Szabo Does Best, Austrian's All Time Money Leader Klinger Bags Lots

The poker room of the Montesino Card Casino was crowded for Day 1b of the partypoker World Poker Tour Vienna Main Event as 135 players registered, and 13 of them opting to reenter. That made the total for Day 1b 138, and combined with the 68 that signed up yesterday on Day 1a, the total for the WPT Vienna Main Event now stands at 206 entries. That number is likely to increase as registration is open until the start of play on Day 2, and a Last Chance Satellite guarantees three more seats will be awarded.

There was action from the get go, with big pots even in the first level at 2 p.m. Bracelet winner Simeon Naydenov was the first to get involved in a big hand. He lost with kings to a flopped full house his opponent made with pocket eights. Naydenov, who played and busted on Day 1a, was frustrated after that hand and failed to survive the day.

Naydenov wasn't the only A-list player as dozens of familiar faces traveled to Vienna to play in the Main Event. All many had to do was take the bus to the casino, as many of the German top pros live in the city, and it's not just German players that call Vienna home. Spanish pro Ana Marquez lives here in the Austrian capital as well and decided to make her comeback after a three-month absence from both live and online poker. She survived the day, bagging 23,100 in chips after eight levels of play.

Frederik Jensen isn't one of the pros living in "Wien", but he was in action to show the German speaking contingent how to play. The first hand with him the PokerNews Live Reporting Team captured was a big bluff where he lead out three streets in a three-bet pot with nothing but ace-deuce high. Jensen showed the bluff and started stacking with a big grin on his face. Despite the good start, Jensen only bagged 33,300 in the end.

Another player with reason to smile was Austria's all-time money leader Josef Klinger. Klinger, on top with almost $1.8 million in live cashes but no results since 2010, first won a huge hand with kings all in before the flop against ace king suited. "Pepe", as his peers call him, then doubled up once more and ended the day as one of the chip leaders with 166,300 in chips.

Sofia Lövgren wasn't so lucky today. We found her texting on the rail, most likely telling the homefront about her bad luck. She first ran a big hand into a set of jacks, to later lose her remaining chips with ace-eight against king-jack. "That's poker," she said with a smile before heading off to the next one.

There was a lot of action in the last two levels of the day. EPT London champion Sebastian Pauli lost with ace-queen against ace-queen, EPT Deauville runner-up Dany Parlafes lost with ace-king against aces, and Deauville's high roller champion Josip Simunic wouldn't survive running tens into ace-queen. Simunic bought back in though, and he collected some new chips straight from the bat by busting Bruno Lopes with kings against queen-seven. Simunic ended the day with 50,400.

Zoltan Szabo did best on Day 1b, collecting 177,800 in chips. He nearly caught up with Fedor Holz, who finished Day 1a with over 180,000 in chips and will start Day 2 as chip leader.

Play continues Saturday, March 14th at 2 p.m. local time. The levels will be ninety minutes long and five of them will be played: