Winamax Poker Open Sets Record Field AGAIN; Six Team Pros Advance From Day 1b
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.