Strong Field Arrives for WPT Vienna on Day 1A

Top players from around the world came to Vienna on Tuesday to take part in Day 1A of the World Poker Tour Vienna Main Event. The tournament, which featured a €3,500 buy-in, attracted 173 players to join up for the first of two starting day flights.

Many of the top players in the field will also be playing on Wednesday’s Day 1B. This is because of the re-entry rules being used for the tournament, which allow players who weren’t pleased with their Day 1A performance – as well as those who were eliminated completely – to give it another shot during the second flight.

It’s possible that having this second chance might contribute to some looser play from top pros, as they attempt to aggressively build big stacks knowing that they have a second chance available to them should they go bust.

With that in mind, the list of players who busted on Day 1A is perhaps less surprising than it normally would be. Top players including Venessa Selbst, Steve O’Dwyer, Andy Frankenberger, Victor Ramdin, James Akenhead and Erik Cajelais all busted on Day 1A, though you can expect to see most of those players give it a second chance on Wednesday.

Not all of the stars were extinguished during the first day of play, however. Andrew Badecker is probably the biggest name near the top of the leaderboard, having bagged just over 100,000 chips to sit comfortably in 10^th place at the end of the first day. Johnathan Duhamel, Eugene Katchalov, Bertrand Grospellier and Chris Moorman all also survived the first day, albeit on shorter stacks.

The leader at the end of the first day is David Breitfuss, a local Austrian player who bagged 185,500 chips. He’s closely followed by Michael Eiler and Marc Gork, both of whom will enter Day 2 with over 170,000.

Day 1B will be held on Wednesday, with the remaining field combining for Day 2 on Thursday.