Live tournament updates see Ognjen Sekularac lead Day 4 of the bwin sponsored WPT main event in Prague with just 21-players remaining in pursuit of the €206,230 first prize.
Ognjen Sekularac and Vasili Firsau dominated Day 3 of the bwin sponsored World Poker Tour (WPT) main event in Prague, and they will start Day 4 with a lot of daylight between the top two spots and the rest of the field.
Sekularac sits on the top of the pile with 1,322,000 chips. The Serbian is a regular on the European Poker Tour (EPT) and WPT main events, and has over a million dollars in live tournament earnings.
Most importantly for Sekularac, he understands what it takes to make a final table of a WPT event after coming into the Season X final table in Vienna with the chip lead. He never really took advantage of that situation (finishing in 4th) but since that run Sekularac has picked up three lesser-known titles in that time, showing that he is learning how to take advantage when it really counts.
Sitting just behind Sekularac, in the chip counts, is Vasili Firsau. The Belarusian came into this seasons WPT Grand Prix de Paris final table with over 60% of the chips and proceeded to pummel the field until he had the title cruelly taken from his grasp by the titanic comeback of Mohsin Charania.
Firsau was just one card away from being crowned the WPT champion in Paris, and despite his ‘couldn’t care less demeanor’ you just know that the defeat would have hurt him on some level.
So Firsau and Sekularac are almost shoe-ins for the final table positions, but who else do I think will join them?
Andrey Shatilov has been an absolute battering ram in this contest. He has had chips throughout the event and has had some pretty impressive scores in the last three years including a GSOP Live victory in Punta Cana, a 6th place finish in the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA), this year, and a High Roller victory in the Merit Casino in Cyprus. I expect the big Russian to also make the final table.
Roger Hairabedian is the most experienced player in the field, and I believe that will be good enough to see the big man sneak his way onto the final table. He is a two-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner, and WPT National Series winner. He has the cunning of a fox, and knows all of the tricks of the trade. Expect to see ‘Big Roger’ at that final table.
So that leaves two places.
I am going to give the first of those places to Marc-Etienne McLaughlin. The lad is on fire after his 6th place finish at the WSOP Main Event in the summer, and he is playing with a lot of confidence in his game. His elimination of Sam Cohen when he hit an amazing runner-runner combo (AJ v TT: on AT3AJ) shows that the deck is also on his side, and that combination of factors gives McLaughlin a place in my final table.
The final position will go to Scott Augustine. It’s the first time that I have him play, and I like what I see. Outside of Sekularac, Firsau and Shatilov; Augustine is the only other player to hold the chip lead in the past 24-hours and like McLaughlin seems to also have lady luck on his side, and I think that, combined with his 651,000 chip stack will see him claw his way onto that final table.
The action starts at 14:00 (local time) and live reports are available at WPT.com by yours truly.
