Kick-off Day 1E

Two starting days are scheduled for this Thursday, September 7. Day 1E kicks off at 3 p.m. with 55 players taking part, and will feature 9 30-minute levels followed by 3 40-minute levels. Registration is open until the end of level 9 and 10.30 p.m.... 



Day 1F Turbo starts at 10.30pm, with registration open until 1am... The program includes 9 15-minute levels and 3 20-minute levels, again with 50,000 starting chips. 

For the moment, we're concentrating on Mystery Bounty Final Day which resumed at 3pm... and where the bubble has already burst. 

One Hour's Play, No Outs

At the end of Level 1, the one and only no-ante tournament, 74 players were in contention for 74 entries... at the start of the third level, 93 players were in contention for 93 entries.

The game is now being played on blinds 200 - 400 (400) with players like Patrick Resseler and Vincent Verdickt finally making an appearance at the Circus Casino Resort in Namur.

Damien Batot, Djamal Boutaleb, Sandro Gangi, Celine Diot, Morten Faas, David Ethuin, Thomas Janssen, Bayram Guezeli, Céline Prevot, Calin-Nelu Pop are also in the running... 

The 100 Bar

With 18 minutes left to play in Level 3 and 100 players (102 entrants) now competing in the 200 - 400 blinds (400), this 5th starting day is shaping up to be the biggest since the start of the tournament.

The prize pool for this Circus Namur French Open Main Event is approaching €160,000. Prior to Day 1E, there were 135 qualifiers for Day 2 and a provisional attendance of 493... 

Break

The first break of Day 1E is underway. After two hours at poker , 113 players have taken a half-hour break.

The table shows 120 entrants so far, with play resuming on blinds 300 - 600 (600) with an average of 53,000 chips.

Chips
Fathi Khazami 116,000
Samir Bou 108,000
Angelo Hans 103,000
Lukas Oster 101,000
Gilles Frere 96,000
Antoine Vincendez 95,000
Dylan Grenier 94,000
Marcel Berger 90,000
Alexis Borst 87,000
Andreas van Deyck 80,000
Djamal Boutaleb 73,000
Rachid Oufaska 72 000
Romain Dussart 61 000
Saman Ziarati 58 000
Raphael Canta 53 000
Sandro Gangi 49 000
Patrick Resseler 46 000
Heinrich Pauker 41 000
Fabrice Somers 40 000
Greg van der Wecken 36 000
Salvatore Sablone 29 000
Céline Prevot 19 000

Dinner Break

The Main Event field has grown considerably, with 110 players taking part in the dinner break and 164 entries on Day 1E. With just over 650 entrants in total, there's now almost €180,000 in the prize pool... with 3 more days to go.

The survivors have played 8 levels of 30 minutes each, and will return at 9.45pm for 1000 - 1500 (1500).

Just before the break, Jordan Leroy jumped in two stages. First, he lost a flip with the equivalent of the average in the middle. As soon as the river fell, Leroy left the table. The dealer calls out "Wait", as Leroy still has 2 blinds left.

He goes all-in on the next hand, paid by the button and his opponent from the previous hand, now in the big blind. No action on 345 and on 8 which opens a diamond draw, the blind bets 5000 to provoke a shodwon.

6 and 2 of spades for straight for the big blind but Ace 7 of diamonds to believe in Leroy. The river 5 of spades dooms him. Extended dinner break or re-entry?

When level 9 resumes, there will be 30 minutes left to register.

Checkpoint

The game resumes on 1000 - 1500 (1500) in half an hour, here's a rundown of the players who'll have a nice block at the start of level 9, the last to register or re-enter. 

Chips
Gunther Rettel 199,000
Daniel Domb 173,000
David Ethuin 164,000
Linda Hamdi $156,000
Theo Plagneux 150,000
Stefan Aerts 147,000
Gilles Frere 143,000
Philipp Munzinger 139,000
Dylan Grenier $133,000
Ricardo Podda 129,000
Ayksel Aygun 125,000
Gabriel Mihai Radu 125,000
Remco Knoops 125,000
Cyril Olive 115,000
Fabrice Bensaid 114,000
Okan Bulut 94,000
Patrick Resseler 84,000

769 entrants after Day 1E

Late registration is over for the 5th qualifying session, and Main Event Day 1E has attracted 176 entrants, with 90 still battling it out over blinds 1000 - 2000 (2000).

The average is 49 blinds, and Markus Giesen, Celine Prevot, Celine Diot, Viorel Merisan, Djamal Boutaleb and Raphael Canta will have to go through another flight to reach Day 2 on Saturday, September 9 (2pm start).

135 players have booked their ticket for Day 2 at the end of the first four qualifying sessions, with just under two hours of poker remaining before the end of the fifth.

Last Hour

There are 20 minutes left to play on level 11, the penultimate of Day 1E of the €330 Circus Namur French Open Main Event.

75 players are taking part in the final table, with an average of 114,000 or 45 blinds to 1,000 - 2,500 (2,500). Despite a good start, Theo Plagneux and Lukas Oster have jumped. The same goes for Morten Faas, Okan Bulut, Robin COnti, Quentin Peeters and Mohamed Razkou Allah.

These players can now take part in Day 1F Turbo, which began a few minutes ago at two tables. 

Last Level

Last blinds raised on Day 1E, 70 players enter the final straight to Day 2. Many players have around 200,000 chips in the 1500 - 3000 (3000) blinds...

The average is still 42 blinds... Damien Batot, Rachid Oufaska and Ricardo Podda are next-door neighbors, and this turn could well produce the chipleader at the end of the day.

Chips
Remy Dandoy 240,000
Damien Batot 235,000
Greg van der Wecken 230,000
Pieter Geerkens 230,000
Samir Bou 210,000
Benoit El Amrani 205,000
Rachid Oufaska 200,000
Ricardo Podda 200,000
Lucas Ligny 200,000
Raphael Lemaire 200,000
Philippe Munzinger 200,000

Day 1E drew 176 entrants to bring the tournament's provisional attendance to 769, and the €200,000 guarantee has almost been reached ahead of Friday's big day when there will be two more Flights. 

135 players had qualified for the first four sessions, and 47 additional players completed the 12 levels on Thursday September 7. After 9 half-hour levels and 3 40-minute levels, Bilal Atila came out on top. 



Atila multiplied his starting stack by 12 to bag up 601,000 chips. Linda Hamdi had half a million before the final hands and looked set to finish with more than 100 blinds for Day 1... but she still ended the evening on top with 279,000 chips.

Greg van der Wecken, Gilles Frere, Andrea Caizzi, Gilles Masaud, Rachid Oufaska and Steven Kronzkella are all in. Vincent Verdickt will have 15 blinds for the replay on 2000 - 4000 (4000), Saturday September 9 at 2pm...

Partial Chipcount (176 entrants - 47 qualifiers)
Bilal Atila 601,000
Gilles Masaud 314,000
Ricardo Podda 308,000
Maxime Dubois 299,000
Linda Hamdi 279,000
Gunther Rettel 258,000
Greg van der Wecken 257,000
Andrea Caizzi 246,000
Alban Grainville 244,000
Damien Batot 243,000
Remy Dandoy 239,000
Rachid Oufaska 235,000
Philipp Munzinger 225,000
Gabriel Mihai Radu 209,000
Steven Kronzkella 154,000
Vincent Verdickt 54,000

The complete chipcount for Day 1E as soon as possible in the document below