€500 La Finale | 2026 Winamax Poker Tour Grande Finale

5 days 20 hours ago

Seat 5: Lucien Cervettaz, 27, Aix-en-Provence (19,900,000)

Maxime Taldir

Having turned pro a year ago, Lucien Cervettaz primarily plays poker online. “It’s really not in my habits to play live, even though I’ve taken part in a few small tournaments here. I’m more the type of player who wakes up at 8 a.m., starts an online session, and grinds until 10 p.m. That suits me perfectly. But since I live here and didn’t manage to win a freeroll ticket during the Aix-en-Provence stop a few months ago, I decided to treat myself.”

Coached by Ilan Cukrowicz, a member of the Winamax Stream Gang, Lucien discovered poker in 2022 thanks to his father, a long-time recreational player (who has spent many hours watching his son’s progress from the rail). Since then, he is in love with the game.

“At first, I didn’t take it seriously at all. But then I realized that playing this game and being able to make a living from it is incredible. It’s a bit like playing video games and getting paid for it.”

Recently focused on €10 Expresso games, he actually seems to enjoy them more than MTTs because “there’s much less variance.” Lucien is playing his first major €500 tournament, the biggest buy-in of his young career.

“I’m loving it. Just making the feature table was amazing. Now I know I have to take it step by step and not get carried away. The road is still long.”

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Tags: Ilan Cukrowicz Lucien Cervettaz

5 days 20 hours ago

Seat 4: Sacha Cohen, 27, Marrakech (50,400,000)

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Maxime Taldir

A now familiar face on the French poker scene, Sacha Cohen wears many hats: member of the Winamax Stream Gang, coach of the Queens Squad team, and a regular on the mid-stakes live circuit… The Marrakech-based player is everywhere.

The son of one of France’s first recognized pros, Claude Cohen (WSOP champion back in 1997), Sacha is quick to point out that his father didn’t directly introduce him to the game. “I was more intrigued than anything,” he explains.

Because Sacha’s true passion growing up was Call of Duty. After competing in several LAN events, he seized an opportunity to become a live commentator for esports. From there, he swapped keyboard and mouse for a microphone, focusing on analysis and commentary, appearing on TV channels. At that point, poker was only a hobby, but with his competitive mindset, he was determined to study the game seriously.

“I’m a really bad loser, that’s what pushes me to work hard so I can compete with my opponents, whatever the game,” he said.

Alongside his studies and his work as a commentator, he began playing poker more and more regularly, eventually discovering live Winamax events at WPO Dublin in 2018. “The fun, the atmosphere… that’s when I realized this was the environment I wanted to be in.”

Still, Sacha was only at the beginning of his journey. Early on, his bankroll management was shaky and his technical play inconsistent. He often played above his means. The turning point came when he won a €2,000 tournament, earning his first five-figure score. “From that moment, I set myself a level of discipline that gradually allowed me to transition into professional poker.”

Now a pro player, Sacha enters the final stretch of the Grande Finale as the overwhelming chip leader, after racking up eliminations late on Day 3. A standout performance that began with four bullets before his tournament truly took off, ending Day 1f with 675,000 chips.

The next two days followed a similar pattern: quadrupling his stack in the first hour, then grinding through long periods of stagnation. “Except this time, I had a crazy final half-hour. I went from 19 million to 50.4 million in just thirty minutes after the last break.”

And what a surge it was. Sacha ran over the field, notably winning a huge pot against Loïc Sa with pocket tens against pocket eights, building the massive stack that now puts him firmly in the top spot.

A comfortable position, no doubt, but far from a guarantee. Just ask Pierre-Louis Quandalle in 2025, who was the chip leader at the beginning of the final table but finished 8th.

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Tags: Claude Cohen Loïc Sa Pierre-Louis Quandalle Sacha Cohen

5 days 20 hours ago

Seat 3: Guillaume Anthonioz, 37, Brest (6,200,000)

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Maxime Taldir

Guillaume Anthonioz is surely the happiest player at the 2026 Grande Finale. “I’m living a real dream, I can’t believe I’ve made the final table.”

With stars in his eyes throughout Day 3, the Brest native has one of the most modest résumés among the final nine: $16,000 in live earnings, which is still quite respectable for an amateur. A third-place finish in the €300 Mini UDSO in Pornic in 2025 (€3,500) and three final tables in €250 events in western France are the main highlights of his career so far.

Submariner by profession, he began his military career at 18, following in the footsteps of his older brother, who is also in the French Navy. Stationed in Tahiti during his three-year training, he discovered poker through regular home games with friends on the island and quickly fell in love with the game.

“When I came back to France, I joined a local club near Quimper. I kept learning the strategy and logic behind the game before starting to play tournaments.”

For the past four years, he has mainly played events in the €100 to €500 range, allowing himself about one festival per month since returning to life on land. “I don’t go on long submarine missions anymore like I did when I was younger. Now I work at the port of Brest, mainly in the electrical sector on these rather special vessels.”

Saved twice from elimination after getting all-in preflop with just 20%, Guillaume will enter the final table tomorrow as the official short stack with nine big blinds. But that hardly matters because, just a week ago, he would never have imagined being in this position.

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Tags: Big Blinds Guillaume Anthonioz

5 days 20 hours ago

Seat 2: Nicolas Antouard, Dubai (11,700,000)

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Maxime Taldir

Nicolas Antouard discovered poker during his studies, like many others, during the COVID period. “It’s thanks to my father, who was playing a lot at the time to make ends meet.”

Nicolas became interested in his father’s games, and little by little, he got hooked on this new game. “I’ve always been very competitive. I used to play a lot of video games (Call of Duty, Fortnite) and I was making a bit of money from that. I’ve always taken competition seriously, and I quickly realized I could make money this way.”

At first, Nicolas played alongside his studies, but poker soon took over. He won a few nice tournaments on Winamax and decided to make the move into the live circuit, backed by stakers who sent him to Rozvadov. Not as a punishment, but as the perfect playground for the grinder he is: 12 hours a day for several months, an intense but highly formative experience for someone who had previously only played in the south of France, especially at the Pasino in Aix-en-Provence.

Because here, Nicolas is at home. The floor staff, dealers, and regulars all know him. Even the bar staff call him by his first name. “If I had to pick one event during the year to make a deep run, it would have been this one,” he admits.

His tournament has been very smooth overall, at least during the first two days. It was only on Day 3 that things turned into a rollercoaster. “I came back from break three times with fifteen big blinds, and I’ll still have fifteen big blinds for the final table. But I have a great feeling. I had a gut feeling on Day 2 that I wouldn’t bust, and the same today. I’m in good shape, I feel great at the table, I’m laughing, I’m enjoying it on top of the deep run, it’s just amazing.”

His goal for tomorrow? To beat his best result from Sanremo at the end of 2025 (runner-up for €26,795 in a WSOP Circuit event). To do that, he’ll need to finish higher than seventh place.

As for his main rivals? Samuel Fournier, “obviously,” and Sacha “PyroSC” Cohen, a player he shares a lot in common with, “a father with whom we share the same passion and a background in video games.”

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Tags: Big Blinds Nicolas Antouard Samuel Fournier

5 days 20 hours ago

Seat 1: Bertrand Vizioz, 35, Quiberon (13,600,000)

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Maxime Taldir

New to the live poker scene, Bertrand Vizioz has nevertheless been playing the game for nearly twenty years. Child of the early-2000s “WPT on TV” generation, the bank advisor spent a long time grinding online alongside his studies and later his job.

“I was regularly playing stakes between €5 and €50 during the COVID years, but for the past three years, I’ve decided to focus exclusively on live tournaments,” he explained. A decision that quickly paid off, as just a few months after his debut, he claimed his first title in Namur (the €1,100 WaSOP High Roller in 2024 for €50,000).

“I’ve been coached by Flavien Guenan over the past few months, and I’ve been working a lot on my game recently,” he added. Tucked under his cap throughout the tournament, the 35-year-old player from Quiberon could be a surprise tomorrow with his twenty big blinds, sitting comfortably in the middle of the pack.

“I’ll definitely be quite impacted by ICM given my position in the rankings. We’ll see how the first few orbits play out.”

Having come to Aix with a close poker friend, Bertrand had already made a deep run at this WiPT festival, finishing 17th in the Battle Royale (€1,960). “I’m having a great week, I can’t complain about my run in Aix-en-Provence.”

A focused and disciplined player, he will now try to achieve one of his main career goals tomorrow: winning a major French title.

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Tags: Bertrand Vizioz Big Blinds Flavien Guenan

5 days 20 hours ago

Beginning of the Final Table

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Maxime Taldir

The introductions of the nine finalists have been made, and Winamax Live Events Manager Mathieu Duran has officially kicked off the final table with the famous words, “Shuffle up and deal.”

To align with the live stream, PokerNews will provide updates with a 30-minute delay.

5 days 21 hours ago

Who'll Be the New Winamax Poker Tour Champion?

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Maxime Taldir

Today is the day! After 9,583 players out of 266,000 participants qualified online for the ten freeroll stops across France, and 3,610 runners bought in the 2026 Winamax Poker Tour Grande Finale at the Pasino Grand Partouche Aix-en-Provence, only nine players remain for the final table.

In just a few hours, one of them will unsheathe the famous WiPT sword and take home the first-place prize of €180,000 from a total prize pool of €1,524,864. But who will this player be?

After an incredible run during the final 20 minutes of Day 3, Sacha Cohen will start the final table as chip leader with 50,400,000. The former esports player turned poker pro holds nearly twice as many chips as his closest rivals, with Samuel Fournier sitting in second place with 29,300,000 and Quentin Pauly in third with 28,500,000.

2026 Winamax Poker Tour Grande Finale Final Table

Seat	Player	Country	Chip count	Big blinds
1	Bertrand Vizioz	France	13,600,000	19
2	Nicolas Antouard	France	11,700,000	17
3	Guillaume Anthonioz	France	6,200,000	9
4	Sacha Cohen	France	50,400,000	72
5	Lucien Cervettaz	France	19,900,000	28
6	Samuel Bifarella	France	9,300,000	13
7	Quentin Pauly	France	28,500,000	41
8	Hervé Gouzil	France	11,600,000	17
9	Samuel Fournier	France	29,300,000	42

Supported by his father, who was on his rail throughout most of Day 3, Lucien Cervettaz bagged 19,900,000 for the final table, the average stack.

He is followed by Bertrand Vizioz (13,600,000), Nicolas Antouard (11,700,000), and Hervé Gouzil (11,600,000), perhaps the most experienced player at the final table with over 200 live cashes and 26 titles including one earlier this week.

Samuel Bifarella is another strong contender with a solid résumé that includes a WSOP runner-up finish in 2022 for $225,000. He will start the final table with 9,300,000, while amateur player Guillaume Anthonioz, who is living the dream, enters as the short stack with 6,200,000 but is still very much in contention in what promises to be a tough battle, with an average stack of around 20 big blinds.

Final table payouts

Place	Prize
1	€180,000
2	€130,000
3	€95,000
4	€70,000
5	€55,000
6	€40,000
7	€30,000
8	€24,000
9	€18,000

Play resumes at 1 p.m. local time with blinds of 300,000/700,000 with a 700,000 big blind ante. Levels will be 60-minute long during this final table which will be to follow on stream with a 30-minute delay.

As always, stay tuned to PokerNews for live updates until a winner is crowned!

Tags: Bertrand Vizioz Big Blinds Guillaume Anthonioz Hervé Gouzil Lucien Cervettaz Nicolas Antouard Quentin Pauly Sacha Cohen Samuel Bifarella Samuel Fournier