The current season of the World Poker Tour is winding down with just a few more stops on it, but the one that just came to an end featured some big names from the poker world, and also an eventual champion whose win here gave him his first major poker championship. The WPT Vienna event was held at the Montesino Casino in Vienna, Austria, and it was the player who held the chip lead at the end of Day Two who got the job done in the end.
When the action was down to the final 69 players at the event, it was Morten Christensen who was holding the chip lead, but there were two incredibly well-known’s just behind him in the standings in Chris Moorman and Tristan Wade. By the time the players had hit the money, only one player could make up enough ground to pass Christensen, and this was Goswin Siemsen. Moorman found himself eliminated just outside of the money, while Wade was holding a top five stack though.
When players were getting set to push from 21 down to the final table, there were a few big names remaining who had a chance to make a star-studded final table, including Andrew Badecker, Eugene Katchalov, and Roberto Romanello as well. None of those listed were able to make it though, and the final table kicked off with Christensen in second place behind just Ognjen Sekularac.
To go with Sekularaca and Christensen at the final table, we found Ben Wilinofsky, Norbert Szecsi, Konstantin Tolokno, and Siemsen all rounding it out. It took just over an hour before our first player was sent home, and that was Szecsi, who was knocked out by Wilinofsky. Tolokno then pulled off back to back knockouts to send home Siemsen and Sekularac in fifth and fourth place, setting up three handed play between Tolokno, Wilinofsky, and Christensen. This didn’t last incredibly long though, as Christensen sent home Wilinofsky setting up an interesting heads up match.
Tolokno and Christensen went at it for over three hours, but the aggressiveness of Christensen really kept Tolokno from being able to gain much ground from the four million chip disadvantage he started with. Finally, Tolokno attempted to make a stand with a three-bet all-in with K-8, but was called by the A-8 of Christensen. The board showed an Ace and Tolokno was sent home in second place with $251,166. For his incredibly run, Christensen not only gained the crown as WPT Vienna Champion, but also won $410,519 for his efforts.