David fears his tutor's wrath

PPT regular David Pishvafar confessed to making a call that would have disappointed his poker coach, as his big stack took a turn in the wrong direction just before the break.

Compatriot Robert Haigh has long been Pishvafar's tutor in the game and despite his quiet manner, the German is allegedly a fearsome critic of his most promising students!

So it was with some trepidation that David (pictured) revealed why his one-time 30k tower was now just 10,000 chips tall.

"I made a bad call," he sheepishly explained, "I had been making some great calls earlier on, picking off bluffs to build up my stack. In fact that's how I won the majority of my chips.

"I then picked up AA utg, raised and was called by the aggressive player at the table, who was in the small blind.

"The flop came Q-9-x and he check-raised me, so I called, then flatted his turn and river bets when I should have folded. He showed a set of 9s."

Lucky for Pishvafar his coach should be in a good mood, as Haigh - who finished 4th in Vienna - is sitting on around 30,000 chips.

"I had a good table start, with some weak-passive players making life easy," he revealed, "But a couple of them have been knocked out and have been replaced by better players, so I'm expecting the aggression to increase now the antes are here!"

UPDATE - More heartache to report David Pishvafar as he made his exit shortly after our conversation. He has been joined on the rail by fellow German Rene Knapp, who headed for the cash tables after admitting this "wasn't his tournament."