Peter Gelencser, a trainee journalist from Budapest, Hungary, scooped €165,520 and first place at the PartyPoker European Challenge II at the Concord Card Casino in Vienna.

Gelencser, 20, reached the final table in the same event last year and with a big chip lead was the favourite to win but ended up finishing third behind eventual winner Branimir Brunovic of Croatia and top German pro Andreas Krause.

Sigfried Rath, Peter Gelencser and Josef Klinger

This year he was not such a dominant force at the final table from the start - but quite quickly looked like the eventual winner.

“I’m very happy,” said Peter. “I was disappointed not to win last year but to win this time feels fantastic. I was in a strong position going into the final table but couldn’t help but think it would go the same way as last year. Thankfully, it didn’t – I had such fantastic support from the rail and am glad I didn’t let anybody down.”

There must be something about Vienna for Gelencser as his only success between his 2007 third place and victory in 2008 was a win in a €500 event in the same city. “Vienna is a good place for me,” he added. “Poker isn’t that big in Hungary yet but we have some excellent players coming through.

A PartyPoker spokesman said: “Peter looked like the obvious winner in 2007 so we are happy he finally converted a dominant stack into a title in 2008. There’s little doubt that he is one to watch and we expect him to be even more successful in years to come.”

Peter beat local pro Josef Klinger heads-up, and went into the one-on-one with an overwhelming chip lead. Gelencser had in the region of 2.4 million while Klinger had 200,000. Klinger, however, was another who has form at the Concord after winning the title in 1999 and 2003 - and he embarked upon a remarkable comeback.

He kept doubling up and amazingly got himself almost even in chips before the Hungarian struck the hammer blow. Klinger’s A-J offsuit lwas on top all-in against Gelencser’s 9-9 after J-10-8 on the flop. The turn brought an ace, but the river card was a seven, giving Peter the straight and the title.

First out on the final table of ten was German online qualifier Benjamin Mirsaidi, who went into the showpiece horrendously short-stacked but can be impressed with his performance as he made the final table of the East versus West Team Cup as well. The actual winner of the team event, Bjoern Kaersten from Potsdam also ran deep in the main event and was unlucky to finish on the bubble for the final table in 11th.

Out in 9th was German Philip Roch while the biggest name on the table, Dave “The Devilfish” Ulliott, followed in eighth. The Devilfish moved all-in with 6-6 on the small blind but was called by chip leader Alex Leviev in the big blind, who hit two pair. Next out in 7th was Hungarian Tamas Gombkoto.

Austrian Bernd Stadlbauer was next to go to the rail after his A-K was busted by Gelencser’s K-K. Out in fifth was fellow Austrian Stefan Rapp after Leviev hit a set of jacks leaving his 3-4 spades powerless. Next out was Leviev himself in what was a decisive pot for Gelenscer. Leviev was all in with Q-10 offsuit and Gelencser wasn’t looking in great shape with Q-9 off suit. However, the Hungarian flopped two pair and Leviev was on his way out in fourth.

Out in third position was the well respected Sigfried Rath from Graz. All in with A-K against Gelencser’s 9-9, nothing came on the board to send the Hungarian into the heads-up with a huge lead.

Peter Gelencser at the final table

The €3000 + €150 buy-in main event, the PartyPoker European Challenge II was the highlight of the 14th annual Austrian Spring Poker Festival. Amongst those who took part included Sigi Stockinger, Andreas Krause, Michael Keiner, Marcel Luske, Roland De Wolfe, Ciaran O’Leary, Katharine Hartree, Alexander Kravchenko, Ian Frazer, Rino Mathis and Christoph Haller.

PartyPoker online qualifiers made their way to Vienna with a $7,500 package that included a $4,700 buy-in to the main event, six night’s accommodation, transfers to the casino, a special welcome event and $1,100 spending money. In addition, all European-based qualifiers got the €1,000 freeroll in the form of the PartyPoker East versus West Team Cup.

PARTYPOKER EUROPEAN CHALLENGE II – Concord Card Casino, Vienna 11th – 14th March 2008

1st Peter Gelencser (Hungary) €165,520
2nd Josef Klinger (Austria) €85,000
3rd Siegfried Rath (Austria) €50,000
4th Alex Leviev (Austria) €37,000
5th Stefan Rapp (Austria) €30,000
6th Bernd Stadlbauer (Austria) €25,000
7th Tamas Gombkoto (Hungary) €20,000
8th Dave Ulliott (UK) €15,000
9th Philipp Roch (Germany) €10,000
10th Benjamin Mirsaidi (Germany) €8,000

Total prize pool €516,000, 172 runners.

Many congratulations go to player cruiser2002 who sailed to a $62,290.50 jackpot in our latest $300K Guaranteed Sunday tournament. After navigating stormy waters, and 1,648 other players, cruiser2002 took away the major slice of the $329,800 prize pool.

You can enter next Sunday’s tournament for the standard $215 - or qualify for as little as $3 in our brilliant qualifiers.

The final table and payouts were:

1 cruiser2002, $62,290.50

2 DBCollector, $31,514.82

3 WeBeWaising, $31,118.86

4 EndeR_1971, $17,974.10

5 Hyggebuks, $15,170.80

6 luckyscrote, $11,378.10

7 JIMBOFINIGAN, $8,739.70

8 Schollator, $5,771.50

9 fennburger, $4,452.30

10 solsen777, $3,133.10

James “HullJimi” Greenwood highlights the real benefits of the PartyPoker Bankroll Challenge, where he plans to turn his original $25 into a small fortune (maybe) while never risking more than 5% of the roll.

Some comments were made after the last post, which is nice because it shows people are reading this.

However, I came in for some criticism at the length of time this challenge is taking to get going. To be honest, it’s a fair point. I’m hardly going to be a millionaire at this rate, am I?

Yet, that’s missing the point by some distance. I’m playing well below my usual level, and so I had to adapt my game for the micro-micro stakes. I was thinking too much and it wasnt required - just play your big hands, play them hard and watch the money roll in.

Once I got my head round that, roll in it did - over the last few weeks my roll has gone up significantly.

This was an exercise in changing playing styles, discipline and patience and so far I’ve learnt a lot about myself and the game.

I am capable of grinding - previously I didn’t think I was.
I am capable of playing cash games and winning - previously I didn’t think I was!

Having previously been a SNG player, the step into cash games was a change for me, and I’ve finally gotten my head around the cash games at this level.

At face value, I’ve taken $25 and turned it into just short of $200. Once I’m over that $200 hump, I can move up the levels to NL10 and I can start learning about that level of play all over again.

The next week is the big one - I aim to crack $200 and start on the NL10. I don’t know if I’ll find that a different game to play than NL5 or not, but I’m excited to be in a position where I can find out - and it’s cost me nothing!

I’m enjoying myself, learning about the game of poker and making money - what’s not to be pleased about?! Oh, and keep the comments coming!

Last Week: $157.53
Current Bankroll: $187.92

By Stefano Dicembre

You can do a lot with $50,000. And when you’re giving it to someone who goes by the name of xxvicelifexx, your mind does start to wonder just what the money is going to be used for. So now, after getting hold of the player who took down our latest $300K Guaranteed Sunday tournament, we can reveal exactly where the cash is going – beer! Actually, we were hoping for something more risqué.

“For now I will just enjoy a few beers, and then a few more,” said xxvicelifexx, better known as Mike Wilson from Canberra, Australia. “This is my biggest highlight, for sure, and it still hasn’t sunk in yet.”

In the money: Mike Wilson

Mike collected a massive $50,358.96 for beating 1,662 other players, a pretty impressive performance considering the 24-year-old’s fledgling poker career. He said: “Two years ago I saw some poker on TV and thought it looked interesting. So I signed up with PartyPoker and began to learn.”

Previous to Sunday’s win the security’s guard best finish was way back in 508th. “I don’t get to play the $300K Guaranteed Sunday very often because of the time difference in Australia; the tournament starts at 4.45am on a Monday when I have to get ready for work. This week we had a public holiday so I decided to try my luck in a $3 re-buy tournament the day before. Some $13 later I managed to score a seat in the big one.”

For the tournament itself, Mike said he had a strategy but it didn’t quite work. “The plan was to be patient and not try anything fancy,” he revealed. “At one stage with about 150 players left in the tournament I hit a real lean stretch where I couldn’t get any hands worth playing or any ideas I had of playing marginal hands were quickly ruined when my opponents were moving all in from early positions.

“I decided to take my chances one on one against a big raiser that everyone folded to. It was my 6,7 against A,2 and the flop produced an ace and a 6. I had pretty much given up and was out of my chair when a 7 hit on the river and suddenly I was back in. From there things went my way but I won’t forget how close I was to falling out of the tournament a lot earlier.”

And some final advice from our latest big-money winner? “There have been a lot of ups and downs, even a couple of tough stretches where I considered giving poker up altogether. But it was nothing a bit of patience and persistence didn’t fix.” Sage words.

Make sure you’re involved in our next $300K Guaranteed Sunday. Qualifiers run every day, and from as little as $3, so start playing now.