We spotted Gus Hansen walking around in the Hofburg Palace today. He isn't playing though, he's doing interviews and posing for photo's with fans. He'll probably be playing tomorrow on Day 1B. We'll sure to keep an eye on the Danish super star then who's seen quite some action online lately.
Constantly pushing the envelope and setting the bar higher and higher, PokerStars is used to breaking records. They've done it time and time again with their famed Sunday Million tournament, and one week ago the Macau Millions at PokerStars LIVE Macau at the City of Dreams shattered the record for largest poker tournament field in Asia.
The latest record-breaking achievement from PokerStars has just come in the Eureka Poker Tour Vienna Main Event. The second starting flight of that event attracted 975 players and became the largest single starting flight in the tour's history, dating back to March of 2011. That number also pushed the total number of entries in the event up to 1,432 and broke the record for largest Eureka Poker Tour Main Event by 117 players.
Amongst those who played in the event were Team PokerStars Pros Marcel Luske, Eugene Katchalov, Luca Pagano, Maxim Lykov, Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier, Martin Hruby, Luca Pagano, and Michael Keiner.
According to the EPT: "the massive field of 1,432 contained players from 58 different countries which is exactly the same count as in Prague at the previous Eureka stop back in December. Germany had most players here in Vienna with 279 starters (almost 20% of total) while 195 players represented the home country and Romania is in the third place with 84 players, overcoming Russia by three."
That event is now down to the final table. Here's a look at the finalist courtesy of the EPT:
Seat 1: Andreas Freund, 25, Vienna, Austria – 4,515,000
Andreas Freund studies Spanish and Journalism but is a professional Omaha and Hold’em cash game player as well. He started playing poker in 2007 and began playing full time a year later. He bought in directly for the Eureka Poker Tour Main Event and has already beaten his biggest tournament cash from November 2013 when he won a €1,000 event in Seefeld for €17,630.
Seat 2: Robert Malinowski, 49, Poland, PokerStars qualifier - 3,305,000
The oldest player at the final table Robert Malinowski has poker as a hobby, running a business for a job. He enjoys his biggest poker achievement and so does his wife who supports him here in the Hofburg. Robert also likes to read a lot. He made quite impressive come back on day 2 starting the last level with only 12 big blinds and finished with ten times bigger stack.
Seat 3: Markus Stöger, 44, Vienna, Austria – 5,495,000
Markus is a self-employed gastronome and a recreational poker player. He started playing poker in cash games but these days mainly focuses on tournaments. His best result was back in 2010 when won a €250 event in Vienna for €30,600.
Seat 4: Stavros Kalfos, 32, Thessaloniki, Greece, PokerStars Player – 1,050,000
Hailing from Thessaloniki, Stavros Kalfos is a 32 year-old professional poker player. Previously he was one of PokerStars' “Greek Challengers”. Kalfos mostly plays tournaments, both online and live. He has finalled the Sunday Warm-Up four times, winning it twice while live he has cashed in the EPT three times and also chopped the €2,000 side event at EPT San Remo for €90,000 back in 2010.
Seat 5: Bryan Paris, 28, Huntington Beach, USA, PokerStars player - 5,430,000
He still waits for a first 6-figure score in live event but his online results prove that he is very experienced player. Bryan Paris has scored more than $6.6 million online with more than half of it on PokerStars. He needs to finish at least 6th to lock the record live cashout, which came in the WSOP; he has cashed 12 times in the World Series so far. Though tommorow will be his first final table experience in a live tournament.
Seat 6: Erik Scheidt, 26, Rostock, Germany, PokerStars Player - 950,000
Erik Scheidt is a computer specialist and plays poker recreationally. Last year he finished 5th place in the Berlin Cup at EPT Berlin taking home €31,000 – his biggest cash so far. Outside of poker, Scheidt enjoys playing football.
Seat 7: Blazej Przygorzewski, 22, Poznan, Poland, PokerStars qualifier - 5,430,000
Playing only his third live event in a career but the the 22-year old Blazej Przygorzewski knows very well how the glory feels. He is a three time Polish champion in sailing and now he can break through even in poker. Blazej plays poker for three years online with a biggest cash of about $17,000.
Seat 8: Zoltan Gal, 27, Hungary, PokerStars qualifier - 2,245,000
Another great deep run for Zoltan Gal who finished 19th in the Eureka Prague Main Event three months ago. He's playing poker for 5 years, mostly the online high stakes cash game. He calls himself a semi-pro, trying to succeed in live tournaments for two years. This final table appearance is his best so far, surpassing a $27k hit in Las Vegas. He would celebrate the victory with a steak, his favourite meal.
The final table will start at 12.30 p.m. local time, and for the first time the Eureka final table will be live streamed including all players hole cards. It means the broadcast will run with a 45-minute delay. You can also follow the coverage of the Eureka Poker Tour Vienna on the PokerStars blog.
It's three and a half years ago, but German poker pro Michael Eiler still holds the EPT Vienna title. Today we've spotted Eiler right away, as he looks to make another run in the city that brought him such great memories.
Back in 2010 Eiler beat a field of 578 to lock up the huge €700,000 first-place prize beating the likes of Team PokerStars Pro Martin Hruby and Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu at the final table.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
30,000 | |
|
||
![[user252447]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
Just before the start of the main event we caught a table in the Flip Out Freeroll* involving Full Tilt Poker Professional Gus Hansen. The nine players threw their single chip in the middle and got their cards. Gus turned over his 
and a couple of others showed better aces. A few players chose not to show and a couple didn’t even look. The board ran out 
missing one player's flush draw. The last player to look at his cards turned over 
for the rivered straight, and while he was through to the next round, Gus Hansen was eliminated.
*For more information on just what the Flip Out Freeroll is, click here.
Steve O'Dwyer is the number 63 on the USA all-time money list and 31st on the GPI, and those numbers are largely due to his amazing victory in last year's EPT Grand Final.
Last season O'Dwyer locked up a €1,224,000 score after beating Andrew Pantling heads up to one up his result from the 2011 EPT London where he lost heads up to Benny Spindler.
O'Dwyer's one of the most accomplished players in today's Day 1 flight and we'll be keeping a close eye on him throughout the day.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
30,000 | |
|
|
||
Max Silver got involved in the first hand of the day; playing short-handed he opened for 300 from early position and got a caller from the big blind. They saw a flop of 
which was checked to Silver who continued for 275. The bet was called and they saw a turn card of 
. Both players checked and the river card 
was again checked by the two players. Silver showed 
and his opponent tabled .The Full house on board meant they chopped it up.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
30,000 |
Ivo Donev's first tournament cash dates back to April 1999 and he's without a doubt one of the most recognizable faces of Austrian poker.
Donev has $1.4 million in live tournament earnings while his biggest score is just $87,525. For today's standards Donev is not one of the big players, but over the years he has shown that poker is a game of stamina. Donev has 155 live tournament cashes, which puts him 69th on the all-time list of cashes.
Interestingly enough Donev also ranks fifth on the all-time list of countries cashed in with 19 only trailing Barny Boatman, Marvin Rettenmaier, Team PokerStars Pro Marcel Luske, Dominik Nitsche and Casey Kastle.
A new flag won't be added to Donev's resume this week in Vienna as most of his results stem from his home country, but he's likely to be looking at making a deep run to finally notch up a six figure score.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
30,000 |
Ignat "0Human0" Liviu, who has been featured in PokerNews' popular Online Chat series, is one of the most prolific players in online poker. The man from Bucharest, Romania has been traveling the EPT for awhile now looking to make his mark in the live realm, but thus far he has yet to find success. That may change in Vienna as he is playing in the Day 1a field.
In a recent hand, there was around 600 in the pot and a flop of 
when the player in the big blind checked and Liviu bet 350. The button folded, and then the big blind did the same to give Liviu the tiny pot.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
31,000 |
Barny Boatman opened to 250 under the gun and the small blind tossed in the chips to call. EPT Campione winner Jannick Wrang had other plans though and raised it up to 1,050. Boatman didn't need much time to make the call, the small blind folded.
Wrang continued his preflop aggression with a 1,100 bet on the 
flop. Boatman again didn't waste much time and tossed in a red 1,000 chip and a black 100 chip to call.
The 
fell on the turn and Wrang checked. Boatman searched for more 1,000 chips and slid two of them over the line. Wrang made the call and awaited the river.
With the on the river Boatman was already counting out chips before Wrang even made his move yet. When Wrang eventually checked, Boatman already had figured out he wanted to bet 6,500 and placed that in the middle. Wrang thought about it for quite some time and even had the 6,500 in his hands before making up his mind. He folded adfter some thinking and Boatman got the chips from the dealer.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
33,000
3,000
|
3,000 |
|
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||
|
27,000
-3,000
|
-3,000 |
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Learn.PokerNews presents a variety of strategy tips aimed at new poker players, with much of the advice of use to more experienced players, too.
For instance, in "Seven Attention Targets for Beginning Poker Players," Nate Meyvis builds on the frequently given advice to "pay attention" at the table by giving players some specific things to pay attention to both before and after the flop. Click and learn.
