It is coming down to the wire in Vienna, Austria, as the European Poker Tour looks to crown its latest champion on its Season Ten schedule. As the remaining 17 players head off for some rest, Timo Pfutzenreuter holds a slim lead over Pablo Gordillo as Team PokerStars Pro Johnny Lodden lurks down the leaderboard.
Fifty players came back on Thursday with their dreams intact for this EPT title with Gordillo at the top of the ladder. The plan for the day was to play five levels or reach the final sixteen contenders and, from the start, it appeared that they would be playing less than five levels. Jonathan Roy, Gregory Lane, Mathias Rinnhofer (at the hands of Gordillo), Ivan Neytchev and Marko Vukoja would all be eliminated in the first HOUR of play for the day. Dmitry Morozov also would head to the rail before the first level of play for the day had concluded.
Following the first break, Pfutzenreuter began to make his climb towards the upper end of the leaderboard. He took a nice pot off of Frei Dilling to crack the one million mark, but he was still looking way up the leaderboard to Gordillo, who was slashing chips from his opponents’ stacks as he broke the 3.5 million mark. Pfutzenreuter would have a bit of a setback when he ran his pocket Kings into Dan Murariu’s pocket Aces, but that would be the lowest point he would be at for the rest of the day.
Pfutzenreuter was responsible for the end of the day for one of Europe’s true masters of poker. Team PokerStars Pro Marcel Luske opened up the betting from middle position and Pfutzenreuter called off the button to see a 10-2-9 rainbow board. Luske check called a bet from Pfutzenreuter to see an eight peel off on the turn. After Luske checked again, Pfutzenreuter kept up the pressure with another bet and Luske check-raised him all in. Much to “The Flying Dutchman’s” dismay, Pfutzenreuter immediately made the call and showed a 7-6 for a filled gut shot straight draw. Luske could only turn over pocket Aces and, after the meaningless river was dealt, he headed to the rail in 31st place as Pfutzenreuter sat on 1.7 million in chips.
Lodden, meanwhile, was treading water throughout the day. With his normal attacking style, his chip stack would fluctuate wildly as he attempted to dice his way to the final table to win an elusive EPT title. On one of the final hands of the day, Lodden would double up Roman Korenev to drop to 700K in chips but, within three hands, he had been able to build that back up to 1.13 million to sit in the middle of the pack for Friday’s play.
As the fifth level of the day was coming to an end, the chip lead also would switch hands. Gordillo, who had dominated the play through the day, was caught by Pfutzenreuter after Pfutzenreuter went to battle against Wilfried Harig. Pfutzenreuter would start things by raising the action and, after Simeon Naydenov three bet the pot and Harig moved all in, Pfutzenreuter made the call and Naydenov got out of the way.
Once again, Pfutzenreuter was behind with his A♠ Q♠ against Harig’s A♣ K♠, but the board would once again save him. The 8♠ 3♦ 4♣ flop helped nobody, but a 6♠ on the turn opened some outs to the flush for Pfutzenreuter. Those dreams came home on the 2♠ river, knocking out Harig in 18th place as the day’s action came to a close.
1. Timo Pfutzenreuter, 3.837 million
2. Pablo Gordillo, 3.582 million
3. Anthony Ghamrawi, 2.79 million
4. Simeon Naydenov, 2.324 million
5. Frei Dilling, 2.28 million
6. Gavin O’Rourke, 2.071 million
7. Dan Murariu, 1.66 million
8. Umberto Vitagliano, 1.653 million
9. Johnny Lodden, 1.13 million
10. Marko Neumann, 1.096 million
Friday’s play will continue until the final table of eight men is determined for Saturday’s determination of a champion. The eventual winner of the EPT Vienna will walk off with a €816,000 payday and a well-deserved championship over the 910 entries that started the tournament.
