Main Event
Day 1a Started
Main Event
Day 1a Started
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.”
Level: 1
Blinds: 50/100
Ante: 0
World Poker Tour tournament director Christian Scalzi has just kicked off the World Poker Tour Vienna Main Event. The dealer button started out in seat seven and every player received 30,000 in chips. There will be eight levels of play today, with a 15-minute break after level 2 and 6, and a 60-minute dinner break after level 4.
The first level has started. Not a whole lot of people took their seats just yet, but some familiar faces have. The number one (Danchev), two (Naydenov) and four (Nanev) of the Bulgarian all time money list are here. Vladimir Bozinovic, who won the last WPT in Vienna two years ago for €185,000, also took his seat already. We'll be sure to keep our eyes on these guys today.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Dimitar Danchev | 30,000 | 30,000 |
Vladimir Bozinovic
|
30,000 | 30,000 |
Rumen Nanev | 30,000 | 30,000 |
Simeon Naydenov | 30,000 | 30,000 |
We just saw Martin Staszko, WSOP Main Event runner up when Pius Heinz won it all back in 2011, check on a board of . His neighbor Vladimir Bozinovic in the cutoff bet 1,300 and Staszko made the call.
The fell on the river and Staszko checked again. Bozinovic checked behind after some thinking.
Staszko showed with some confidence, but that hand ended up in the muck mili seconds later. Bozinovic tabled and took it down.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Vladimir Bozinovic
|
32,000 | 2,000 |
Martin Staszko | 28,000 | -2,000 |
From distinguished World Poker Tour photographer Alin Ivanov.
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.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Sergej Barbarez | 30,000 | 30,000 |
Alexander Lakhov
|
30,000 | 30,000 |
Ognyan Dimov | 30,000 | 30,000 |
Jan Ramik, Czech's poker aficionado, and Georgios Sotiropoulos, the number two on the Greek all time money list, have taken their seats. The field is still rather compact, but there are more than enough familiar faces playing today.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Georgios Sotiropoulos | 30,000 | |
Jan Ramik | 30,000 |
Level: 2
Blinds: 75/150
Ante: 0