Third qualification round

We've got 24 more qualifiers for the final. With again very tense moments with just 25 players left, it turned out to be Sigi Stockinger to (barely) stay alive. While at almost all other tables everybody could be considered "safe", at Sigi's table there was one very short-stacked lady, while Sigi himself had not all that many more chips.

At the final hand, the lady had gone all-in, and Sigi and a second player had checked their hands down to seventh street. When Sigi then bet after seventh street despite the fact that the lady had a very scary board (showing 8764), the audience started screaming: "Full!" - and indeed Sigi had a boat.

With among the qualifier's other big names as Casey Kastle, Mel Judah & Richard Ashby, tomorrow's final is starting to get more and more interesting. The 24 qualifiers today:

Second qualification round

The second qualification, or second "consolation" as things are called here, has been concluded. Lots of well-known Austrian tournament players have been able to reach the finals, including Walter Erker, Erich Kollmann and Harry Casagrande. But the biggest name of all is of course Marcel Luske. The fact that he has qualified will mean that the finals will definitely be more attractive to watch.

What will happen in the next couple of days? Well, tomorrow at noon. we will have the "third consolation", and then the day after (again at noon) there will be a last "bonus chance" to qualify. Five hours later, the actual final will then take place, at 5 p.m. local time - and I will start the live reports around that time. So, make sure you are there to see in action not just the Flying Fox, but also the last year's winner Dan Bitsch Pedersen, the EPT Baden winner Thang Duc Nguyen & of course a whole bunch of local Austrians & strong Scandinavians.    

At 7:15 p.m. local time, the second qualification got started. Almost exactly the same list of players as we had yesterday, even though quite obviously for the 24 qualifiers from yesterday there was no need to play yet again. Still, the number of entrants was again not exactly up to the expectations, because with 220 players registered, we are quite a bit below the 300-400 players that we have become accustomed to over here.

For those interested: I have just received the official results of this side event that I had mentioned in yesterday's blog. They are:

First qualification round

The first qualification round for the PokerEM final has been completed - meaning we have our first 24 finalists. But it went far from smoothly: Despite the high antes, it took no less than 75 minutes to reduce the field from 26 to the final 24, simply because the all-in players managed to survive all the time.

Some people were so shortstacked that they could be considered desperate. For one, local Bruno Stefanelli was close to elination more than once, but he won pots with a full house and a flush to make it to the final 24 after all.

Other players had so many chips that they didn't need to worry at all. For instance, there was one table that contained Markus Golser, Mads Andersen, Martin Vallo & last year's winner Dan Bitsch Pedersen - and they were just laughing and joking. This may have been just in part because they had more than enough chips in front of them - especially Mads Andersen & Martin Vallo looked like they had also been having a drink or two, maybe.

In fact, that table had the unique situation that when the shortstack raised all-in right behind the forced bet, that everybody called the raise, and then checked it down all the way to seventh street. No way that the shortstack could have his decent hand hold up against so many opponents - and in the end, it was Mads Andersen who had a board of open trips that was good enough to eliminate player # 25.

All in all, we have had a somewhat disappointing number of 256 entries, 96 rebuys and 227 add-ons. The 24 qualifiers are:

Tomorrow at about 7 p.m., we will have the exact same tournament we have had today, with again 24 qualifiers for the final. I have been told that the final will start with 72 players in total - so I assume there will also be a third qualifying event. But I will keep you up to date about that in due time. For now, it is goodbye from me. See you all tomorrow!

The PokerEM is under way. For the tournament of 'just' 300 Euros buy-in, we can expect a very large prize pool. The reason is simple. There is one optional rebuy, plus an add-on at the end of the first three levels. What's more, there will be a second chance event tomorrow, meaning that all the people who haven't made it to the final yet, will have another opportunity. All in all, first prize may very well be more than 100,000 Euros, and with 254 entrants already and registration still possible, this is definitely not "just another" tournament.

And the calibre of the field shows that the players rate this as an important tournament as well. This PokerEM has already been won in the year 2000 by the not-exactly-small-time-poker-player Phil Hellmuth, and a quick scan around the tables saw these players in action:

• Thang Duc Nguyen (winner EPT Baden)
• Mel Judah
• Leo Kantelbinder (Vienna-based high-stakes cash game player)
• Andreas Krause
• Sigi Stockinger
• Paul Testud
• Antonio Turrisi
• Ivo Donev
• Lu Zhe Zhang
• Bruno Stefanelli
• Seppo Parkkinen
• Pepe Klinger (seen by many as the best player in Austria, and also very successful in the big online pot-limit Omaha ring games)
• Lothar Landauer
• Robin Keston
• Mads Andersen
• Xuyen Pham
• Martin Vallo
• Istvan Hamori
• Marcel Luske
• Jin Cai Lin (Jin, Marcel & Istvan are all seatyed at table 10 - making this a highly interesting table)
• Angelo Yu Zuo Ping (former Master Classics Main Event winner)
• Richard Ashby
• Erich Kollmann
• Attila Foris (one of the best tournament players in Vienna)
• Pascal Perrault
• Alex Kravchenko
• John Kabbaj
• Joachim Sanejstra
• Jacky Zhang
• Markus Golser (another high-stakes Austrian player, who had come so close to winning his first-ever EPT a few days ago)
• Walter Erker
• Christoph Haller (yet another high-stakes player)
• Manuela Seliger 
• Mads Andersen
• Jari Salonen
• Jeff Lisandro
• Steve Vladar
• Manuela Kremser
• Thomas Kremser
• Tibor Tolnai
• Sven Polarski
• Thomas Fougeron
• Martin Pollak
• Nic Szeremeta (playing his specialty game)

Now that the EPT has been concluded, it is time to shift the focus somewhat - as the biggest annual stud tournament in Europe is about to start. Starting at 7 p.m. local time, we will have day 1 of the Poker EM, a tournament with a remarkable structure. On this first day, the last 24 players qualify for day 3, and then tomorrow (on day 2) another 24 players qualify. This means that in two or three days from now 72 players will battle for the semi-official "European Stud Championship".

In the next two days, I will try to come up with the exact results, follow the big names, and focus on a few interesting hands here and there. I will then start my 'real' reports in two days from now, once we have truly reached the final stages of this event.

Right after the EPT had been concluded, I had the chance to see the final stages of one of the side events here in Baden. A rather big side event, having a first prize of no less than EUR 95,931, and with an interesting final that included Marcel Luske & "Bad Girl" Xuyen Pham, for instance. In the end, it was Mark Pedersen from Denmark who especially had to shake off strong Austrian local Michael Legradi (who had to settle for third place, for approximately 38,000 Euros) to then beat Richard Redmond heads up. Final results:

1. Mark Pedersen (Denmark)
2. Richard Redmond (UK)
3. Michael Legradi (Austria)
4. Marcel Luske (Netherlands)