Chip Counts and Day 3 Seat Draw

Level 14: 1,200-2,400, 400 ante

Day 2 Recap: Moorman Closes in on Christensen

Level 14: 1,200-2,400, 400 ante

(Photo: Morten Christensen)

When it comes to European poker, Denmark is in the midst of a poker renaissance. Jannick Wrang, Frederik Jensen and Mickey Petersen have all won major European titles in the past few months, and so it should come as no surprise to learn that the leader of WPT Vienna Day 2 is also Danish.

Not many people would have heard of Morten Christensen before today. The online qualifier has only cashed in three live events and currently lies 352nd in the all-time Danish money list. It's a good job we have the Hendon Mob to be able to look up these statistics, because without them you would have thought he had been cashing in live events for years. The Dane finished with a sumptuous looking 483,000 chips and is in great shape to add cash number four to his resume.

Rest is very important for poker players; good nights sleep a necessity. But someone failed to tell Roberto Romanello. The WPT Champions Club member decided to play in the 48-hr Big Cash Game until 05.00 this morning! Despite the lack of sleep Romanello's chirpy little voice was heard regularly throughout the day and he made it into the draw for Day 3.


(Photo: Roberto Romanello)

The chip leader from the combined day one's was Darko Stojanovic and he started Day 2 in the same fashion that he wrapped up Day 1B. Yesterday he ended the day by disposing of McLean Karr and today Fabrice Soulier suffered the same fate. The Frenchman losing a flip for his tournament life and Stojanovic immediately stretched his lead at the top.


(Photo: Darko Stojanovic)

The first player to try and grab hold of Stojanovic's coat tails was WPT Player of the Year Andy Frankenberger. Frankenberger grafted his way to 115,000 before doubling that to 230,000 when he his pocket kings ran into the pocket queens of Thomas Muhlocker. But our WPT Champions Club member suffered a frustrating day after that early promise, culminating in an all-in at the death, when his pocket kings were out flopped by Yohann Aube's pocket queens. Frustrated he may have been but the flame haired one still has his name in the bag for Day 3.


(Photo: Andy Frankenberger)

Earlier in the day we ran into Ben Wilinofsky. The Canadian sensation has had a miserable time while in Vienna having suffered the ignominy of losing three out of his four heats in the WPT Special Event PartyPoker Premier League. Add a little illness into the mix and it bodes for a bad day at the office, but Wilinofsky is made of sterner stuff, and midway through Level 11 he turned WPT Vienna on its head with two high profile eliminations. The first player to feel the might of Wilinofsky was Michael Tureniec and the Swede's elimination pushed Wilinofsky into the top three spots. But then the most amazing cooler pushed into the top spot. Vincenzo Natale finished Day 1B with 133,300 chips and a bright future in WPT Vienna. That was until Wilinofsky got his claws into him. Wilinofsky flopped quad fours before the ace on the turn handed Natale aces full. The carnage on the river ended up with a dumbfounded Natale leaving the competition and Wilinofsky rising to the number one spot and 410,000 chips.


(Photo: Ben Wilinofsky)

Xuan Liu, Todd Terry, Jonathan Duhamel, Adam Levy and ElkY departed in Level 12, and they were joined by Dominik Nitsche, Sam El Sayed, Ludovic Lacay, Faraz Jaka, Nicolas Cardyn, Ronny Kaiser and Toby Lewis who were eliminated in Level 13. All eyes were on the stream of quality leaving the tournament floor when the giant killer struck again. This time the victim was Steve O'Dwyer and once again it was the river that proved to be the winner for Stojanovic. O'Dwyer laid a nice little trap for Stojanovic when he flatted pre flop with pocket kings. Three streets later on a board of 5x 3x 2x 7 4 and Stojanovic had rivered a straight holding Ax 6x and O'Dwyer was on to his next tournament.


(Photo: Steve O'Dwyer)

If you play the Stojanovic way then sooner or later you are going to lose chips, and so it proved to be the case. By the time Stojanovic had been moved to the direct left of Morten Christensen he had whittled himself down to 250,000 chips. Stojanovic and Christensen finished the day with some interesting battles, but none that threatened to get too out of hand. In fact right at the death it was Chris Moorman who became Christensen’s main threat for the chip lead turning 70,000 chips into 400,000 chips. Amazed at his chip growing feat we asked him to talk us through the big pots

“I haven’t had any,” said the modest Moorman.


(Photo: Chris Moorman)

So congratulations to our chip leader Morten Christensen. Day 3 will resume at 13.00 (CET) Friday.

Bad Beat For Frankenberger

Level 14: 1,200-2,400, 400 ante

Darko Stojanovic raises to 4,800 in first position and Andy Frankenberger three-bets to 12,200 a few seats to his left. A few folds later and Yohann Aube moves all-in for 60,000. Stojanovic folds and Frankenberger makes the call.

Frankenberger: K K
Aube: Q Q

Aube sees the cards of Frankenberger and rises from his seat.

Flop: Q 7 2

Aube sits back down and Frankenberger looks tired and totally fed up.

Turn: 7 & River 2

Both players now have 130,000

Straight for the Chip Leader

Level 14: 1,200-2,400, 400 ante

Morten Christensen raises from the hijack making it 4,800 to play and Thomas Butzhammer calls on the button.

Flop: 8 7 6

Christensen bets 6,200 and Butzhammer calls.

Turn: 9

Both players check.

River: 6

Christensen bets 16,200 and Butzhammer calls. Our chip leader turns over T 8 for the straight and Butzhammer folds.

Kurtz From Position

Level 14: 1,200-2,400, 400 ante

Tristan Wade raises to 4,800 in early position and Matthias Kurtz three-bets to 11,100 from the cutoff. Wade makes the call and the pair of them share a flop of K T 4 where Wade check-folds to a 11,500 Kurtz c-bet.

Kurtz ~ 110,000
Wade ~ 280,000

Frankenberger All-In

Level 14: 1,200-2,400, 400 ante

There is a raise from early position to 5,100, Morten Christensen calls in the hijack seat before Andy Frankenberger moves all-in from the button for 120,000. Both players fold and Frankenberger picks up the pot.

Frankenberger ~ 138,000

Bad Beat For Kastle

Level 14: 1,200-2,400, 400 ante

We didn't see the pre flop action but believe it went as follows:

Darko Stojanovic raised, Casey Kastle called, Peter Galla three-bet and both players called. The dealer plants the flop - J 8 2 - and the action checks through to Galla who moves all-in for 40,000. Stojanovic folds but Kastle does not have an easy decision. He asks for a count, composes himself and then makes a great call.

Kastle: 7 7
Galla: A Q

Turn: K

More outs for Galla.

River: T

Galla hits a runner-runner straight and Kastle closes his eyes to compose himself.

Galla ~ 140,000
Kastle ~ 60,000

Anton Wigg Doubles Through Stojanovic

Level 14: 1,200-2,400, 400 ante

We are not sure what order the chips went in the pot, but get them in they did.

Wigg: K Q
Stojanovic: K J

Board: K 8 2 3 7

Wigg now has 125,000 and Stojanovic proves he is only human and is down to 510,000

Neumann, Sbrzesny & Eiler

Level 13: 1,000-2,000, 300 ante

Marko Neumann raises to 5,000 in the cutoff and Bodo Sbrzesny calls in the small blind. Michael Eiler is seated in the big blind and he three-bets to 12,500 and both players call.

Flop: Q 9 4

Sbrzesny checks, Eiler bets 18,600 and Neumann shuts him down with a raise to 41,100.

Neumann ~ 240,000
Eiler ~ 280,000
Sbrzesny ~ 160,000

A Few More Prominent Eliminations

Level 13: 1,000-2,000, 300 ante

Michel Abecassis, Konstantin Puchkov, William Molsom, Erich Kollmann and David Peters have busted.