Hervé Gouzil raised to 1,500,000 with A♠A♣ from the hijack and saw Guillaume Anthonioz defend from the big blind.
Gouzil continued for 900,000 on a flop of J♥5♦8♠, but Anthonioz folded his Q♥7♥.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
15,000,000 | |
|
7,300,000
2,700,000
|
2,700,000 |
Guillaume Anthonioz raised to 1,400,000 from early position. Samuel Bifarella in the hijack three-bet to 4,500,000, then Samuel Fournier in the small blind decided to go all-in for 32,000,000. Anthonioz quickly folded A♥K♠ but Bifarella called with the 3,100,000 he had behind.
Samuel Bifarella: A♠J♠ 
Samuel Fournier: A♦K♥
A low board of 9♣5♠3♥2♦3♣ changed nothing and Bifarella was eliminated in 9th place for €18,000. But the best is yet to come for him with a baby arriving in a few days.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
42,000,000
12,700,000
|
12,700,000 |
|
|
15,000,000
2,000,000
|
2,000,000 |
|
Busted |
After he moved all-in, Guillaume Anthonioz in the small blind jammed for 7,900,000 from the small blind and was called by the chip leader Sacha Cohen in the big blind.
Guillaume Anthonioz: A♥9♣
Sacha Cohen: A♠5♥
Anthonioz kept the lead all the way through a board of 2♦6♦7♥Q♥7♣ and doubled up.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
42,000,000
8,400,000
|
8,400,000 |
|
||
|
|
17,000,000
9,100,000
|
9,100,000 |
In the first hand, Hervé Gouzil opened to 1,400,000 from the hijack and Guillaume Anthonioz defended from the big blind.
The dealer fanned a flop of 6♣5♥9♦ and Anthonioz directly moved all-in for 4,100,000 with J♠9♠ for top pair. Gouzil went into the tank but folded.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
10,000,000
1,600,000
|
1,600,000 |
|
|
7,900,000
1,700,000
|
1,700,000 |
Level: 45
Blinds: 300,000/700,000
Ante: 700,000
Alongside Samuel Bifarella, Samuel Fournier holds one of the most impressive résumés at this final table. With $650,000 in live tournament earnings, including a 3rd place on the Eureka Main Event in Cyprus for $237,000 and several strong results in Parisian clubs, Samuel Fournier’s experience speaks for itself, especially at just 26 years old.
Samuel honed his skills on the smallest stakes at Winamax, his home room. “I started with €1 tournaments and gradually moved up in stakes, pretty quickly.” During an internship while studying finance, he stepped into a Parisian poker club and never left, learning the ropes among the live regulars. “I immediately felt at home in live poker, and I decided to pursue it.”
Even though he’s done a few side jobs, poker has driven his life for years. “I still play online occasionally, mostly on Sundays. I’ve taken a couple of Winamax Series events a long time ago, but it’s really live poker where I feel most comfortable,” he admits.
Affable at the table, especially when he has a lot of chips, Samuel spent much of his time trolling his opponents. Lines like “3-bet 7-2, pressure move” or “with King-3, I’ve got blockers on the Kings” could be heard whenever an opponent folded to one of his many 3-bets.
Qualifying on his very first bullet during Day 1D with a big stack, Samuel admitted he “hadn’t played a single all-in covered hand” throughout the tournament. Without exaggeration, he’s probably the only one in that situation, with a stack that never fell below average over the first three days of the Grande Finale.
A rare sight in Winamax live events, this is the first time he’s made it into the money. Yet this is a tournament he particularly enjoys. “I find the level very heterogeneous, but much stronger than before. And above all, it’s a tournament where you don’t get bored; the atmosphere at the table is great.”
Even with the high stakes at play, one thing is certain: with Samuel Fournier at this final table, boredom won’t be an issue.
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Does Hervé Gouzil even need an introduction? He has been racking up top results for several years on the national circuit. With 200 cashes since 2012, 26 victories, and $1.13 million in career earnings, the Bordeaux native never misses an opportunity to play poker whenever a major festival takes place in France.
“Today was tough at the tables because I didn’t get a lot of easy spots. I had to fight with the cards I was dealt. But when I went all-in, I had more success than my opponents,” he said.
Qualifying at the very last moment through the Day 1 Turbo of this Grande Finale, Hervé faced multiple chances to bust out but always found a second wind. “Tomorrow, I won’t underestimate anyone because I believe all the players at this final table have what it takes to win the trophy.”
Starting the final table with the seventh-largest stack, his experience in high-pressure, high-stakes situations should help him navigate the competition.
And let’s not forget the icing on the cake: by the time he reached this final table, he had already won the Battle Royale earlier in the week for €25,000. An achievement comparable to Tahar Saïd’s run last year. Can he pull off the double and claim the sword on Monday? The answer will come in just a few hours…
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“You guys know where I can find a hotel?” Quentin asked at the end of Day 3. He had already booked his return to Lyon for Sunday, a sign that he never expected to make it this far. Yet his initiation into poker started at a young age, watching his father grind on the .com. “As soon as I turned 18, I got into it. I’ve always enjoyed strategy, and this game quickly gave me what I was looking for.”
Starting with small buy-ins alongside his real estate studies, Quentin gradually trained himself to play ABI 30 today. Curious to try live poker, he moved to the Lyon area to follow his partner. At the time, the region was a desert for poker… until the reopening of the Pasino Grand Partouche La-Tour-de-Salvagny. Over the past two years, the local scene has slowly developed, allowing him to try his hand occasionally with success in some smaller daily tournaments.
Not far from Aix-les-Bains, he even joined the WPO to experience the Winamax atmosphere. “It was amazing,” he says, recalling his deep run in the Main Event, where he finished at a nice frustrating 74th place.
At his second Winamax-branded tournament, he delivered a far stronger performance, reaching the final table of this Grande Finale, not without some struggles. “The first bullet didn’t go well, and on the second one, a lucky 20% river shot allowed me to take off. I finished the day with 371,000 chips before gradually building throughout Day 2.”
A costly three-barrel bluff set him back briefly, but he quickly got back on track to bag the sixth-largest stack of the tournament. He then cruised through Day 3 without major hiccups, finishing near the top of the leaderboard with 28 million chips.
With his slight resemblance to Jérémy Saderne, there’s no doubt he dreams of following in the footsteps of the 2016/2017 Winamax Poker Tour champion.
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Excitement is at its peak for Samuel Bifarella! You might say it’s the same for all the other finalists, but Samuel has an extra reason to be even happier: in ten days, his wife is due to give birth. One happy event could lead to another, as he now finds himself at yet another prestigious final table.
We’ve seen Samuel on the live circuit for nearly a decade now, from smaller events to the biggest stages, watching his résumé grow with each standout performance. We first spotted him in 2017 when he finished 24th at the WPO Dublin. In 2022, he added another deep run in a Winamax event, finishing 15th at WPO Madrid.
That same year marked a turning point, as he came close to winning a WSOP bracelet in a $1,500 event, finishing runner-up for $225,000. The breakthrough victory would come later, in 2025, when he took down a $1,100 event at the Venetian for $142,000. The same year he also won the Winamax KING5 alongside Erwann Pecheux, Florian Ribouchon, and former WiPT winner Pierre Merlin.
That adventure earned them a freeroll entry into the WSOP Main Event, an experience he still cherishes. “It had nothing to do with the money, because we would have played the WSOP anyway. We really lived something special together,” he recalls.
More recently, he added another near-miss to his record at the WSOP Circuit in Marrakech, finishing runner-up again for an additional $100,000.
On the eve of the final table, Samuel says he has never had any job other than poker, which he has been playing since he was 18, half his life. “I started while studying at business school in Lille. When I was younger, I was in a tennis sports program. When that ended, I went back to normal life and… I got bored! With poker, I found competition and excitement again. As a kid, I used to play tarot with adults. I’ve always loved games.”
Primarily a live player, Samuel isn’t exactly a globe-trotter. Paris, Marrakech, Las Vegas in the summer, and tournaments near Marseille, where he has lived for the past year and a half, make up most of his yearly schedule.
Last week, he made it through Day 1b of the Grande Finale on his second bullet. Now, he stands on the brink of his first Winamax Main Event final table, though he will start it with a shorter stack after losing ground late on Day 3, having spent much of the day among the chip leaders.
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