Morten Christensen Wins WPT Vienna (€313,390)

After six days of pulsating poker, WPT Vienna, has come a close and the latest WPT Champions Club member is Morten Christensen. Incredibly, Christensen becomes the fourth Danish player to win a major European title, in just a few short months, following in the footsteps of Frederik Jensen, Mickey Petersen and more recently Jannick Wrang.

The 17-minutes of Level 25 came and went without a whimper and then our chip leader started Level 26 with a bang. Ognjen Sekularac picking up a full house with [Ts] [2s] to get three streets of value from Wilinofsky and move over the 4 million mark for the first time.

Level 26 was also the time of our first elimination and the hand was not for the poker purists. Ben Wilinofsky had started to limp into the pot, from every position, when he did it holding [Kd] [Jd] in first position. Szecsi was seated on the button and he raised to 145,000 holding [Qs] [Qh] and Wilinofsky moved all-in for 1,485,000, a gesture that was called instantly by the Hungarian. So Szecsi was in great shape until the board of [8d] [8c] [2d] [Ad] [As] broke his heart in two and he was the first person out.


(Photo: Norbert Szecsi)

Into Level 27 with blinds at 25,000/50,000 and we suffered our second casualty. Konstantin Tolokno moved all-in for 945,000, under the gun, and Goswin Siemsen also moved all-in on the button. Siemsen was holding [Ah] [Qh], and it dominated the [Ac] [Th] of Tolokno, but WPT Vienna has been the tournament of the suckouts and there was one more in store. The [Ts] appeared on the flop and Siemsen was a mere spectator as the fab four played on.

(Photo: Goswin Siemsen)

Next we had a spate of double ups before we lost two players in quick succession to take us into our heads up finale. So long the chip leader, Ognjen Sekularac, went from the chip leader to the chip donator. Firstly, he doubled up Konstantin Tolokno, then he doubled up Morten Christensen before finally losing a huge pot to Ben Wilinofsky. That left him at the bottom of the chip counts and he exited not long after in a blind on blind cooler. It was [Ah] [Jh] versus the [Ad] [Qh] of Tolokno and for once the strongest hand held up at showdown and Sekularac was out in 4th place.

(Photo: Ognjen Sekularac)

Sekularac hadn’t even reached the rail before Ben Wilinofsky was following him off the table. All the chips went into the middle on a  flop of [8c] [7c] [5d] with Wilinofsky holding [Ts] [9c] and Christensen holding [Tc] [4c]. The [Qc] on the turn finally bringing an end to the run-good of Wilinofsky and the three-way favourite was out.

When we headed into heads up it was Christensen who had all of the chips but Tolokno started the brighter to even the stakes a little. Back and fore they went until Christensen started to press his dominance. It was a mighty grind with not one all-in showdown until the final hand of play. Christensen raised with [Ah] [8h], Tolokno moved all-in with [Ks] [8s], Christensen called and that was – as they say – the end of that!

(Photo: L-R Morten Christensen & Konstantin Tolonko)

So congratulations to Morten Christensen, another Dane with a major title to his name. He secures €313,390 for the win and, of course, the seat at the WPT Finale at the Bellagio in a few months time. Commiseration to all our finalists but especially Konstantin Tolokno for coming so close to a WPT title.