If you were looking for big names and familiar faces then the main event at EPT Vienna was a bit of a letdown. An impressive 910 players shelled out €5,200 to take part and, while Johnny Lodden and Stephen Chidwick made deep runs (finishing 15th and 22nd, respectively) it was a final table of unknowns that convened to duke it out for the €578k first prize.
Ultimately, Oleksii Khoroshenin defeated Austria’s hometown hero Anthony Ghamrawi heads-up to become the first Ukraine player to win an EPT title. Ukrainian players also had success in the side events, with their most famous poker export Eugene Katchalov (pictured) winning the €2,200 Eureka High Roller for €149k.
A pair of emerging British pros also had a Viennese whirl to remember. First, Ludovic Geilich took down €2k NLHE Deepstack side event for a €46k score. Scotsman Geilich has been on fire in the last year, with a UKIPT Marbella win and 4th place finish at EPT London. Next up it was Tom Hall’s time to shine, with a pair of runner-up finishes for a total of €135k in cashes. It continues a remarkable run for the online tournament star, who started off 2014 by finishing 10th at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. The future of UK poker is bright with Geilich and Hall leading the new generation.
The European Poker Tour will now shift from the pastry-filled Vienna to the Italian coastal city of Sanremo on April 9-20. Sanremo is always one of the EPT’s most popular stops and is most famous for being the scene where Liv Boeree won the main event in 2010 for a record €1.25m.
Photo courtesy of pokerstarsblog.com.
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