April 14 2012, Brett Collson

Day 4 of the World Poker Tour Vienna Main Event saw 21 of the original 396 players play down to a final table of six. Serbian poker pro Ognjen Sekularac will take the chip lead into the final day, but former European Poker Tour champion Ben Wilinofsky is also in contention and will attempt to pick up his second leg of poker’s triple crown.

Among the notables returning on the penultimate day were Eugene Katchalov, Anton Wigg, Tristan Wade, Roberto Romanello and Andrew Badecker. Katchalov was one of the first to hit the rail after running his into chip leader Goswin Siemsen’s . Katchalov, who competed in the PartyPoker Premier League and The Big Game during his trip to Vienna, collected $12,078 for 19th place.

Badecker’s elimination in 14th place kicked off a flurry of notable departures. According to the WPT Live Updates team, Badecker got the last of his chips in with against Sekularac’s on a board.

He was followed out the door by Wade, who lost most of his chips when he six-bet shoved into Romanello’s . Wade then moved all in preflop for his last 10 big blinds with and was in great shape to double up against Romanello’s , but the board gave the Welshman a flush to send Wade out the door in 12th place.

After Wigg busted out in 11th, Romanello found himself in a great spot with against Wilinofsky’s . Romanello was the last WPT champ in the field, but his dreams of a second title were dashed when Wilinofsky hit a jack on the river to take the overall chip lead and eliminate Romanello in 10th place.

Anthony Ghamrawi was the first casualty at the “unofficial” final table when his pocket kings were run down by Manuel Mutke’s . Mutke’s newly found chips didn’t last long, though, as he lost a flip with pocket tens to the of Sekularac, who surged into the chip lead. Mutke collected $35,421 for his four days of work.

Moments later, Maximilian Senft took a horrific beat to land directly on the final table bubble. Morten Christensen raised to 60,000, and Senft put in a huge overshove for around 800,000. Christensen pondered a decision before finally deciding on a call, only to discover the bad news:

Christensen:
Senft:

The lead quickly shifted into Christensen’s favor when the dealer rolled out a flop, and the turn and river sent the disappointed Senft to the cashier to collect his $48,297.

The winner of Sunday’s final table will earn $410,519, including a seat to next month’s $25,000 World Poker Tour Championship at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. Here’s a look at the seat draw:

WPT Vienna Final Table Seat Draw

The final table will commence at 1300 CET (0400 PDT) and all of the action will be streamed live with a 15-minute delay at WorldPokerTour.com. If you’re not able to catch the coverage, PokerNews will have the daily update shortly after play ends.

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*Photo courtesy of the World Poker Tour.

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April 13 2012, Donnie Peters

When the 2012 World Poker Tour Vienna Day 2 came and went on Thursday, only 66 players remained to see the chips bagged and tagged. Morten Christensen led the way with 483,000 in chips, and Chris Moorman (411,500) and Tristan Wade (395,500) were close on his heels.

Darko Stojanovic held the lead coming into the day 320,000 chips. Although he didn’t exactly make any eyes pop with his stack movement, he finished fourth overall on the leaderboard with 354,000.

A few former WPT champions were still in the mix when Day 2 began. Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Davidi Kitai and Sam El Sayed were among the former champs returning, but all three were eliminated before the day ended.

According to the WPT Live Updates Team, Kitai went out during Level 11 with the blinds at 600/1,200/200 when his failed to outrun his opponent’s pocket tens. El Sayed fell two levels later with the blinds at 1,000/2,000/300.

Also eliminated during Level 13 were Faraz Jaka and Steve O’Dwyer. Jaka hit the rail after his to , and then O’Dwyer was eliminated by the hot Stojanovic.

According to O’Dwyer, Wade made a min-raise and O’Dwyer flat-called with two kings. Stojanovic three-bet to 13,200 and action folded back to O’Dwyer. He reraised and made it 39,700 to go. Stojanovic called and the flop came down with one club. O’Dwyer bet 35,000 and Stojanovic called. The turn brought the and O’Dwyer fired 46,000. Stojanovic called again and the river completed the board with the . O’Dwyer checked and Stojanovic moved all in, having O’Dwyer covered. After tanking for a bit and even getting the clock called on him, O’Dwyer made the call. Stojanovic tabled for a straight and won the pot to eliminate one of the hottest players on the tournament circuit this year.

A few of the other players eliminated on Day 2 were Michel Abecassis, Xuan Liu, Sam Chartier, Adam Levy and Jason Wheeler. Those advancing included Ben Wilinofsky (260,000), Anton Wigg (234,000) and former WPT champion Roberto Romanello (223,000).

WPT Vienna Day 2 Top 10 Chip Counts

Only 66 players remained going into Day 3 and the top 45 places pay out. PokerNews will have the daily update after Day 3 has been completed, so be sure to check back for that.

*Photo courtesy of the World Poker Tour.

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