:
Date | Buy-In | Players | Prize Pool | Winner | Prize |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
March 10-11, 2005 | €2,000 | 297 | €594,000 | Pascal Perrault | €184,000 |
October 26-31, 2010 | €5,300 | 587 | €2,935,000 | Michael Eiler | €700,000 |
Level: 1
Blinds: 50/100
Ante: 0
Cards are in the air here on Day 1a of the EPT10 Vienna. The media room is located on the ground floor of the Hofburg Palace, which is a massive complex. The tournament floor is two flights of stairs above us, meaning we have a bit of a trek back and forth to the tournament floor.
That won't stop us from bring you all the action though. We're headed up to the tournament floor to see who is here, so stay tuned.
It's no secret that Edgar Stuchly, President of the European Poker Tour, is from Austria. As such, he had a nice welcome message to the players as expressed in the EPT Vienna program. Here's what he had to say:
Welcome to the EPT Vienna Poker Festival.
It's with a special pride that I cut the opening ribbon of this sixth European Poker Tour festival of Season 10. Austria is my home country, and I know that the world-renowned high quality of Austrian hospitality will be extended to both the EPT and you, the players.
The tour has touched down in Vienna twice, in Seasons 1 and 7, the Main Event of which were won by Pascal Perrault and Michael Eiler, but this event is going to be bigger and better than before. Not only are we returning in partnership with the ever-growing Eureka Poker Tour and the Concord Card Casino to put on cash games and 40 tournaments, ranging from €10,300 High Rollers through €220 turbos, but it will all be taking place in the incredible Hofburg Palace. Dating from the 13th Century, the Hofburg Palace will be like nowehere else you've ever played poker.
There are also some incredible places to eat in Vienna, including Steirereck, which is currently in the top ten on the World's 50 Best Restaurants list. Explore the city. Play poker. Have a great time.
I wish you success and a great time in Vienna.
The PokerNews MyStack App is available for players here in the EPT10 Vienna Main Event, allowing players to directly update their chip count on the PokerNews Live Reporting page for their friends and family to see.
You can download the app for iPhone or Android now to get started. Then, create a new PokerNews account or update your current one to start updating your status immediately. Your followers can see all the live action that you're involved in.
Be forewarned, however, any abuse of the app will result in account suspension or termination.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Paul Vas Nunes |
30,000
30,000
|
30,000 |
Marcel Luske |
30,000
30,000
|
30,000 |
Sergio Aido |
30,000
30,000
|
30,000 |
Marc-Andre Ladouceur |
30,000
30,000
|
30,000 |
Michael Piper
|
30,000
30,000
|
30,000 |
Ruben Visser |
30,000
30,000
|
30,000 |
|
||
Craig McCorkell |
30,000
30,000
|
30,000 |
Barny Boatman |
30,000
30,000
|
30,000 |
|
||
Anton Makiievskyi |
30,000
30,000
|
30,000 |
Yann Dion |
30,000
30,000
|
30,000 |
Dan Murariu |
30,000
30,000
|
30,000 |
Dominik Nitsche |
30,000
30,000
|
30,000 |
Max Silver |
30,000
30,000
|
30,000 |
The tournament director just announced that there'll be eight levels of play today. The levels will be 75 minutes long and thus the tournament will be done around midnight. After level six there will be a 75 minute dinner break for all the players, which should be around 8:15 pm local time.
The EPT10 Vienna is a part of a 40-event festival, and this past weekend some of those tournament played out. For instance, Event #3 €200 NLHE Turbo Deepstack attracted 350 players and created a prize pool of €67,900.
Among those to cash were Pavel Chalupka (Slovakia; 47th - €390), Darius Wilgos (Poland; 39th - €435), Imre Lascsik (Hungary; 30th - €495), Roger Heidlmayr (Austria; 19th - €700), and Josef Mull (Austria; 9th - €1,360). Here's a look at the final table results from that event:
Place | Player | Country | Prize |
---|---|---|---|
1st | Makram Saber | Lebanon | €13,240 |
2nd | Pavel Meshkov | Belarus | €8,410 |
3rd | Sergi Tusell | Spain | €6,300 |
4th | Nathalie Perignon | France | €5,100 |
5th | Anton Asenov | Bulgaria | €4,020 |
6th | Aurelian Chirieci | Romania | €3,070 |
7th | Blaskovics Zoltán | Hungary | €2,255 |
8th | Hermine Weiss | Austria | €1,655 |