2014 PokerStars.net EPT Vienna

After the first of two PokerStars.net European Poker Tour Vienna Main Event starting days, it’s Oleksii Khoroshenin who finished in the lead after bagging up 171,900 in chips. A total of 341 players registered for the first flight, and 182 managed to survive the day. Sergii Baranov, former World Series of Poker Europe Main Event runner-up, finished in fourth with 155,000. Top German pro Dominik Nitsche bagged up 138,000 and he'll be among the bigger stacks going into Day 2.

The EPT landed in Vienna after a three-and-a-half-year hiatus, but it came back stronger than ever. Vienna, once host of the biggest EPT in Season 1 with 297 participants, will display all its beauty and riches as the EPT plays out in the stunning Hofburg Palace.

Defending champion Michael Eiler showed up to extend his reign in Vienna, but he barely kept his hopes alive with 7,200 in chips after being short for most of the day. Eiler was not the only former EPT winner that showed up for Day 1a, either, as Benny Spindler, Noah Boeken and Jannick Wrang were all eliminated. Steve O’Dwyer, last year’s EPT Grand Final winner, did make it through with 15,200, though.

One of the most famous Austrian players, who’s also know as the "Chess Master," is Ivo Donev and he was among the first players eliminated on Day 1a. While Donev has been on the tour for decades, things are just starting with 19-year-old Adrian Mateos who won the WSOP Europe Main Event last fall. Mateos had a horrible start and was knocked down to 10,000 in chips early on. He did however manage to mount a comeback and finished strong with 104,600. Team PokerStars Pro George Danzer was fortunate to survive the day, but he will be facing an uphill battle with 12,200.

Micheal Piper, EPT Sanremo fourth-place finisher in 2010, had an excellent start, but eventually things did not work out for him. Piper ran jacks into PokerStars Team Online's Marc-Andre Ladouceur’s aces, and the latter closed out the day with 91,000 in chips. Irish Open winner and EPT Snowfest runner-up Kevin Vandersmissen joined the fun today as well, and he ended up bagging 61,400 chips. His former Snowfest rival, 2011 winner Vladimir Geshkenbein, was seated just one table over and he closed out with 130,000 in chips.

Former EPT London winner Ruben Visser got in a fortunate situation when he won with set over set, but later on he was bluffed in a five-bet pot by Dzmitry Urbanovich and ended with 37,900 in chips. This result was still better than that of Marton Czuczor, who ran nines into tens to end his EPT Vienna Main Event. One of the players who was very concerned with his Main Event tournament life, Roland Maurus, decided to fold kings preflop, and later he found out this wasn't the right move.

Among the big stacks towards the end were many new names, including Jesper Hoog and Mohamed Kerkeni. On Monday, a ton of top pros, amateurs and qualifiers will show up for Day 1b, and we're sure that will bring an entirely new slate of names to our attention. Please make sure to tune back in at 12 p.m. CET, as PokerNews.com brings you all the live updates for 12 straight hours!

The players are now playing the last few hands of the night before bagging and tagging. We're headed out to capture any last-minute action and compile some chip counts, so stay tuned for those as well as a full recap of the Day 1a action.

We missed the action, but we do know that Max Silver got the last of his chips in on a flop holding the . His opponent, Lucas Reeves, was ahead with the , and it held as the blanked on the turn followed by the on the river.

Unfortunately for Silver, he won't be making the final table like he did in Prague.

Marc-Andre Ladouceur, a PokerStars Team Online Pro from Canada, opened UTG+1 for 1,200 and it folded round to the big blind Michael Piper from the UK who made it 4,100. Ladouceur thought about it and sized up Piper’s stack. He then made it 7,200 which prompted Piper, in the one seat, to lift the dealers elbow, take the all in triangle and put it on top of his stack. All of Piper’s chips were over the line and Ladouceur quickly called. Piper was at risk with but Ladouceur had .

The board ran out and Piper’s adventure at Vienna had come to an end.

In front of German player Roland Maurus was 3,800 and two players had the all in triangle in front of them. Adrian Mateos Diaz from Spain had a little over 43,000 pushed to the middle, Michael Brady had slightly less than that and was allso all in.

Maurus was thinking about it really hard and kept shaking his head. Nobody called the clock but Maurus was thinking for four or so minutes before open folding his .

He continued to shake his head after both other players tabled their cards. Diaz had and Brady showed .

The board would run out in favor of Mateos Diaz: . Brady stood up from the table and said "I saved you" to Maurus. "Cheers guys"