Last night, EPT9 Deauville runner-up Walid Bou Habib won the EPT Vienna €2,000 Turbo event. The 43-year-old Lebanese engineer, who is a serial online qualifier on PokerStars, cut a deal with British pro Tom Hall in heads-up play to take the title and €107,700 first prize.
The tournament attracted 319 runners and created a prize pool of €618,860. That was spread out among the top 47 players with some notables cashing including Steve O’Dwyer (47th - €3,530), Andrew Chen (34th - €3,960), Anton Wigg (19th - €6,370), Todd Terry (14th - €8,230), and Jason Wheeler (12th - €9,160).
Habib, who lives in Beirut and is part of a close-knit group of Lebanese players who compete on the EPT, is the current #4 tournament player in his country with more than $1.2 million in live tournament winnings.
As well as his Deauville second place for €475,000, he also went deep at the PCA in 2011 and the EPT4 Grand Final, and has a further nine cashes on the tour. However, last night’s victory is by far his biggest tournament win.
EPT Vienna Season 10 sponsored by PokerStars.net continues today with the first day of the €10,000 buy-in High Roller. With big fields already in attendance here at the Hofburg Palace for the Eureka and Main Event tournaments we are certainly expecting a high number of entrants.
Dominik Panka won the last EPT High Roller at Deauville back in January, defeating Albert Daher heads up and winning €272,000. Both players are expected to make an appearance today to resume hostilities.
This is a three-day event with entry and single rebuys open until the start of play tomorrow so numbers will grow throughout the day with confirmation of the prize pool coming shortly after start of play on the second day.
Players begin with a starting stack of 50,000 chips with blinds starting at 100 / 200 /25. Tables are eight handed with antes kicking in right at the first level. The slightly flatter structure means there is a lot of room to play but pots are worth fighting for right from the start. That means we are guaranteed action throughout the day, and if a player happens to get unlucky early on then another €10,000+ €300 will buy you right back into the game.
Some of the players we are expecting to see today include PokerStars Team Pros Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier and Eugene Katchalov; as well as Full Tilt Poker Professionals Viktor Blom and Gus Hansen. We also expect appearances from rising Spanish star Sergio Aido, German wunderkind Ole Schemion, Ireland’s Steve O’Dwyer, and Kevin McPhee from the US.
Action begins shortly at 1 p.m. local time so stay tuned as the PokerNews live reporting team keeps you up to date throughout the day with all the action, chips counts and stories from the tables as the High Rollers battle it out for the chance of a big payday and the glory of being crowned 2014 EPT High Roller Champion.
