Vladimir Burstein Wins Party Poker LIVE Grand Prix Austria Main Event For $47,520

Czech poker pro Vladimir Burstein more than doubled his lifetime tournament earnings at the weekend when he scooped the Party Poker LIVE GrandPrix Main Event for $47,520 in the Austrian capital of Vienna.

Burstein, who hails from the small town of Lipnik Nad in the Moravian east of the Czech Republic had only planned to play cash games when he headed off to the Montesino Casino last week, but he soon found himself in the midst of a 5230 entry field in the €115 buy-in Main Event.

With the €½million guarantee being exceeded, Burstein and a host of others were looking to grab their share of the €523,000 ($615,359) prizepool, the field containing no huge stars of the game but a mass of tough tournament players – which included the Party Poker pro Natalia Breviglieri.

The numbers game was in play in such a large event, the winner for example guaranteed more than Fedor Holz won a few days previously when he took down the High Roller event, which saw an appearance from tennis star turned poker pro Boris Becker.

The Main Event was a truly European affair, the lucky eight who made the final table representing six different nations and it included two players flying the English flag, the duo being Greek/Austrian Aristeidis Moschonas and Ela Kubincova from Slovakia!

For Moschonas, the final table was a bit of a freeroll, having ‘already locked up a $10,000 Caribbean Poker Party package due to reaching the final table with a Golden Chip in his possession’ according to the Party Poker blog, and although he entered as the short-stack there would be 4 others hitting the rail before him.

As the excellent coverage of the event reported: ‘The final five players asked for the tournament clock to be paused so they could discuss a deal. With the buy-in for this tournament only being €115 and the prizes on offer now being offered upwards of €30,000, it made sense to look at the numbers.’

The numbers eventually proved agreeable and the top 3 would fight it out for an extra €19,120 and the battle continued. As with many of the European events, there will always be an ‘anonymous’ or two hidden in the field – here there were 2 at the final table and ‘E.A.’ soon hit the rail in 5th spot, having outlasted his ‘scrabble’ team-mate ‘D.A.’!

Moschonas fell in 4th, losing out to the same fishhooks that he himself used to dispose of Kubencova and shortly afterwards it was heads-up after Lombardi’s turned pair of queens were no good against flopped kings, leaving Burstein and Austria’s Martin Lechner to fight for the title.

It was short-lived, as ten minutes in the final hand appeared when Burstein limped with pocket jacks (a popular hand at the final table!) and Lechner hit bottom pair and a gutshot straight draw on the flop.

All the chips went in, the run-out bricked for the Austrian and Vladimir Burstein was crowned the 2017 Party Poker LIVE GrandPrix Main Event champion!

Next on the Party Poker LIVE calendar is the eagerly anticipated Caribbean Poker Party in November, with $10,000,000 guaranteed across several events in Punta Cana.

2017 Party Poker LIVE Grand Prix Austria Main Event Final Table Results

*reflects a five-handed deal