Fedor Holz Leads Final 17, Austria's All-Time Money Leader Josef Klinger in Second
The third day of the 2015 partypoker World Poker Tour Vienna Main Event started out with 44 players and the simple goal of reaching at least 18 players. That goal was reached, but not without drama.
With 27 players getting in the money, reaching the bubble was the first hurdle to overcome.
Fedor Holz started out second in chips, but seemed motivated to get to the top spot on the leaderboard as soon as possible. He won a big pot with a backdoor flush to get up to 460,000, and didn't seem in the mood to fold much after that. He played about every hand, only to walk into aces when he had a real big hand. He couldn't suck out with his 
and doubled Josef Bartalos.
Ivan Luca, currently number three in the Global Poker Index Player of the Year race, wouldn't gain any ground at this stop in Vienna. He busted early on Day 3 when he ran king-jack into ace-four.
Manig Loeser lost all of his chips well before the money was reached as well, his nines didn't improve against Peter Jaksland's kings.
Artur Koren was another familiar player to bust before the paydays were handed out, his seven-nine made things exciting against Josef Klinger's aces by hitting a seven on the flop and turning a flush draw, but the river blanked and Koren hit the rail.
Jan Bendik, another regular on the international tournament circuit, wouldn't make it either. His ace-king got sucked out on by ace-queen.
The bubble loomed not much later. Arberd Lalicic finished in 29th place and with 28 players remaining, hand-for-hand play was established by the tournament director. It took well over an hour before the bubble burst. A lot of players doubled on the bubble, but Robert Schulz wouldn't be so lucky. He shoved his short stack to the middle with ace-eight and got called by Pascal Hartmann holding ace-ten. By the time the turn was on the table, Schulz was drawing to a chop. No luck came on the river and the tournament was down to 27 players and officially in the money.
After an hour dinner break, the players would fall rather quickly. Short stack Stefan Jedlicka, Niki Jedlicka's younger brother, was the first. His ace-deuce got rivered by king-nine.
Former PokerStars Caribbean Adventure champion Dimitar Danchev finished in 26th and Viktor Katzenberger finished 25th.
Start-of-the-day chip leader Dzmitry Urbanovich was next to go. The Polish prodigy finished 24th for €6,040 after a disappointing day. He got unlucky a couple of times, and his bust out was unfortunate as well. He got it in with top pair and a flush draw against the king-high flush draw of Thomas Bichon. The king on the turn meant the end of it for Urbanovich.
Michel Abecassis, one of the most experienced players left in the field, fell next. He played aggressive the entire tournament, only to get it in drawing dead with ace-king against Pascal Hartmann's ten-nine suited in a three-bet pot. The two nines on the flop and no help on the turn, meant there were no cards left in the deck to save the Frenchman.
Jens Lakemeier fell victim to Holz. The 300,000-chip pot went Holz's way this time with ace-king against nines. The board came no higher than a ten, and Lakemeier finished in 22nd place for €6,040.
Erich Kollmann, number three on Austria's all-time money list, added a small cash to his already impressive list of results. He was short the entire day, or should we say, the entire tournament. He got it in good with aces, but Bichon hit top set with his queens to sent Kollmann packing.
While Boyaciyan dodged bullets twice in a row (folding his big blind to Josef Klinger's button raise with aces, and giving Thomas Bichon with aces in the big blind a walk), he couldn't escape when he had aces himself. Jitka Seidler pushed a ton of chips with top pair into his monster, but rivered two pair to cripple the Dutchman.
Two more players busted, but Boyaciyan wouldn't be one of them. Ivan Stefanovic finished in 19th place and Danijel Jovanovic ended the tournament in 18th place.
With five levels played, tournament director Christian Scalzi stopped the tournament and brought out the bags. Seventeen players remained, and once again it was Holz in the lead. Austria's all-time money leader Klinger ended in second place, and both have more than 100 big blinds to start Day 4.
The first level to be played on Day 4 will be Level 19 (4,000/8,000/1,000). The tournament will play down from 17 to six on Day 4. Check back here at 2 p.m. local time for continuing coverage of the partypoker WPT Vienna Main Event.
| Table | Seat | Player | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 | 1 | Frederik Brink Jensen | 192,000 | 24 |
| 28 | 3 | Gaelle Baumann | 311,000 | 39 |
| 28 | 4 | David Boyaciyan | 125,000 | 16 |
| 28 | 5 | Konstantinos Nanos | 326,000 | 41 |
| 28 | 6 | Jitka Seidler | 396,000 | 50 |
| 28 | 7 | Sotirios Koutoupas | 152,000 | 19 |
| 28 | 8 | Josef Klinger | 804,000 | 101 |
| 28 | 9 | Andreas Freund | 102,000 | 13 |
| 30 | 1 | Pascal Hartmann | 546,000 | 68 |
| 30 | 2 | Vladimir Krastev | 158,000 | 26 |
| 30 | 3 | Gerald Karlic | 500,000 | 63 |
| 30 | 4 | Peter Jaksland | 369,000 | 46 |
| 30 | 5 | Hans- Joachim Hein | 257,000 | 32 |
| 30 | 6 | Fedor Holz | 909,000 | 114 |
| 30 | 7 | Thomas Bichon | 772,000 | 97 |
| 30 | 8 | Jan-Eric Schwippert | 453,000 | 57 |
| 30 | 9 | Rumen Nanev | 217,000 | 27 |