After 3 solid days and 18 levels of play we are down to the final 21 players in this years WPT Vienna with Goswin Siemsen leading the pack with 1.193 million chips.
Just yesterday it looked as though UK online tournament legend Chris Moorman might have a chance to pick up his first WPT title as he was sitting pretty in second place with over 400,000 chips. He soon came unstuck today though and was on the end of a few beats during level 16 which probably left him feeling a little hard done by. Firstly German player Marko Neumann rivered a straight to beat Moorman's pocket kings, he then lost a race to Michael Eiler as his pocket 8's fell to a turned Ace with Eiler holding AQ, then it was back to Neumann to finish off Moorman as Moorman's flopped top pair (10's) were crushed by Neumann's flopped set of 4's. Moorman fell just two short of the money.
After what seemed an incredibly long bubble the (very) unlucky bubble boy was young English pro Ben Vinson who agonisingly saw his AK defeated by Ben Wiliniofsky's K7 after a seven found its way onto the flop.
Today also saw the demise of Day 1's chip leader (who started today still well within the top 10) Darko Stojanovic who at one point was up to over 800,000 chips and heading towards the top of the leader board. His demise was pretty swift however and within half an hour of his high point he was out - committing his last chips with KT against Manuel Mutke's Ah 9h. As three hearts hit the flop Stojanovic hit the rail.
Day 2's chip leader Morten Christensen fared far better however and steadily grew his stack up over the million mark to end the day in second spot holding 1.053 million chips.
The chip leader (Siemsen) only actually took the lead in the final minutes of play as he eliminated WPT Champions Club Member, Yevgeny Timoshenko in the second last hand of the day.
Out of the 21 survivors moving forward to day four there are two WPT champions in the mix as Welshman Roberto Romanello (last years WPT Bratislava Champ) and Ukrainian 2007 Five Diamond World Poker Classic winner Eugene Katchalov will have their sites set on a second title (both will need great runs however as they sit near the bottom of the pack right now). There are also two EPT champions still in with Swedish 2010 EPT Copenhagen winner Anton Wigg and last years EPT Berlin winner, Canadian Ben Wilinofsky. Out of the four the best chance currently sits with Wilinofsky who with over 700,000 chips is currently in sixth place.
The final player to end the day on over 1 million chips is Norbert Szecsi who sits in third place with 1.022 million chips.
Top Ten Chip Leaders Going into Day 4
1. Goswin Siemsen – 1,193,000
2. Morten Christensen – 1,057,000
3. Norbert Szecsi - 1,022,000
4. Ognjen Sekularac – 994,000
5. Tristan Wade – 825,000
6. Ben Wilinofsky – 752,000
7. Andrew Badecker – 735,000
8. Marko Neumann – 545,000
9. Wilhelm Fuhrer – 520,000
10. Jurgen Reicht – 506,000