The World Poker Tour began its stop in Vienna, Austria, last week, but the biggest and baddest event is still to come from the festival. The €3,300 Main Event starts today and will attract plenty of big names in poker to the Montesino Poker Club for a competitive affair and see the next WPT champion crowned.
Day 1a of the Main Event starts at 2 p.m. local time (in 5 hours), with a second starting flight tomorrow on March 13th. Players will be allowed one reentry per day, and the event will conclude on March 17 with a featured webcast of the action. Each participant will begin with 30,000 in tournament chips. Levels will be 60 minutes long on Day 1 and 90 minutes long on Day 2-4. On Day 5, the final day of the event, the levels will revert back to 60 minutes in length.
There will be eight levels of play on the starting days, the money will be reached on Day 3.
Level
Small Blind
Big Blind
Ante
1
50
100
0
2
75
150
0
3
75
150
25
4
100
200
25
5
150
300
50
6
200
400
50
7
250
500
75
8
300
600
75
The last time the WPT made a trip to Vienna on the main tour was in April of 2012 during Season X. Morten Christensen from Denmark topped a field of 396 entries to earn the €313,390 top prize.
For those who may not be so fortunate to make a deep run in the Main Event, there will still be plenty of money to be won in the €6,000 High Roller that will take place March 14-15. If that's a little too pricy for your liking, a €220 Accumulator Turbo will run March 14-15 with three different starting heats.
Outside of the tournaments, players can dive into their favorite cash games throughout the festival, with Texas hold'em, Omaha, seven-card stud, and others available.
“World Poker Tour Vienna 2015 will be one of the biggest events ever held at the Montesino Poker Club with combined estimated prize pools up to €2,500,000. As well as hosting such a prestigious and renowned poker brand, what is extra special about this festival is the wide variety of buy-ins offering huge prizepools.” commented Karl Novak, CEO of the Montesino Vienna. “After three successful events previously, WPT Vienna will return to Austria from March 4 to March 17. The Montesino anticipates the European poker elite to attend. We want to succeed in smashing the numbers this year to make WPT Vienna 2015 the most successful WPT event ever in Austria. Players can qualify in our live satellites at the Montesino and many more poker casinos in Austria.”
Sergey Barbarez is, according to Wikipedia, a Bosnian former professional footballer who played for several clubs in the German Bundesliga and the Bosnia and Herzegovina national team. He is considered as one of the all time great players of Hamburger SV where he scored 65 goals in 174 Bundesliga games. Barbarez is no stranger to poker, his best result to date is a fourth place finish for €34,080 in the Poker EM Bade in Baden.
The other two familiar faces we identified are big time poker players.
Alexander Lakhov won both the World Poker Tour Main Event and the World Poker Tour National in Cyprus, and has almost $1.7 million in cashes on his hendon mob, making him the number 15 on the Russian all time money list.
Ognyan Dimov, who won a big event in Deauville not too long ago for well over half a million, has taken his seat as well. Dimov is fifth on the Bulgarian all time money list. Now we just need Atanas Gueorguiev and the complete top 5 of Bulgaria would be here.
Vladimir Bozinovic opened under the gun to 400 and a player in middle position made the call. The cutoff called as well, and so did Martin Staszko in the big blind, so four players saw a flop of .
Staszko checked to Bozinovic and he fired a 900 continuation bet. Just the player in middle position made the call, both the cutoff and Staszko folded.
Bozinovic bet another 2,000 on the turn and his opponent again made the call.
The river came the and Bozinovic now bet 4,200. His opponent thought for quite some time before tossing in a single 100 chips to make the call.
Bozinovic showed with some confidence, but his hand would go face down into the muck as his opponent tabled a slow played .
We spotted Fedor Holz, still enjoying what appears to be a three course meal on a side table next to him, with a whole lot of black 5,000 chips. On the other side of the table was Alexander Lakhov seated with a big lack of those high denomination chips.
We asked what had happened, and right when Holz said it was kind of a long story and wanted to explain it to us, a colleague interrupted and told us the details so Holz could go back to where he was here for: playing poker.
Holz apparently had opened from early position to 400 and Simeon Naydenov had made the call in middle position. Alexander Lakhov over called from the blinds and the flop appeared. Lakhov now lead out for 500 and Holz raised to 1,600. Simeon Naydenov cold called, and Lakhov three bet to 4,500. Holz made the call, and so did Naydenov.
The fell on the turn and Lakhov bet 15,000. Holz shoved all in for about 20,000 and Naydenov folded. Lakhov made the call.
Holz was still drawing with and was up against Naydenov's . The fell on the river and Holz doubled through Lakhov with the rivered flush.
Alexander Lakhov has been the first player to hit the rail in the partypoker World Poker Tour Vienna Main Event today. He was already short after running into Fedor Holz' flush draw and open ended (which obviously gt there on the river), and just donated his remaining 5,000 in chips to that very same Holz.
According to our colleague, the two of them got the chips in before the flop with (Lakhov) up against (Holz). In good Holz fashion, two nines on the flop appeared and things never got exciting after that. Holz flopped Lakhov dead and the Russian was the first to hit the rail.
Lakhov still has the option to re enter today, so we'll see if he gives it another shot.
In one of the first hands after the break, the partypoker World Poker Tour Vienna Main Event lost its first bracelet winner of the day.
Fedor Holz opened under the gun to 750 and David Abramov, his neighbor in the one seat, three bet to 2,050. A couple positions down it was Simeon Naydenov who cold four bet shoved from the hijack position. We're not entirely sure how much it was that he shoved for, but it wasn't a whole lot.
Action quickly folded back to Holz who tossed his cards into the muck just as rapidly. Abramov quickly called though, tossing in a 100 chip to give Naydenov the bad news.
David Abramov:
Simeon Naydenov:
Naydenov already got up from his chair after the flop. He needed an eight or runner runner flush or straight, but wouldn't be so lucky this time around.
The on the turn and on the river were blanks and Naydenov hit the rail.
Thomas Bichon opened under the gun to 800 and Gerald Karlic in the cutoff made the call. Martin Staszko folded his button and Vladimir Bozinovic in the small blind made the call.
on the flop and Bozinovic checked. Initial raiser Bichon continued for 1,500 and both Karlic and Bozinovic called.
The fell on the turn and Bozinovic checked again. Bichon now bet 4,500 and just Karlic made the call, Bozinovic folded.
The completed the board and Bichon checked. Karlic bet out 11,500 and Bichon tanked for several minutes before mucking his hand.
On a board of we just saw Ognyan check call a bet of 4,600 from Gerald Karlic. On the river both Dimov in the blinds and Karlic in late position checked. Dimov quickly showed he had gotten lucky with his , he had missed the flush but rivered the pair, Karlic mucked.
The next hand David Boyaciyan opened for 900 from middle position and Gerald Karlic made the call right next to him. Wolfgang Wessin in the big blind over called.
Wessin checked to Boyaciyan on and the Dutchman bet 1,500. Both Karlic and Wessin called.
The fell on the turn and Wessin and Boyaciyan checked to Karlic. The hometown hero bet 4,800 and Wessin called, Boyaciyan folded.
Both players checked the on the river and Wessin showed for the missed draw. Karlic tabled and took it down.
On a board of Fedor Holz checked from the cutoff to David Abramov on the button. The man from Austria bet 10,125 and Holz tanked for several minutes before calling.
Abramov showed just and Holz had (again) . Holz was good with his king-high and Marko Busic again commented how big a donk Holz was, though we're not sure how serious Busic was with that comment.
"I'm afraid of this guy!" laughed Ivan Stefanovic with a serious overtone.
The next hand Holz would tangle with Busic.
Holz opened to 1,100 from the hijack and Busic flatted on the button. The big blind came along as well and the three of them saw a flop of . The big blind checked and Holz did the same. Busic checked behind.
The fell on the turn and the big blind checked for the second time. Holz now bet 3,500 and Busic instantly raised to 8,000. The big blind folded, Holz made the call.
The on the river made both players check. Holz showed and Busic quietly mucked.
We hadn't noticed Austrian high roller Niki Jedlicka yet, but now he's on our radar for sure as he just busted two players in the same hand.
Sowa Gereon was all in before the flop for just a couple of big blinds and received calls from Sergej Barbarez and Niki Jedlicka.
The flop came and now Barbarez shoved all in for 16,000 according to one of our esteemed colleagues. Jedlicka made the call and it was time for all three of them to open up their cards.
Sowa Gereon:
Sergej Barbarez:
Niki Jedlicka:
The on the turn filled up Jedlicka's straight and the on the river was a blank. Welcome to the tournament mister Jedlicka!