PokerNews Cup Vienna Day 1b: €75,000 Guarantee Shattered!
With a total of 200 players and 18 re-entries, the second flight of the 2014 PokerNews Cup €250 Main Event shattered the €75,000 guarantee and brought the tournament's prize pool to €90,675.
Played simultaneously in two of Vienna's top poker venues, Day 1b of the fifth PokerNews Cup attracted 153 players at the Montesino Casino and 47 players at the Concord Simmering Casino.
The second of the two flights in the schedule brought the total number of participants to 367, with only nearly half of the field composed of Austrian players.
"It's great to see so many foreign players in Montesino, it really creates a different atmosphere" said tournament director Günther Grafeneder.
"What's even better, is that I see that players like it as well," Grafeneder continued. "They can meet to new players and at the same time discover how people play poker in different countries."
At the end of the 12 levels played on Day 1b, Slovakia's Andrej Cintula and Austria's Michael Strasser replaced Christian Einstein on the top spot of the chip lead with two stacks of 317,000 and 281,000 respectively.
The adventure also continues for nine of the players who qualified to the Cup through our exclusive PokerNews satellites. Among them is Hungary's Attila Toth-Madi – who already happened to participate in this year's World Series of Poker in Las Vegas thanks to a PokerNews-exclusive package.
"I am really happy to be here and I am even happier to have qualified for the final day," Toth-Madi said at the end of the day 1b. "After this event and the amazing experience I have lived in Vegas, I really look forward for the next promotions available on PokerNews because I will participate again for sure!"
The action is set to restart today at 2 p.m. for the final act of the Main Event, which can be followed live with English commentary right from our Live Reporting section.
A total of 101 players will head back to the tables to fight their way up to the €20,450 top prize and the title of champion that is still in the hands of Australia's Con Tsapkounis since the last edition of the series in 2009.
However, the winner of the tournament will not be the only one to bring something home. Nearly half of the remaining field will leave the event with some cash in their pocket as the top 41 place will be paid.
Here's a look at the top 10 chip counts at the start of the final day:
| Rank | Name | Country | Chips |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Andrej Cintula | SVK | 317,000 |
| 2 | Michael Strasser | AUT | 281,500 |
| 3 | Christian Eisenstein | AUT | 267,500 |
| 4 | Ondrej Lon | CZE | 244,000 |
| 5 | Josef Schmölz | AUT | 226,000 |
| 6 | Maximilian Noll | AUT | 189,000 |
| 7 | Shi Hong Chen | AUT | 187,500 |
| 8 | David Kristek | CZE | 183,000 |
| 9 | Miroslav Lelek | SVK | 171,000 |
| 10 | Ivan Neytchev | BUL | 167,500 |
Josef Tod Wins the Second Chance Event
While most of the players were busy with the Main Event, 79 players registered for Saturday's €75 buy-in €8,000 GTD Second Chance event.
Austria's Josef Tod managed to be the last one standing and bring home the top €2,400 prize after heads-up match against Bosnia and Herzegovina's Hamza Dzaferofic.
Here's a look at the 11 places paid in the Second Chance event:
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Josef Tod | AUT | €2,400 |
| 2 | Hamza Dzaferovic | BIH | €1,430 |
| 3 | Klemen Kramljak | SLO | €950 |
| 4 | Roman Back | AUT | €730 |
| 5 | Holger Neumann | GER | €570 |
| 6 | Patrick Radda | AUT | €450 |
| 7 | Haci Ersoy | AUT | €350 |
| 8 | Sladjan Miladic | AUT | €290 |
| 9 | Tamas Mezosi | HUN | €250 |
| 10 | Denny Ebeling | GER | €220 |
| 11 | Claus Himetzberger | AUT | €120 |
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