Day 1A of the World Poker Tour Baden Main Event attracted a crowd of 104 players, of who just 54 managed to navigate their way through the minefield that is Day 1A of a major live poker tournament.
The man who earned himself the title of overnight chipleader is Finalnd’s Kimmo Kurko, who turned his 30,000 starting stack into a tournament leading 149,700 during the eight 60-minutes of play. Kurko ran well during the opening flight, as most chip leaders tend to do, including flopping a set of nines during a hand with Corbin White that resulted in White’s departure from the €3,300 buy-in tournament and catapulted Kurko to the top of the chip counts.
Kurko stayed at the top of the chip counts for the majority of the day, though his lofty perch came under threat during the day from the likes of Andrey Shatilov (134,700 chips); Stjepan Jokic (130,300); Robert Hoogendoorn (128,000); Ismael Bojang (118,000) and Steve O’Dwyer (118,000).
Team PartyPoker Pros “Mad” Marvin Rettenmaier and Kara Scott both proceeded to Thursday’s Day 2 with larger-than-starting stacks. Rettenmaier bagged and tagged 86,000 chips after a swingy day at the felt, while Scott will begin Day 2 armed with 41,800 colourful ceramic discs. Another player who is flying the PartyPoker flag is Polish rap sensation Wojciech “TheMightyWozo” Lozowski, who ended the day with a very respectable 86,100 chips.
Lozowski made a nuisance of himself at the felt, with Dominik Bosnjak feeling his wraith on more than one occasion. On hand in particular stands out, where Bosnjak opened to 900 and the action folded to Lozowski in the small blind. He called and Emeric Styevlik came along for the ride in the big blind. The flop came down 
Lozowski checked, Styevlik checked and Bosnjak fired a continuation bet of 1,600. Lozowksi instantly announced, “Raise,” before setting the price to play at 3,600. Styevlik folded but Bosnjak re-raised to 7,200.
“I’m going to have to re-raise you,” said Lozowski before making it 15,000 to play. Bosnjak quickly folded and Lozowski scooped the pot.
Another player who became a victim of Lozowski was the former EPT Snowfest champion Vladimir Geshkenbein. The video below shows Lozowski doubling up through Geshkenbein then towards the end of the night Geshkenbein’s chips went into the middle of the felt with 
against the king-seven of Lozowski. A king appeared on the flop, then an ace on the turn to put Geshkenbein in front, but a seven landed on the turn to bust Geshkenbein and boost Lozowski’s stack.
Day 1B kicks off at 14:00CET and will continue until eight 60-minute levels have been completed. We will bring you a recap of the action tomorrow morning!
WPT Baden End-of-Day 1A Top 10 Chip Counts
1st Kimmo Kurko – 149,700
2nd Andrey Shatiloc – 134,700
3rd Stjepan Jokic – 130,300
4th Robert Hoogendoorn – 128,000
5th Ismael Bojang – 118,000
6th Steve O’Dwyer – 118,000
7th Oswin Ziegelbecker – 115,100
8th Alban Juen – 103,300
9th Mihails Morozovs – 100,300
10th Andreas Zuaner – 92,900
