2014 PokerStars.net EPT Vienna Main Event Day 2: Trisch Leads with Bubble Approaching
The 10th season of the European Poker Tour continued on Tuesday with Day 2 action from Vienna. Registration closed before the start of play, and with a few late registrants the final total of entrants reached 910 players, which means the prize pool is a juicy €4,413,500. The winner is set to receive €816,000, a beautiful trophy and a luxurious Swiss SLYDE watch, with 135 players getting paid a minimum of €8,700.
The man best positioned to make a run at the top prize is Germany's Sebastian Trisch, who completed the day in the lead over the estimated 189 advancing players with a commanding stack of 568,500 in chips. He started the day as one of the big stacks with 146,200 and never really looked back. He was followed by Artur Koren in second place with 463,000 in chips, while Marko Neumann rounded out the top three with 421,100.
One of the first players to be eliminated at the start of the day was the winner of the last EPT Vienna, Michael Eiler. The defending champ fell in Level 9 (400/800/100) when Christian Stallinger opened for 1,600 and Eiler put in the last of his 5,500. Stallinger made the call with the J♠J♦ and Eiler was racing for his tournament life with the A♣K♣. The cards fell 5♣3♥7♥Q♥J♠ and Eiler made his way to the exit, which assured a new EPT champion would emerge in Vienna.
As previously mentioned, it was still possible to buy into the event at the start of Day 2, and one of three players who took that option was Daniel “Jungleman” Cates. He would last less than an hour, though, when he called a preflop raise with kings and saw the flop come AxKx5x. He called a bet on the flop and all the money went in on the 3x turn. His opponent had top set with AxAx and the case king failed to appear for Cates.
Some other notable players who failed to make it through the night include Team PokerStars Pro Liv Boeree, who ran queens into aces, and Maxim Lykov, who exited when he five-bet shoved the 6♠6♥ and was eventually called by the 7♣7♦ of Antoine Granath. The chip leader at the start of the day, Mads Smith Hansen, also failed to advance.
Team PokerStars Pro Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier did make it through, ending with 61,300. He will be joined by Full Tilt Poker Professional Viktor “Isildur1” Blom, who made a rare live tournament appearance here in Austria. Blom bagged up 93,400 in chips and was kind enough to give Pokernews an exclusive interview at one of the breaks.
Gus Hansen, the other Full Tilt Poker Professional, also made it through to Day 3 with 221,000 in chips. He was helped on his way by one of his trademark "less-than-stellar" hands that ended up cracking the aces of Neumann.
Meanwhile, Sam Trickett finished up with 290,000, continuing to run “pure,” as he put it. Just before the end of play, he eliminated Vitaly Lunkin when the two got the money in before the flop with Trickett holding the 10♦8♦ against the A♣10♠ of Lunkin. A final board of A♦3♦7♥Q♥2♦ gave Trickett a flush on the river and Lunkin’s stack.
Day 3 will kick off at 12 p.m. local time on Wednesday, and it shouldn't take long for the money to be reached. Be sure to join the Pokernews Live Reporting team for up-to-the-minute coverage of the EPT Vienna Main Event sponsored by PokerStars.net. You can also follow the action at the feature table via the live stream at PokerStars.tv with James Hartigan and Joe Stapleton providing commentary and analysis.
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