After a long day at the poker tables, only 24 players out of a record-setting field of 2,182 entries remain in the 2022 Winamax Poker Open Madrid €500 Main Event. All of them are vying to become the winner of the biggest six-max live poker tournament in the history of the French online poker and sports betting giant.
The biggest slice of the €960,080 prize pool is still up for grabs when the marquee event of the popular live poker series will play down to a winner on Sunday, May 15, 2022, at the Casino Gran Madrid in Torrelodones.
Nearly 400 hopefuls returned to their seats and most of them earned cash prizes, as the top 312 spots were paid at least €1,000. However, when the dust had settled past midnight, only four tables remained. Samuel Anclevic Bifarella topped the leaderboard after a late surge with a stack of 9,500,000, closely followed by Adrian Garcia Marin (9,000,000), and Nicolas Vayssieres (8,505,000).
Top 10 Counts 2022 Winamax Poker Open Madrid €500 Main Event
Position
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Samuel Anclevic
France
9,500,000
79
2
Adrian Garcia Marin
Spain
9,000,000
75
3
Nicolas Vayssieres
France
8,505,000
71
4
Pierrick Letalleur
France
7,915,000
66
5
Omar Del Pino
Spain
6,650,000
55
6
Gytis Juskevicius
Lithuania
6,000,000
50
7
David Alvarez Alejandre
Spain
4,800,000
40
8
Yoann Hillewaere
France
4,675,000
39
9
Joaquim Marques
Portugal
4,430,000
37
10
Kevin Mastrosimone
France
4,385,000
37
The trio atop the leaderboard has more than 70 big blinds at their disposal. Other notables in the top ten include Omar Del Pino and Day 1d chip leader Joaquim Marques (4,430,000), while Hugues Mazerolle (3,785,000) and Anthone Soules (3,720,000) sit in the middle of the pack. Well-known Spanish poker veterans Juan Manuel Pastor (2,830,000) and Sergio Alonso Camunas (635,000) can be found near the bottom of the leaderboard.
Day 2 concluded once the field was whittled down to the final four tables and there are 25:16 minutes left in level 37 at blinds of 60,000-120,000 and a big blind ante of 120,000.
The early stages were filled with frantic eliminations leading up to a very tense bubble period, in which several all-in showdowns brought no casualties. Perhaps the biggest name on the rail prior to the paid spots was Winamax Sponsored Pro Adrian Mateos, who was unable to run up his short stack and fell in the first level of the day.
Ultimately, it was Thomas Lanterne who ended up as the bubble boy when he lost a flip with ace-queen against the pocket jacks of Alexandre Dana. However, it won't go home empty-handed as he will receive an entry to the next Winamax live poker event in Bratislava courtesy of the operator.
Thomas Lanterne Eliminated on the Bubble
As can be expected, the eliminations thereafter came at an exhilarating speed and several dozen players built a waiting line at the payout desk until the next break alone. Pierre Calamusa was among them as he missed out on the chance to become the first two-time WPO Main Event champion. Despite starting the day second in chips, he had to settle for 233rd place (€1,050).
Fellow Winamax ambassadors Francois Pirault, Bruno Lopes and Davidi Kitai also cashed but failed to reach the top 50 spots. Kitai ended up second-best in a flip just prior to the dinner break and Lopes suffered the same fate shortly after the action recommenced when his ace-king didn't get there in a preflop contest against the pocket tens of Valentin Devooght.
As the field of remaining contenders rapidly declined, several players endeared heavy swings to their stack sizes. Start-of-the-day chip leader Jose Manuel Gonzalez and Nacho Barbero took over the top spot on several occasions but saw their hopes vanish on the final six tables. The end for Gonzalez came just before the final break of the night when he three-bet jammed ace-nine and Adrian Garcia Marin got there with king-queen suited.
Another eight players departed within 45 minutes thereafter to set the stage for the final day. The tournament will recommence at 12.30 pm noon local time and the Winamax crew will certainly deliver another top notch broadcast from start to finish on its Twitch and YouTube channels. The PokerNews team will also be there to provide as many key hands as possible along the way.
