Petrovic Leads From Start to Finish at Day 1A WPT Copenhagen

(Photo: Andre Petrovic)

Denmark is the capital of hyper-aggressive Scandinavian poker. It’s the arena where the Gladiators of poker come to test their mettle against the very best in the world, and today was no different. It was fast, it was furious and at times it was frightening…especially if you were within earshot of our chip leader Andre Petrovic!

The Danske Spiel & PartyPoker WPT Copenhagen Day 1A started with 98-players and 56 of them placed some discs into a plastic bag after eight tumultuous levels. The chip leader was Andre Petrovic who managed to amass a personal fortune of 220,400 chips and he led from start to finish.

Here is a recap of today’s events.

It took just two-levels for someone to raise his head above the parapet and grab the early chip lead. The Swedish player Andre Petrovic, shouting and screaming his way to the top. In the early levels Petrovic was like a wailing steamroller, and WPT Champions Club member Sean Jazayeri was one of the first to be both deafened and flattened, as the American exited stage left with just two-hours gone on the clock.

(Photo: Sean Jazayeri)

In level three we saw the emergence of two quality Scandinavian players. Rasmus Nielsen and Allan Baekke are no strangers to the major events and they just love to get their feet wet in the deep waters. Both Nielsen and Baekke emerging as the very early threats to the temporary throne seated underneath Petrovic.

After the early elimination of Jazayeri, the top dogs seemingly avoided the trap door with great success. No further casualties to be reported and we were at the end of level six before you knew it. Petrovic was still in the lead but the chasing pack was gaining in number. Rifat Palevic, Martin Nielsen, Thor Drexel and Yaron Zeev Malki all gaining ground on the Swede.

We lost two great competitors in Level 7. The last time the WPT Champions Club member, Theo Jorgensen, was playing in a European WPT event, he finished in second place (Season XI: Grand Prix de Paris), but he is going to have to re-enter on Day 1B if he is going to go one better in this tournament. Jorgensen lost the majority of his chips when his set of Jacks ran into the disguised straight of his opponent, before eventually moving all-in with ace-jack only to run into pocket kings. The second quality player to be eliminated was Ville Wahlbeck, and what a cooler is was. The nut flush is generally a very good hand on a board of [9d] [8d] [7d] [6h] [4d], but not against the [Td] [6d] of Kevin Mogensen. A startled Fin being sent to the rail in the penultimate level of the day.

The last two levels of the day also saw a raft of late entrants. Mickey Petersen, Bryn Kenney, Ana Marquez and Keven Stammen all were depositing their money at the death. Stammen proving that you don’t need to sit and play all day to build a stack, after eliminated Kara Scott to double up in the final level of play. The board was showing [Ah] [Js] [2s] when Stammen and Scott played for stacks. It was top two pair for Scott versus the flush draw of Stammen, and the man who won three six-figure sums last month, hit the flush on the river, to send Scott spinning out of the competition.

So Keven Stammen was moving north, whilst Bryn Kenney and Elisabeth Hille were moving south. The chip leader Andre Petrovic removing Kenney from the equation [As] [Qd] v [Ac] [8c] whilst Hille was running her pocket queens into pocket aces. It wasn’t curtains for Hille, but she left the day very short with just 24,000 chips.

So that’s a wrap. We will be back at the same time tomorrow where we will conclude our first day shenanigans with the trials and tribulations of Day 1B. If you want to follow all of the action then make sure you join us at the WPT Live Updates.