Just under 200 players to start

On Friday, things got crazy. Players gathered at the Circus Casino Resort in Namur to take part in the €350 Carnival.

With the start of play imminent, 192 players have already signed up to start on 100 - 200 and the tournament's only no-ante level.

The dinner break may well be split in two due to attendance, but for the time being the structure of this seventh and penultimate opening day remains unchanged. 12 levels are scheduled, and players will play 3 levels of 40 minutes each, for an effective 2 hours of poker , with a break afterwards.

The first break will last half an hour, and if nothing changes, the dinner break for everyone will take place at the end of level 6, between 8.30 and 9.45 pm. Then it's back to playing until the end of late registration, which will take place after a short break at midnight 10.... Then it's off again for 3 levels, heading for the wrapping up and Day 2 on Saturday 2pm for the survivors.

There are now over 1,200 entries in this Main Event, and the prize pool has now exceeded €350,000! 237 players already have their ticket for the weekend's competition... 

Players Everywhere

With the seventh of eight starting days in full swing, it took just ten minutes for Fabrice Somers to have to hand in a dumpling. Just as quickly seated, just as quickly stood up, so that there were 237 players in the field for 238 entrants.

There's now €369,000 in the pot! 

Toc-Toc

Who's there? All the regulars are here, with 265 players now in the running for 269 entries.

Noa Chan, Sandro Pitzanti and Javier Rodriguez jumped in just before the end of the first round, since when the blinds have climbed to 100 - 300 (300) with the arrival of the antes...

In the field we find Rico Chevalot, Abdel Chenoufi, Patrick Aerts, Servane Barrault, Moise Alloun, Laurent Barrague, Greg Biermans, Mathieu Desmet, Frank Debusschere, Stéphane Figoni, Regis Eisenstein and many others....

Patrice Libert, Stéphane Minkov, Ingo Paulus, Harrie Snijders (photo), Nathalie Tourdot, Patrick Schuhl, Fabien Perrot, Pascal Honai and Mystery Bounty winner Nicolas Kojovic are also in the game... 

The 300 barrier

Just over an hour to go on Day 1G of the Carnival 2024 Main Event and there are already more than 300 entrants.

There are still 294 players in the running for 302 entrants on blinds 100 - 300 (300) witha prize pool of almost €383,000!

Fabirce Somers returned, Taner Ayhan, God Save The Queens winner Arne Noel showed up. Morten Faas, Thierry Aqua, Agim Guizmo, Michele Galatola, Jesus Castro, Big Tuesday Carnival winner Andrea Caizzi, Ivan Kalac, Georgita Mihaita, Christophe Mention and Abedin Omerovic have joined the tournament...

400K approaching

The first break of Day 1G is half an hour away, and 315 players are seated at the tables of the Circus Casino Resort in Namur, with 325 entrants now!

Ali Bilgin, Rapahael Canta, Johann Compagnon, Bayer Demirci and Christophe Devaux are among them... The prize pool has risen to €393,000, almost double the €200,000 guarantee, while entries are open until midnight on this penultimate flight.

Last chance to qualify for Saturday's Day 2 from 10 p.m. with Day 1H Turbo, featuring 12 levels of 20 minutes each...

359 entries at the first break

After 3 levels and 2 hours of poker , 326 players took a break. The table shows 359 entries at the start of this half-hour break, with the prizepool now at €401,662!

Resuming at 5.30pm on blinds 300 - 600 (600) with an average of 55,000 chips... and two players who have started particularly well. Morgan Poisson is up to 170,000 in chips, behind Isabelle Romon who has turned 50,000 chips into 176,000 counters to start the day.

Sandro Pitzanti, meanwhile, passed the second mark just short of the break. Under the gun, he bet 3,800 chips in a 5,000-chip pot against the big blind. The latter check-calls 7 9 A 6 with a diamond draw on the turn.

On the river 9, the big blind bets 4,500 chips and quickly craps out when it gets a raise to 19,000. Pitzanti climbs to 70,000 chips after the opponent folds... and goes on break showing 8 Ten for the straight.

Philippe Henry also got off to a good start , passing the Mystery Bounty bubble with a 500 chip... before he even managed to scratch a level!

Chips
Isabelle Romon (below left)below left) 176,000
Morgan Poisson 170,000
Cédric Bernard 130,000
Robertus de Groot 123,000
Ingo Paulus 122,000
Laurent Brach 110,000
Rinaldo Radler 110,000
David Duquesne 109,000
Fouad Serrar 104,000
Bryan de Riddere 85,000
Rico Chevalot 80,000
Olivier Hegy 75,000
Philippe Henry 75,000
Sandro Pitzanti 70,000
Nicolas Kojovic 59,000
Agim Guizmo 35,000

They're still coming

The 400-entry mark has been passed for this penultimate starting day. Play is running at 300 - 600 (600) with an average of 57,000 chips and now €412,000 in the prizepool.

The table shows 353 players in the running for 400 entries, and the crowds will continue to climb throughout the day. As soon as the break was over, Agim Guizmo and Jeff Hemmer left the play area.

PLO5 runner-up last night, Jeff jumped in with Kings in a 3-bet pot on Ten 8 7. There were 75,000 chips in the middle when it all went down... his opponent turned over Ace 8 and hit a river 8! Re-entry?

With overall attendance now approaching 1,500, Sandro Pitzanti lost the benefit of his good start. Facing Eric Boge, 6th in the Mystery Bounty, he bet 6,500 in 36,000 on a Ten Ace 2 Queen Ten board.

Eric Boge check-raised to 17,000 to get paid and reveal King Jack for the straight. Boge climbed to 85,000 chips while Pitzanti slipped to 37,000...

Fifteen minutes to go in level 4... Evert Rosseel and Dominique Potenza have just arrived at the tables.

Split Dinner

Day 1G takes place in three separate areas of the Circus Casino Resort de Namur. In the main poker room, tables 18 to 39 are in use, in the cash-game room tables 7 to 17 are in use and finally, in the Ocean Room, tables 101 to 106 are also in use.

With a ton of players everywhere, and to make things run more smoothly, the dinner break will be split in two.

At the end of level 5, at 6.50 p.m., all players in the side rooms will have 80 minutes to eat. During this time, players in the main room will play two 40-minute levels.

These players from tables 18 to 39 will then have a dinner-break from 8.10 p.m. to 9.30 p.m., when the first group will play levels 6 and 7.

Junction on level 8 for participants on this penultimate starting day. Late registration is open until the first hand of Level 10, at around 11.10pm.

Level poker, blinds have just climbed to 400 - 800 (800) with the prizepool continuing to climb. Today's 426 entries have already boosted the prize pool to €426,000!

The average is 59,000 chips, plenty to play for if you're just joining the party... 

Checkpoint

Level 5 is almost over, with the first group leaving for a dinner break. Players at tables 7 to 17, tables 40 to 44 and 101 onwards will have an 80-minute break...

Players in the main tournament room will stay to play two levels before taking their turn to eat... They will start level 6 on blinds 500 - 1000 (1000) and then play level 7 before the junction.

For the moment the average is 64,000 chips on blinds 400 - 800 (800) and everyone is there. The table shows 353 players on track for 451 entries on Day 1G!

Simon Bouaksa, Daniel Dodet, Pietro Amoruso, Farid Azarkan, Tino de Zutter, Hacine Chatteur, Eric Goffin and Lorenzo Furia have all been spotted in the field...

The prizepool climbed to €427,000, with late registration open until 11.10pm. Turbo 1H kicks off at 10pm, with registration open until after 1am! 

La Carte Du Roi

Half the field has headed to La Carte du Roi for refreshments. This is the first group for players not in the main hall.

Tables 7 to 17, 40 to 44 and those in the Salle Océan will return at 8.10pm to play levels 6 and 7 before joining the second group on level 8.

The second group, consisting of tables 18 to 39, is currently playing on blinds 500 - 1000 (1000), with no players listed in the chipcount, a chipcount that only covers dinner-break players, those who have played just over 3 hours of poker since the start... Some have done their homework!

The table shows 350 players on Day 1G for 464 registered players! 

Chips
Rens Buijs 223 000
Heinz Peters 189 000
Daniel Lemoine 176 000
Clause Spieckermann 148 000
Zoran Marinkovic 150 000
Anne Milot 141 000
Maurice Cohen 130 000
Pascal Honai 127 000
Fabrice Somers 124 000
Dejan Jakovijevic 119 000
Isabelle Romon 117 000
Thomas Daix 115 000
Edwige Lesage 108 000
Mitch Vulperhorst 103 000
Sofiane Daoudi 101 000
Abedin Omerovic 98 000
Samuel Grigorian 98 000
Frank Debusschere 93 000
Markus Osinga 92 000
Medet Kilinc 90 000
Davy Huyst 89 000
Fabien Perrot 74 000
Romain Becker 71 000
Mathieu Desmet 64 000
Tijmen Corporaal 57 000
Stéphane Figoni 39 000
Gary Hasson 3000

Keep Playing

There will be over 500 entries on this penultimate day of the Carnival 2024 Main Event. The prizepool has risen to €436,000 as there are now 353 players in the running for 483 entries on Day 1G!

Level 7 is underway for the Keep Playing group, who are competing over 500 - 1500 (1500) before going on dinner break at 8.10pm....

Mohamed Daher took advantage of this time to clock up 120,000 chips, a good start to a tournament which had attracted 2,436 entrants in its previous edition, a €225 buy-in edition which generated a €450,659 prizepool...

Dinner Break (II)

The second group is in dinner-break, the first group is currently playing level 6 and blinds 500 - 1000 (1000)...

At the start of the dinner-break the counter showed 342 players in contention for 502 entrants on this 1G... the field has climbed to 343 players for 512 entrants and an average of 75,000 chips. The prizepool has climbed to €445,000 and will continue to climb, with entries open until after 11 p.m. on this penultimate starting day...

Here's a chipcount of the players who have already played 7 levels and will be back at 9.30 p.m... See you after the junction.

Chipcount
Kristof verhoeven 264,000
Mohamed Daher 263,000
Fathi Kalfaoui 216,000
Linda Hamdi 213,000
Chan Beckschebe 212,000
Tanguy Petitjean 209,000
Giulliano Beesenstein 202,000
Cyril Jacquin 198,000
Bryan de Riddere 190,000
ingo Paulus 171,000
Miroslav Blayojevic $170,000
Rico Chevalot 152,000
Richard Lantenschlager $151,000
Dion de Beu 147,000
Tobias Hoellener 146,000
Eric Goffin 145,000
Cédric Huysmans 144,000
Younes Ben Abdelhak 143,000
Victor Winterink 142,000
Pietro Amoruso 136,000
Phitenathorn Gosselin 136,000
Cedric Secondo 134,000
Frank Fliegner 127,000
Jean Cruccas 121,000
Taner Ayhan 118,000
Heinz Peters 116,000
Robin Engelmann 115,000
Douglas Weymeersch 115,000
Arne Noel 114,000
Michael Wellmann 107,000
Gregory Biermans 93,000
Cedric Bernard 78,000
Yuksel Tok 57,000

Circus Junction

The world is back, and Level 8 of Day 1G is underway. Players are competing in blinds ranging from 1,000 to 1,500 (1,500), with an average of 85,000 chips.

The table shows 315 survivors for 540 entrants and a prizepool of €462,000 - more than in the previous edition (buy-in €250, 2,436 entrants, €450,659 prizepool)... registration is open until the start of level 10, just after 11 p.m...

Maradona Abaz, Zacharia Ben Omar, Christophe Colantoni or Raf Ielegems have been spotted in the field... 

The books are in

At 11.20pm, registration will be closed for the penultimate flight of the €350 Carnival Main Event. There are 290 players left for 544 entrants in the 1G and a prizepool of €470,000!

In the Salle Océan, with ten minutes to go before the blinds go up and the end of level 8 contested over 1,000 - 1,500 (1,500), 9 tables are still running. At Sandro Pitzanti 's table (205,000), Raphael Canta has just taken off.

After his 3rd-place finish in the Mystery Bounty, Raphael now has 210,000 in chips. He's just doubled up after defending Dame Ouitre from the blinds, then check-call 8 9 2, check-call a Dame again on the turn and check-call a Dame river again.

Here, the UTG player bet half his stack before snapping Canta's stack with 8's. Full house against full house and a huge runner-runner for Canta on the flop!

Dejan Bralo, Christophe Chalons, Fabio d'Annolfo and Peter de Buijn are all in this side room at the Circus Casino Resort in Namur... 

480.000€ in the prizepool

A break will take place at the end of this 9th level, which is being run on blinds 1000 - 2000 (2000). At present, 274 players remain in the running, with 548 entries for Day 1G. Turbo 1H just started with 70 contestants competing over 12 20-minute levels. 

On the penultimate flight of the €350 Carnival Main Event, things are going well for a regular. Phitchatorn Gosselin is up to 200,000 chips, and has just sucked the 10 big blinds out of a short stack that went all in with 4s at the end of the floor. "Obviously," comments the victim when she discovers Gosselin's queens. The 2 King 7 Ten 2 board confirms the sentence...

Heinz Peters also unravels, and it's easy to poker when your pair of tens stands up to Ace-Kings and 7 & 9s. The German climbs to 230,000 chips after this strike at the table of Linda Hamdi (250,000) and Laurent Brach...

Final Break

The final break is underway on the penultimate starting day of the €350 Carnival Main Event. A half-hour break for the chiprace of 100 jeotns and resumption at 23:22 on blinds 1000 - 2500 (2500).

242 players in break for 552 registered but it can still go up a little, with the 100 players at the beginning of level 3 on the Turbo 1H, the prizepool now reaches 488 000€.

"Beastly game," commented one player as he passed a player as the main room emptied. The latter saw showdown , which allowed Fathi Khalfaoui to climb to 440,000 chips. On an 8 7 King Ace King board that brought in the runner-runner clubs, Fathi bet 75,000 chips from the cutoff after a lowjack check.

The pot is already huge and he grumbles while making a call-muck, then I flash my pair of 7s out of spite when I spot Ace-King in Khalfaoui.

Just before, at a neighboring table, Linda Hamdi has lost a lot of chips to Kobe Vandepitte, who now stands at 343,000. No MVP title yet, but the ticket to Day 2 looks well on the way.

When play resumes, there will be two hours of play and three levels left to join the 237 players already qualified for Saturday's 2 p.m. Day 2...

Chips
Fathi Khalfaoui 440,000
Guillaume Pannier 365,000
Heinz Peters 360,000
Laroussi Nazoume 360,000
Kobe Vandepitte 343,000
Kristof Verhoeven 328 000
Rens Buijs 305 000
Zoran Marinkovic (photo) 270 000
Andreas Peschel 270 000
Bryan de Riddere 261 000
Mohamed El Messaoudi 261 000
Daniel Lemiere 248,000
Igoris Barkaganas 240,000
Alessandro Arina 235,000
Thomas Daix 230,000
Nicolas Kojovic 225,000
Douglas Weymeersch 215,000
Ruben Steenhuis 210 000
Phitchathorn Gosselin 203 000
Taner Ahyan 195 000
Pietro Amoruso 186 000
Stephane Croes 180 000
Linda Hamdi 75 000
Regis Eisenstein 35 000

552 entries for the penultimate Flight

Late registration is over for Day 1G, which finally attracted 552 entries. This brings the provisional attendance to 1,573 before the Turbo.

This Turbo 1H is underway and registration closes at 1.20 a.m., for the last opportunity to join Saturday's Day 2. Eliminated since the resumption, Dimitri Marichal, Mihaita Georgita, Constantin Ifrim, David Janssen, Gido Geerst, Christophe Colantoni, Dylan Onsval, Mike Panetta or Murat Zengin have no alternative but to play this Main Event over the weekend...

On Day 1G, there are 10 minutes left to play on blinds 1000 - 2500 (2500) with 220 competitors still in play. The average is 125,000 chips or 50 blinds remaining. Enough time to develop your best poker and capture a share of a prizepool which has now reached €495,000! 

Top 200

Less than 200 players remain, and the penultimate level of Day 1G is already well underway. With registrations still open on Turbo 1H, the prize pool has passed the half-million euro mark! 

For Karim Nabile, Kevin Muders, Pascal Honai, Robin Engelmann, Eric Goffin, Arne Noel or Davy Huyst and Finn Saul, it's time to hit the turbo to set their sights on Day 2, which kicks off at 2pm on Saturday in blinds 2000 - 5000 (5000)... 

1,783 entries and over €516,000 in prize money

Registration is now closed for the €350 Carnival Main Event. With the 552 entries for Day 1G and the 210 entries for Turbo 1H, attendance finally climbs to 1,783 entrants for a prizepool of €516,713.

With 107 players left and just under an hour to play in this final Turbo session, we meet again at around 2.40 a.m. for the survivors' chipcount and the number of survivors on this 8th and final day of the Carnival...

Last hands

The clock is ticking on Day 1G, with 140 players still in the field from the 552 entries for this penultimate starting day.

Four more hands of 2000 - 4000 (4000) to go, before the chips are packed up and ready to go again at 2pm on Saturday. 237 players had qualified in the first 6 opening sessions...

Fathi Khalfaoui dominates Day 1G, 130 more qualifiers

The seventh and penultimate starting day of the Carnival 2024 Main Event was the best attended of the opening days. The 552 entries boosted tournament attendance to 1,783, generating a prize pool of over €516,000.

237 players had qualified prior to Friday's sessions, with 130 players completing the 12 40-minute levels on Day 1G. Fathi Khalfaoui was the fastest player with 670,000 chips for the repeat on 2000 - 5000 (5000), starting at 2 p.m. on Saturday. 

The 1G boss multiplied his stack by more than 13 during the 8 effective hours of poker on the program for this flight of fancy. 

Cyril Olivier, Guillaume Pannier and Michael Berhane finished as neighbors (from left to right in the first photo), as did Thomas Daix, Daniel Lemiere and Tony Monnet (from right to left in the second photo)... the concentration of big stacks at the end of the day unfortunately didn't give rise to a huge clash before the final wrap-up. 

These players will meet on Saturday from 2pm onwards in blinds 2000 - 5000 (5000)...

Partial Chipcount Day 1G
Fathi Khalfaoui 670 000
Justin Duhameau 635 000
Rens Buijs 541 000
Maurice Cohen 516 000
Nicolas Kojovic 500 000
Michael Berhane 498 000
Laroussi Nazoume 475 000
Cyril Olivier 472 000
Kristof Verhoeven 455 000
Daniel Lemiere 449 000
Guillaume Pannier 439 000
Cees van de Griendt 417 000
Tony Monnet 415,000
Andrea Caizzi 401,000
Thomas Daix 392,000
Zoran Minkovic 383,000
Jerome Larchet 364,000
Kobe Vandepitte 360,000
Gerald Peters 336,000
Carlos Pinto 325 000
Taner Ayhan 264 000
Mitch Vulperhorst 227 000
Bryan de Riddere 217 000
Jorden Verbraeken 160 000
Rico Chevalot 160 000
Romain Becker 139 000


Full Chipcount belowbelow in the document