If previous years are anything to go by, today is going to be a mammoth day of poker with two flights of the Winamax Poker Open Main Event scheduled.
First, at midday Day 1b gets underway with 20 levels of 30 minutes for players to try and book their place in Day 2. Then later at 20:00 the special Turbo Day 1c starts.
Our focus will be on Day 1b and we will bring you all the live updates from this, as well as a recap of who advances from the later Day 1c flight.
Last year saw a record field of 1,191 players enter the Main Event which was eventually won by Karol Wojciechowski for €89,716. Plenty of players will be wanting to follow in his footsteps, and will begin their journeys today.
Previous Field Sizes
Year
1a
1b
1c
Total
2015
336
623
959
2016
323
655
978
2017
373
696
1,069
2018
183
244
764
1,191
2019
363
Stay tuned to PokerNews for all the action here at the Citywest Hotel, Dublin from this the tenth edition of the Winamax Poker Open.
Triple Crown winner and former Winamax SISMIX champion Davidi Kitai has jumped into the Winamax Poker Open Dublin Main Event, joining fellow Team Pros Leo Margets and Gaelle Baumann.
Kitai has a strong record here in Dublin, cashing in five of the last six Winamax Poker Open Main Events. Can he make it six in seven this year?
Two years ago, Romain Lewis final tabled the Winamax Poker Open High Roller for €12,385 and cashed the Main Event, finishing 45th for €1,700.
Since then, Lewis has burst even further onto the poker scene, recording three podium finishes at the WSOP in 2018 and has moved over $2m in lifetime earnings.
On a river, Aidan Connolly checked to Winamax Team Pro and Winamax Poker Open High Roller final tablist Aladin Reskallah who bet 8,000 into a pot of around 9,000.
Connolly took his time before calling. Reskallah showed for a rivered pair of aces, and Connolly mucked.
On a board Benjamin Bourasseau check-called 5,500 from Winamax Team Pro Ivan Deyra and the river was te .
Bourasseau checked and Deyra moved all in for 34,000. Bourasseau thought for a minute or so before calling with for a pair of threes. Deyra showed for the nut flush and doubled to around 75,000.
Another year, another record. The phenomenon that is the Winamax Poker Open has shown once again its ability to draw players from France and all over Europe to the Irish capital and the Citywest hotel for one of the largest six-max festivals in the world.
A little over four months since Winamax hosted the largest six-max tournament of all time, they set a new WPO record of 1,389 players, surpassing the record of 1,191 set in 2018.
Day 1b accounted for 829 of them, with 360 in Day 1a and 200 in the Turbo Day 1c. At the end of Day 1b just 161 players remained.
Field Sizes (2015-2019)
Year
1a
1b
1c
Total
2015
336
623
959
2016
323
655
978
2017
373
696
1,069
2018
183
244
764
1,191
2019
360
829
200
1,389
They are lead by Jeremy Etot who won a big hand towards the end of the day after backdooring a straight to send an opponent holding pocket aces to the rail. That saw him over 500,000 and by the end he had moved above 700,000, bagging 736,000.
Behind him comes Elisha Benguigui (700,000) and Loic Daspres (606,000) who are the only players above 600,000 chips.
Just one Winamax Team Pro made it through from Day 1a in the shape of former champion Pierre Calamusa, but several more punched their tickets into Day 2 today.
Birthday boy Davidi Kitai, who celebrated his 40th birthday at the stroke of midnight, will be hoping it is a birthday to remember when play resumes tomorrow at 12:00 pm having bagged the most (231,000) of his fellow Team Pros. He will be joined by Gaelle Baumann (124,000), Ivan Deyra (219,000), Davidi Kitai, Leo Margets (127,000) and Aladin Reskallah (149,000).
2018 High Roller champion Peter Jaksland (94,000), Fraser Macintyre (236,000) and High Roller final tablist Gabor Szabo (175,000) will also be in the Day 2 field along with former WSOP Main Event runner-up Tony Miles (325,000), who cracked pocket kings with ace-queen in one of the last hands of the night to bag ahead of Day 2.
Notables who failed to make it through include High Roller champion Jason Tompkins, Adrian Mateos, Romain Lewis, Dara O'Kearney and Andy Black.
Stay tuned to PokerNews for continued coverage of this huge festival, with the money bubble bursting on Saturday and a new champion crowned late on Sunday evening.