2022 Winamax Poker Open Madrid €500 Main Event Sets New Record Attendance
When the cards went in the air for Day 1c of the 2022 Winamax Poker Open Madrid €500 Main Event, all signs pointed towards an incredibly busy day at the Casino Gran Madrid in Torrelodones. Once the final chips were bagged in the turbo heat 1c, the six-handed competition set a new record for the French online poker and sports betting operator.
Not only did the marquee event of the stop on the outskirts of the Spanish capital obliterate the previous record for the biggest Winamax Poker Open Main Event from back in 2019 (1,389 entries), it also surpassed the largest SISMIX edition (2,036 entries) that took place in the same year as well.
Day 1c drew a gargantuan field of 958 entries and 189 players advanced whereas the final turbo flight gathered another 322 entries with 64 survivors upon completion of 22 levels of 15 minutes each.
| Flight | Entries | Survivors | % Qualified |
|---|---|---|---|
| Day 1a | 369 | 58 | 15.72% |
| Day 1b | 533 | 83 | 15.57% |
| Day 1c | 958 | 189 | 19.73% |
| Day 1d | 322 | 64 | 19.88% |
| Total | 2,182 | 394 | 18.06% |
The final two flights saw the biggest fields advance with nearly 20 percent and just under 400 players out of a record setting field of 2,182 entries will return for Day 2. It won't be too far off the money bubble as the top 312 spots get paid at least €1,000 with a payday of €130,000 reserved for the eventual champion.
Two new chip millionaires were crowned and local player Jose Manuel Gonzalez toppled Winamax Pro Pierre Calamusa by the smallest of margins after he bagged up 1,025,000 in chips. The Spaniard celebrated his biggest victory on the live poker circuit not long ago after he cut a heads-up deal with and then defeated Pedro Marques in €2,200 Eureka High Roller as part of the rescheduled 2021 EPT Prague festival.
The only other player with a seven-figure stack on Day 1c was Vital Villarrubia (1,006,000) while Alberto Ortiz Such (740,000) completed the podium for the last flight with a 30-minute level duration. Also in the top ten reside Xabier Bolinaga (739,000) and Argentina's Nacho Barbero, the latter of which made the trip to Spain alongside Winamax Sponsored Pro Mustapha Kanit and advanced with a very healthy stack of 665,000.
For Kanit and several other Winamax sponsored players, there was no happy ending on Day 1c. Only Adrian Mateos (68,000) made it through after hosting a MasterClass at the venue in the afternoon. Besides the aforementioned Triple Crown champion from Belgium, other team members including Guillaume Diaz, Gaelle Baumann, Francois Pirault, and Bruno Lopes all came short. Besides plenty of Winamax Red Diamond and WIP players, online streamer Kristyna Milikova was also among those to bow out in the late stages as well.
Throughout the entire day, there was a steady stream of new entries and a split dinner break was required to accommodate the large number of poker enthusiasts from near and far. Three different rooms were used to handle the six-max action and it was also broadcasted on the Winamax Twitch channel in the second half of an incredibly busy day in Madrid.
And while the remaining contenders in Day 1c went to grab a bite or attend the Winamax Player's Party for an hour, the last chance saloon kicked off with the turbo heat. It was yet another decent turnout with 322 entries, which was just shy of the attendance of the first heat.
Joaquim Marques ran the hottest and parlayed his starting stack of 50,000 into 673,000, while Winamax Sponsored Pro Bruno "Kool Shen" Lopes finished in second place with 639,000. Inaki Gonzalez (453,000), Jose Valls (356,000), and David Lebron (321,000) were some of the notable bigger stacks at the end of the night while Francois Pirault used the last chance to bag and tag 137,000 in chips.
The penultimate tournament day of the marquee event on the schedule is slated to recommence at noon local time on Saturday, May 14, 2022. Returning blinds will be 3,000-7,000 with a big blind ante of 7,000 and the level duration on Day 2 will increase to 35 minutes each. The money bubble will burst and the PokerNews live reporting team will be on the floor to provide updates from what shapes up to be a very exciting day of short-handed live poker action.