PokerWorks

Only 66 players started day 1A of the Austria Poker News Cup and when play ended, 33 of them had moved on to day 2. Day 1B promised to deliver more players and action and did not disappoint. 135 joined the action bringing the total to 201 and making the prize pool €120,600. Internet qualifiers from all over the world from sites like Titan Poker, T6 Poker, PokerStars, and Full Tilt Poker were there to see how they could handle the live action.

Among those playing were well known professional Mel Judah who had a particularly short day when his A-K lost to Henrik Gwinner's queens. What made the hand even more cruel for Judah was the fact that he flopped top pair with his king but as we all know, poker is a cruel, cruel, game and when the queen came on the river Judah was done for.

The founder of T6 poker, Torbern Hubertz, had the misfortune of picking up big hands when other players had bigger hands as he held Tens when his opponent held Aces and then lost the rest of his chips when his Jacks ran into Queens.

The aforementioned Gwinner, himself a T6 poker professional, took his good fortune from the rivered two outer against Judah and held the chip lead by the end of the day. A key hand for Gwinner was when he doubled up against Henric Bjornstrom by calling an all in on a Q-2-2-7 board with K-Q. Bjornstrom only had pocket 6's and Gwinner didn't suffer the two outer on the river and won a huge pot. Play ended with 90 of the 135 players remaining meaning that 123 total had moved on to day two.