London suffering

The top three players from the London event made a swift return to PPT action here in Vienna, but a pair of them have already lost their tournament lives in the Concord Card Casino.

Christos Xanthopoulos was victorious at the Fox Poker Club in November, beating Luis Rodrigues (pictured) and Hungarian Peter Csecsetka to the top prize over £30,000, and the trend is continuing in Austria.

While the Greek player is enjoying his return to Paradise, his one-time rivals have both made early exits from the tournament and joined Ronnie Espensen in missing out on Tour League – and fantasy poker – points.

Rodrigues lost a classic coin flip, shipping his stack over the top of two limpers pre-flop holding A10, only for the big blind to make the call with 88 and see the pocket pair hold up.

Csecsetka could only blame a bad read, as his instincts let him down in an aggressive exchange. The heads-up pro had called a pre-flop raise with Q10 and the dealer delivered K-9-2.

Sensing weakness Peter smooth-called a continuation bet and got it all-in when an apparently harmless 5 arrived, hoping to see his rival fold. However, the turn had completed a set for his opponent and the insta-call sent the Hungarian to the rail.

Xanthopoulos meanwhile had made a strong start when he spoke to the PPT blog earlier, nearly doubling his starting stack at the first break.

“I’ve got around 27,000 in chips and I’m enjoying being back at the ParadisePoker Tour,” smiled the London champion, “The PPT is my favourite event after winning in the UK.

“I’ve got a great table with plenty of overly aggressive players around to pay me off, so I feel really confident that I can make another deep run here in Vienna.”