Increased attendance

With 80 players already registered for the 5th of 8 starting days of the €350 Carnival Main Event, Thursday's action promises to be even busier than the previous days of the week. 

There were almost 100 players at the start, with a few familiar faces already seated at the tables for the only no-ante round of the tournament. 

The program features 12 40-minute levels with 4 2-hour micro-sessions from poker. There is a break every three levels, the first being the traditional half-hour break. 

There's a 75-minute dinner break starting at 8:30 p.m., followed by a break at the end of Level 9 for the end of late registration, at around midnight. Resuming for three levels and the last two hours of play, we're off to pack up and head for Day 2 at 2 p.m. on Saturday for the survivors! 

Almost Perfect

The first round was a warm-up round for everyone... or almost, since the table now shows 135 players in the running for 136 entrants. Younes Ben Abdelhak went straight to the cashier and came back with 50,000 chips in blinds 100 - 300 (300)! 

The prize pool has exceeded €250,000, and players such as Taner Ayhan, Cristian Bogdan, Demir Ismail, Anthony Bui Ngoc, Alain Caliber and Sandro Gangi are in the running to take their share. 

Fabio Percio, Ingo Paulus, Ekin Kandemir, Emmanuel Kunstler, Patrick Prijot and Nico Pohl are also in the game...

Already 160 entrants

Level 3 got underway on Day 1e of the Carnival Main Event, with 152 players in contention for 160 entrants.

The blinds are 200 - 400 (400) with an average of 53,000 chips and some new players. Jérôme Balthazar, Sandro Pitzanti, Robin Cornet, Ken Claessens, Eric Goffin Andreas Gondrom, Alix Desse are at the tables at the Circus Casino Resort in Namur...

Re-entries and late check-ins until midnight on this 5th starting day.

Don't forget the Turbo 1F starting at 10 p.m., with another 12 levels on the program, but with 20-minute levels instead of 40... Registrations open after 1 a.m. on this flight! 

For the moment, we're concentrating on the Mystery Bounty bubble...

The Bubble for the Winter champion

In January Pel Nieuwenhuis turned €250 into €90,000 at the Winter Festival Main Event, but this time the Dutchman came away empty-handed.

It took about half an hour of hand-for-hand action for PEL to finish on the losing side. Or not, as the young man left with a smile on his face and defended his chance with aplomb.

After Nawfal Ben Azuz's exit (29th), three players were in immediate danger. Olivier Hegy was the shortest, but Pel Nieuwenhuis had no margin at the same table, while the situation became truly critical for Philippe Henry (below right). 

But it was Olivier Hegy (below) who first put himself in danger. From the hijack, Olivier sends in 21,000 chips for 3000 - 6000 (6000). With 28,000 chips after putting down the big blind, Pel Nieuwenhuis thinks before calling with Jack 6 suit.

Olivier flips Ace-King to give himself some breathing space after a 5-Queen-As-6-3 board. Pel drops to 12,000 chips after laying down his small blind...

At the next table, Philippe Henry is down to 15,500 chips... at the end of the talk he has only a few hands left before he's in the critical zone. 

New deal with an all-in & call... Julien Poulain (above left) shoves 54,000 chips in the small blind and Benjapol Suntornvibul calls with ace-queen in the big blind. Julien returned Ace-King and doubled up on a Ten 5 2 Jack 6 board. 

Meanwhile, Raphael Canta (above) is relaxing with over 35 blinds, as are René Franck, Octavian Ripan or Xavier Servais and Dove Monaco. With 140,000, Thomas van Dorp is also doing pretty well, going all-in in a blind battle during the hand-by-hand... his opponent goes tank-fold. 

Pel Nieuwenhuis prepares for the worst, as the wind of the ball and chain approaches. The Dutchman warns his friends to wait for him for the aperitif.

Olivier Hegy was next to (re)put himself at risk, going all-in straight from the button for 35,000 chips. Gerard Mata will finally return his 6 and 3 suiter in the big blind. "Thanks for not messing with me," laughs Olivier as he returns the jacks after a general fold. Philippe Henry folded his big blind with 3,500 chips behind.

On the next hand, Pel Nieuwenhuis automatically goes all-in from the big blind... Philippe Henry doesn't question this and returns his cards in the small blind, leaving himself 500 chips ahead. 

No customer, no one opens on the Pel Nieuwenhuis table, so Rene Franck does the job with a small blind open-shove for a showdown. Franck returns King 2 of hearts, well ahead of the Dutchman's mismatched 7 and 3. 

No suspense as the dealer flops three hearts. Two cards later, the 27 survivors secure a €310 payout. 

The popcorn explodes, and only 17 of them make it to the next break. Nicolas Kojovic will be the first to draw an envelope, pocketing €1,000.

Among the envelopes already distributed, Julien Monfort drew the €2,200 CPS Main Event Ticket and a €500 bonus on the extra-draw. The two €5,000 envelopes and the two €2,500 envelopes are still in the safe!

Play resumes on blinds 4000 - 8000 (8000) with Niklas Schmidtz (below) well ahead with over 700,000 chips and at least twice the stack of his nearest pursuer...

Payout Event #9 Mystery Bounty Carnival 
Winner - €6,066
Runner Up - €4,200
3e - 3 010€
4e - 2 330€
5e - 1 830€
6e - 1 425€
7e - 1 185€
8e - 990€
9e - 830€

10th and 11th - €720
12th and 13th - €625
14th and 15th - €540
16th and 17th - €470

18th - Emmanuel Cardella 415€
19th - Benjapol Suntornvibul 415€
20th - Matthias Landuyt 415€
21st - Philippe Henry (photo/above) 355€
22nd - Angelo Mancuso €355
23rd - Manu Poznanski €355
24th - Jonas Shug €310
25th - Max Middendorp €310
26th - Gerard Mata €310
27th - Bruno Ghilardi €310

189 entrants at the first break

Play resumed in blinds 300 - 600 (600) on the fifth starting day of the Carnival Main Event. With 164 players still in the running, everyone is trying to take advantage of the structure to avoid jumping too quickly (or almost)!

With 189 entrants on Day 1e (late entries until after midnight), there's now €261,000 in the prizepool and almost 900 entrants in the Main Event. With Turbo 1f kicking off at 10pm, Thursday's action should see the €350 buy-in event pass the 1,000-entry mark.

Here's a quick chipcount of the forces in attendance at the break, with French WSOP Circuit winner Patrick Schuhl off to a good start...

Chipcount
Ismail Fath Eddine 140 000
Wahib Neghli 140 000
Stavros Kalousidis 135 000
Viorel Merisan 119 000
Patrick Schuhl 116 000
Robin Engelmann 113 000
Michael Buse 112 000
Melke Ilgun 105 000
Finn Sarl 103 000
jasmin Berge 103 000
Kevin Van Veen 95 000
Cristian Bogdan 94 000
Kader Bellens 93 000
Thomas Dirheimer 93 000
Sem Peeters 84 000
Nikolas Wicquart 70 000
Robin Cornet 52 000
Reda Haidar 40 000

Over 900 entrants at Carnival

Level 5 is underway on Day 1 of the €350 Carnival Festival Main Event. 163 players remain in the running for 204 entries on this 5th of eight starting days. The 900-entry mark for this Main Event has been passed...

The prizepool has climbed to €265,000, with the game now being played on blinds 400 - 800 (800).

Dorian Delecault, Norman Bultot, Samy Barka, Djamal Boutaleb, Fu Tao Huang, Stephane Minkov, Canio Pietrapertosa, Nicolas Steils and JS Denissa are here to try and join the 150 qualifiers for Day 2, which kicks off on Saturday at 2pm in blinds 2000 - 5000 (5000)... 

Dinner break

The dinner-break has begun, resuming at 9.50pm on blinds 500 - 1500 (1500) with 134 players currently in the running and an average of 87,000 chips.

With 235 entrants and late registration open until midnight 10, there's still plenty of room for growth on Day 5. At present, the prizepool is €275,000!

Frank Schmitz (below) took control of the tournament a few minutes before the break in a 3-shot on a Queen 5 6 flop with two diamonds. The pot had been 3-bet preflop and Frank hit his flush 5 at just the right moment.

He was fortunate to see Abdessamad Ayyad (right in photo) turn over Kings with 180,000 chips and another with the starting stack have it all in after a ton of action with 4 and 6 to clubs! No flush draw to avoid, two Kings in the deck for the Winter 2019 winner... the German went through the bullets to raise to 550,000 counters! 

Please note that Day 2 of the Mystery Bounty who didn't make the cut for the paid seats are making a name for themselves at the start of Day 1e. Jonas Schug (126,000), Karim Ryadi (186,000) and, above all, Douglas Weymeersch (207,000) are piling on the cashes, having made it from their Final Day to the Main Event without a moment's hesitation. 

About Mystery BountyThe Final Table has begun...

Chips
Frank Schmitz 550,000
Giovanni Ventura 258,000
Sem Peeters 215,000
Douglas Weymeersch 207,000
Karim Ryadi 186,000
Michael Buse 174,000
Melke Ilgun 168,000
Jasmin Berge 145,000
Kadir Bellens 142,000
Jean Yip 140,000
Cristian Bogdan 135,000
Ismail Fath Eddine 132,000
Vincent Verdickt 131,000
Jonas Schug 126,000
Reda Haidar 126,000
Andreas Gondrom 112,000
Sabri Philipps 108,000
Anthony Bui Ngoc 106,000
Robin Engelmann 103,000
Xavier Dupuy 85,000
JS Denissa 73,000
Robin Cornet 74,000
Badr Al Ghouch 15,000

Keep Growing

The game is underway with 112 players now seated at the tables for 251 entrants. With the start of Day 1f Turbo at 10pm, the prize pool has continued to climb and now stands at €288,000.

Players are competing in the blinds 1000 - 1500 (1500) with an average of 112,000 chips... Frank Schmitz has lost ground but remains in the lead with 440,000 in chips.

Benjamin Menut is in better spirits, having raised 380,000 and is not far behind the Yellow Jersey. Giovanni Ventura (350,000) and Djamal Boutaleb (280,000) also have chips now...

Things aren't going too badly for Vincent Verdickt and Jean Yip, who have a little more than the average...

Top 100

Of the 253 players currently registered, 97 remain on Day 1 of the €350 Carnival Main Event. With the start of Day 1f, the prize pool continues to climb and now totals €291,000! 

The game is played on blinds 1000 - 2000 (2000) with an average of 131,000 chips and Alix Desse (above) is a little ahead of schedule. Expatriate in Saint Pierre et Miquelon, the Frenchman is visiting Europe and Belgium... he's up to 170,000 pawns, in robbery mode! 

Leif Petersen, Jimmy Livramento, Karl Rogiers and Samy Barka (below) will have to re-enter before the start of level 10 if they want to qualify for this session... 

Dino au Galop, 254 players on Day 1e

Registration is closed on Day 1 as the 10th level of the fifth of eight starting days of the €350 Carnival Main Event is underway.

Players are competing in blinds of 1,000 - 2,500 (2,500) and there are just over 80 of them left for the final three levels and the last two hours of poker of the day.

The average is 155,000 chips and we're looking ahead. Well, there's one person who's probably staring off into space, and that's Frank Schmitz. Chipleader with 550,000 chips at the dinner break... he was no longer in the tournament at the break before the start of level 10! 

Frank Schmitz made the acquaintance of Dino Marsani, an old-school player who had made 3rd in an EFOP Diamond at the ACF a long time ago... The Belgian re-entered just after the dinner break and doubled before landing just to Schmitz's left. The beginning of the German player's downfall.

"I tore it up," sums up Dino, who will raise a few chips before getting ambitious by paying a 3-bet out of position with 8 and 9. With three of them discovering a Ten 8 3 flop, Dino would hold nothing back to find a 9 turn.

Gin card would see him move up to 400,000 chips. "That's when he went into tilt, a total tilt," continues the Belgian with a big smile. Dino takes it all from the old boss and claims a few more victims... to climb just under the million mark within an hour.

He's down to 975,000 chips with a quarter of a game left in level 10... 

The Last Hour (or almost)

There are 30 minutes left to play on 1500 - 3000 (3000) with 67 players still in the field on this 5th opening day of the Carnival Main Event. 

The penultimate level continues with registration closed, but it's still possible to switch to Turbo 1F until 1.20 a.m... so the prize pool has climbed to almost €298,000. 

While Dino Marsani is still the only one flirting with the million mark (he now has 1,100,000 chips, editor's note), things aren't going so well for Karim Ryadi and Patrick Schuhl, who were eliminated in the final minutes. 

Finito also for Day 1e for Ismail Fath Eddine, Robert Nys, Jonas Schug, Xavier Dupuy or Paul Tielens... 

Sprint

35 minutes of play remain on the final level of Day 1e. 59 players are competing in blinds 2000 - 4000 (4000), with an average of 53 blinds. 

Dino Marsani is still ahead with 1 million chips but Giovanni Ventura fights back to 720,000 chips. Behind them are several competitors at half a million chips... and a little further back, with almost 20 blinds, players like Robin Cornet (below) are holding their own. 

On the other hand, Norman Bultot, Stephane Monaco, Vincent Rutte, Yavuz Akyuz and Finn Saul will have to try their luck again... these players still have a few minutes to register in-extremis on Turbo 1f.

Last hands

The last three hands have just been announced... 50 players are still in the running on 2000 - 4000 (4000), so who's going to make up or jump in the last few seconds?

In any case, Theo Erkamps, Ingo Paulus, Sam Riva or Manuel Manuelyan will have to go through another opening day, on Friday from 3 p.m. on Day 1G or from 10 p.m. on the last-chance 1H Turbo... 

48 qualifiers and one millionaire

DinoMarsani has now bagged up 1.1 million chips after 12 40-minute levels on Day 1e. The Belgian topped the fifth of eight opening days and is the tournament's one and only millionaire, while 198 players have qualified for Day 2, which gets underway on Saturday at 2pm on blinds 2000 - 5000 (5000).

Jur 1e attracted 254 entries from 48 qualifiers and overall tournament attendance exceeded 1,000 entries ahead of a traditionally huge Friday. The prizepool also broke the €300,000 barrier!

Dino Marsani made 22 times the starting stack over the last 5 levels as he re-entered just after dinner! He beat two players who had bettered the chipleaders from all previous days. Dutchman Badre Al Ghouch (804,500) and another regular, Giovanni Ventura (802,000). 

Big stacks for Rayane Mokhtar (542,000) Sem Peeters (515,000), Eddy Sebastianutti (512,000), Benjamin Menut (487,000) and Rui Da Costa (402,000), Fabrizio Quatrocchi (449,000) and Michael Busche (444,000).

Also qualifying were Alix Desse (325,000), Cristian Bogdan (321,000), Jean Yip (245,0000), Sandro Gangi (141,000), Djamal Boutaleb (200,000), Robin Cornet (109,000), Anthony Bui Ngoc (166,000), Andreas Gondrom (160,000), Vincent Verdickt (140,000) and Reda Haidar (140,000)...

See the document below for the full chipcount... We'll be back on Friday around 3 p.m. for Day 1G!