PNC Alpine Main Event, Day 1: Mark Vos Opens Big Lead
Day 1 of the PokerNews Cup €1,500 Main Event saw 129 players competing at the Alpine Palace Hotel and Card Casino in Saalbach-Hinterglemm, Austria. Among the competitors were EPT founder John Duthie, recent EPT champion Sandra Naujoks, and irrepressible superstars David Saab, Tony G and Marcel Luske. By the end of Day 1 it was Event #2 winner Mark Vos sitting atop the greatest mountain of chips, as only 33 players made it through to Day 2.
The field was full of notable players, but with the tournament taking place at a ski resort, some of the field decided to get in a little extra time on the slopes, arriving late to the first day's play. Markus Golser likely had his fill of the skiing action, sporting a full-blown cast in place of the bandage he wore through the High Rollers tournament earlier in the week. Golser took a trip to the hospital after chopping the High Rollers event with Tony G and determined that the arm he injured skiing was, in fact, broken.
With so many tough players in the field, there were bound to be big bustouts early. Peter Overdijk made the final table of the €300 PLO event, but busted early in the Main Event when his kings were cracked in the first level of play. Other notable early eliminations included David Saab, Noah Boeken and Tony G. Tony G got it all in on a K♥10♥5♥ flop against Erich Kollmann, and found himself ahead with K♦7♦ to Kollmann's A♥-7. The A♦ on the turn was bad news for Guoga, and when the river brought the 6♦, Tony G's day was done.
Mark Vos took the chip lead after the dinner break when he took down a huge pot from Kristap Krapans with A♦9♦ on a board of A♠9♣9♥2♥3♥. Krapans held A♥10♥, and the running hearts convinced him to put all his chips in the middle with the nut flush against Vos' flopped boat. Vos then went on a tear, building a 2:1 margin over his nearest competitors with his aggressive play throughout the evening.
Marcel Luske also finished the day strong, knocking out Marc Jacquetin and then doubling through Dennis Uhrenholt late in the day to finish near the top of the chip counts. All the chips went in preflop, with Uhrenholt having Luske barely covered. Uhrenholt's pocket queens had Luske drawing thin with A♠Q♠, but all Luske needed arrived as the window card on the A♣7♥6♦ flop. The 10♠ turn and 2♦ river were no help for Uhrenholt as Luske surged up the chip counts.
Liv Boeree made the last few hands interesting for her tablemates, finding herself crippled, then tripling up, then busting out within the last five hands of the day. In the first hand she called Vladislav Bakalov's all-in with A♣K♦ on a flop of 2♠4♠10♦. Bakalov tabled pocket jacks, which held up to put a huge dent in Boeree's stack. Boeree then tripled up when her pocket eights flopped a set against the pocket tens of Stefan Duxner and the pocket kings of Franciscus Dekkers. On her final hand, she moved all in preflop again, this time with A-K, and found one caller with A-6. The board ran out 4-4-5-6-2, and Boeree was done as Day 1 ground to a halt. As Boeree headed for the exit, she was joined by John Duthie, who busted on the very last hand of the night.
With 33 players left, Mark Vos was the lone player across the 200,000-chip mark. Other notable survivors included Marcel Luske, Fedor Los, Franciscus Dekkers and Nik Lackovic. The top ten chip stacks looked like this at the end of Day 1:
Mark Vos -- 213,200
Marcel Luske -- 102,800
Franciscus Dekkers -- 101,500
Vladislav Bakalov -- 99,600
Runnar Lindepuu -- 93,400
Johan Percivall -- 85,500
Nicholas van der Marel -- 82,500
Jörg Peisert -- 72,400
Nik Lackovic -- 68,800
Joseph Buhmann -- 67,600
Join PokerNews on Wednesday at 2PM local time for all the live updates as the winner of the PokerNews Cup Alpine Main Event is crowned.
