Seemingly in control since he seized the chip lead on Day Two, Denmark’s Morten Christensen emerged Sunday evening as the champion of the World Poker Tour stop in Vienna, Austria.
With 69 players, Christensen led the players to the felt on Friday with plenty of challenges facing him. Chris Moorman and Tristan Wade were in hot pursuit of the Dane but, by the end of the action on Friday, only Goswin Siemsen had been able to pass Christensen (Moorman dropped from the tournament just prior to the money bubble popping, while Wade remained in the Top Five) as the final 21 players set up for play on Saturday.
The 21 men returning on Saturday gave potential to one of the strongest final tables of this WPT season. As the hours wore on, however, such notables as Eugene Katchalov, Roberto Romanello, Andrew Badecker and Wade came up short of the unofficial final table. Pushing his way to the lead on Day Four was Ognjen Sekularac, but Christensen kept himself in the mix in the second place slot ahead of Canada’s Ben Wilinofsky.
Thus, Sunday’s final day of action in the Montesino Casino in Vienna was set. Joining Sekularac, Christensen and Wilinofsky at the final table were Norbert Szecsi, Konstantin Tolokno and Siemsen, but as each of those three men only held around one million in chips, it wasn’t expected that a potential champion would come from that group. As they say however, “that’s why you play the game,” as everyone would come to see.
It only took about an hour for the first elimination to occur at the final table. After Wilinofsky limped in from under the gun, Szecsi pushed in a three bet that sparked Wilinofsky’s adventurous side. He moved all in and Szecsi made an immediate call, tabling pocket Queens against Wilinofsky K-J of diamonds. Magically, two diamonds came on the flop and, once a third hit the turn, the Canadian only had to dodge a Queen on the river. Once the board blanked, Wilinofsky had stunningly eliminated Norbert Szecsi in sixth place.
Wilinofsky didn’t slow down after that surprising win. He continued to push the action, taking a big pot against the two chip leaders (Sekularac and Christensen) to assume the chip lead, while Tolokno would eliminate Siemsen in fifth place. The same aggression that pushed Wilinofsky up the leaderboard, however, would also bring him back down it as he doubled up Tolokno to fall from the penthouse to the basement. Wilinofsky would continue to fight, pushing all in several times to rebuild his ammunition.
Tolokno, after coming to the final table as the second shortest stack, continued to ride up the leaderboard. He was able to knock out a chip-bleeding Sekularac in fourth place to move into the second place stack while Christensen took care of knocking out Wilinofsky. Once heads up play began, Christensen had a four million chip lead over Tolokno.
Christensen tried to apply the pressure against Tolokno over the span of the three hour heads up battle but, just as it seemed he was about to deliver the final knockout of the tournament, the Russian would be able to win a pot against the Dane. Eventually, however, the constant pressure from Christensen was more than Tolokno could bear.
On the final hand, Christensen raised (as had been his norm throughout the heads up play) and Tolokno decided to make a stand. Christensen decided to come along in what was the only all-in called during head up play and his decision was the correct one. Christensen’s A-8 was out in front of the K-8 of Tolokno and, once the board came with an Ace and the turn and river blanked, Morten Christensen was the champion of the WPT Vienna.
1. Morten Christensen, $410,519
2. Konstantin Tolokno, $251,166
3. Ben Wilinofsky, $161,003
4. Ognjen Sekularac, $111,095
5. Goswin Siemsen, $82,106
6. Norbert Szecsi, $64,318
(All figures in U. S. dollars)
There’s no rest for the WPT as they head into the home stretch of Season Ten. On Wednesday, the WPT lands in Hollywood, FL, for the Seminole Hard Rock Showdown, which should draw an outstanding crowd of players. After that final table is finished on April 23, the WPT will move up the road to Jacksonville for the inaugural WPT Jacksonville BestBet Open, which will be contested between April 27 and May 2. This leads up to the season finale for the WPT, their traditional stop at the Bellagio in Las Vegas for the WPT World Championship.