button in SafariSebastien Guinand Goes on Late Run to Lead into Penultimate Day of 2026 PokerStars Open Namur Main Event
A total of 133 players returned to Circus Casino Resort for Day 3 of the 2026 PokerStars Open Namur Main Event with dreams of lifting the famous shard trophy, and after eight 75-minute levels, only 30 players still have those hopes intact.
Sebastien Guinand of France (5,630,000) will start Day 4 with a healthy lead over German Manuel Schnur (3,355,000) and Brit Andrew Hulme (2,760,000), after he went on a late charge in the last level of the day to surge to the top of the standings.
Guinand has a runner-up finish in a €1,100 PLO event at EPT Paris recently among recorded scores of just under $300,000, and will be hoping to go one better here.
Schnur appears to have already secured a new career-best tournament score, while Hulme, the EPT Barcelona 2004 runner-up, is no stranger to deep tournament runs, racking up over $4.5 million in cashes.
End of Day 3 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sebastien Guinand | France | 5,630,000 | 225 |
| 2 | Manuel Schnur | Germany | 3,355,000 | 134 |
| 3 | Andrew Hulme | United Kingdom | 2,760,000 | 110 |
| 4 | Luca Delfino | Italy | 2,555,000 | 102 |
| 5 | Nicolas Burtin | France | 2,275,000 | 91 |
| 6 | Ahmet Demirturan | France | 2,155,000 | 86 |
| 7 | Nicolai Striewe | Germany | 2,125,000 | 85 |
| 8 | Patrick Prijot | Belgium | 2,005,000 | 80 |
| 9 | Dario Quattrucci | Italy | 2,005,000 | 80 |
| 10 | Tobias Peters | Netherlands | 1,895,000 | 76 |
The field is stacked full of quality players, with Tobias Peters (1,895,000) maintaining his position in the top ten, while Stan Van Dijk (1,425,000) and start of day chip leader Lulei Hu (1,120,000) also lurk.
Conor O'Driscoll (1,245,000) is hunting a third PokerStars trophy in a month after two wins at EPT Monte Carlo, and former Irish Open champion David Docherty (1,170,000) is also a danger.
Day 3 Recap
Hu led the 133 returning players at the start of play, and stayed at the front for the first half of the day, while Gerard Carbo and Sammy Berrehail were among the early exits.
Manig Loeser exited when he got two-outered on the river by Anuar El Bakkali, before Hulme held to double through Hu.
Francois Depasse (1,800,000) sits just outside the top ten, and he started to accumulate a healthy stack when he was on the right end of an aces versus kings cooler against Jens Van der Auwera.
Schnur then topped the standings for a significant period of time, having had a dream straight over straight scenario versus Pasquale Amata. He fell back momentarily towards the end of the day, but regained a stack in excess of 3 million when he turned a straight versus Roan Van der Auwera's flopped top two to cause the last elimination of the day.
It was also in the last level that Guinand came to the fore. First, he flopped trips against Rachid Boussakraou's top pair to get a full double-up. Then, in the final throes of the day's play, he was on the right side of a full house versus flush scenario versus Mathias Moutaoukil.
The players will return to Circus Casino Resort at noon on June 6 for the penultimate day, with each player guaranteed a €5,400 payday, but all will surely have their eyes firmly fixed on the huge €220,800 first-place prize, representing the lion's share of the €1,491,828 prize pool.
2026 PokerStars Open Namur Main Event Remaining Payouts
| Place | Prize | Place | Prize | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | €220,800 | 10-11 | €16,520 | |
| 2 | €138,500 | 12-13 | €13,900 | |
| 3 | €100,300 | 14-15 | €11,700 | |
| 4 | €78,000 | 16-17 | €9,930 | |
| 5 | €60,000 | 18-20 | €8,430 | |
| 6 | €46,000 | 21-23 | €7,200 | |
| 7 | €36,000 | 24-27 | €6,200 | |
| 8 | €28,000 | 28-30 | €5,400 | |
| 9 | €21,558 | |||
The players will return at noon local time on June 6 to blinds of 15,000/30,000, with a 30,000 big blind ante, and with the clock increased to 90-minute levels in play. Play will continue until the final table is set, which will take place on June 7 at noon, and will be live-streamed on delay on PokerStars France's social media channels.
PokerNews will be back on the floor for Day 4 at noon, so stay tuned for your coverage of all the action from the PokerStars Open Namur Main Event.