The battle for the latest World Poker Tour championship kicked into overdrive on Friday as the money bubble burst today at the stop in Baden, Austria.
Only 44 players were remaining at the start of action on Friday, but there would be many long faces in that crowd although they had made it to Day Three. With only 27 players getting any return on their buy-in, there would be 17 players who would take the long walk into the Austrian air with nothing to show for their efforts. Several of the players at the bottom of the table, including Kara Scott, Raul Paez and Andrey Shatilov, were looking way up the leaderboard to Bodo Sbrzesny, the chip leader to start the day.
Shatilov was one of the first victims on Friday as his A-3 push in a blind versus blind battle against Oswin Ziegelbecker. Ziegelbecker had called Shatilov’s push with just an A-2 and Shatilov was in a good position for at least a chop of the pot if not the outright win. The Q-6-5 flop kept him in front, but a deuce on the turn pushed Ziegelbecker into the lead. No trey appeared on the river and Shatilov was out only ten minutes into play.
A key double up that occurred in the early action would also set the course for one player’s day. After Vladimir Bozinovic started the action in early position, Samuel Guilabert three bet him out of the big blind. Undaunted, Bozinovic pushed out a four bet and, after Guilabert announced he was all-in, Bozinovic snapped off a call and slapped his pocket Aces on the felt. Guilabert turned up his coolered pocket Jacks and, once an Ace fell on the flop and two eights were also on the board by the turn, he was drawing dead. To make matters worse for Guilabert, a Jack would come on the river to only give him the second best hand.
With that hand, Bozinovic rocketed into the Top Ten with 345K in chips and it would be a stack that would only grow larger throughout the remainder of the day’s play.
As players fell around her, Scott would manage to work her short stack to become a viable threat at the tables. She hit an Ace on the river with Big Slick to double up through Philip Huxley and used those chips to slowly grind her way over the 100K mark. It looked as though the PartyPoker sponsored Scott would make her way to the money, but (as it is in poker) one hand essentially ended any hopes for a cash for Scott.
After Lauri Pesonen pushed all in from the button, Scott added her stack to the mix out of the small blind. After counting out the chips to see that Pesonen was at risk, the twosome tabled their hands. Pesonen had been on a straight steal, tabling J-8, while Scott held a more admirable A-Q. The cards didn’t comply with the pre-flop odds, however, coming down J-9-4 to put Pesonen in the lead. Once the turn and river didn’t bring an Ace or Queen, Scott was struck down to only 14K in chips and would depart just before the money bubble burst.
The money bubble would not last long and, when it popped, it did so in a dramatic fashion. After Stjepan Jokic opened the action, Stefan Rapp moved all in from the small blind with his 44K in chips. Jokic made the call and turned up pocket nines, which were vastly ahead of Rapp’s pocket sevens. That would change on the A-7-8 flop, however, with the set pushing Rapp in front and headed for a double up. A three on the turn changed nothing, but the lightning bolt of a nine on the river changed fortunes once again, this time for Jokic. With Rapp walking off in 28th place, the remaining men were guaranteed a $8,634 payday.
The remainder of the evenings play saw Paul Berende first move into the lead until a late charge (and the elimination of Lukasz Wasek) by Bozinovic pushed him to the top of the ladder. Those two men will be in the driver’s seat as Day Four play starts tomorrow with twenty players remaining.
1. Vladimir Bozinovic, 975,000
2. Paul Berende, 895,000
3. Fedor Holz, 642,000
4. Rien de Vries, 583,000
5. Adrian Apmann, 502,000
6. Martin Staszko, 421,000
7. Arpad Kovecses, 349,000
8. Kimmo Kurko, 336,000
9. Michael Csango, 336,000
10. Grzegorz Wyraz, 300,000
With their large chip stacks, Bozinovic and Berende will be marked men for tomorrow’s Day Four play. Bozinovic has de Vries, Apmann and Kurko to deal with on his table, while Berende has Kovecses, Csango and Wyraz at his patch of felt.
There is also a chance at history still lurking in the WPT Baden. Two-time WPT champion Marvin Rettenmaier is still in contention for a third championship, but he will have his work cut out for him with his 291,000 stack. If Rettenmaier is able to storm back and take the WPT Baden championship, he will join Carlos Mortensen and Gus Hansen as the only three-time WPT championship winners in the eleven-year history of the circuit.
The tournament will play down to the final table tomorrow at 2PM Central European Time (8AM Eastern Time), with the final table set for action on Sunday. At stake for those still in contention is the $271,258 first place prize and a seat later this spring at the WPT Championship at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.