Namur Fait son Cirque

A big day at the €550 Circus Cup, with two qualifying sessions. Day 1C kicked off at 3 p.m. with just over 50 players... Day 1D Turbo kicks off at 9 p.m., again with 12 levels to play but shortened to 20 minutes.

After two flights, 80 of the 325 players who entered the tournament have booked their tickets for Saturday and the rest of the competition... there were around 50 players at the start of the third of the six opening days.

40,000 chips and 12 levels of 40 minutes each, i.e. 8 hours of poker to express themselves, heading for Day 2! As there are plenty of players at the cash desk, you'll want to stay away from the balls, as crowds are expected to build quickly!

Keep Growing

70 players seated at the tables 5 minutes into the game out of 100 - 200 (200)... over 80 after twenty minutes of play and Joseph Bardakji will have to warm up the CB, as the Frenchman is the first busto of the day... 

Guillaume Tricoire, Paul van Oort, Harrie Snijders, Aliosha Staes, Mathieu Choffardet, Daniel Pirlot, Sandro Pitzanti, Dalil Masaud, Laurent Michot, François-Louis Vlassis, Davy Huyst, Moncef Karoui, François Heine and many other Namur regulars are already in the running for this flight... 

Truceless

The second level started 5 minutes ago and the 100-entry mark has been cleared at the Circus Casino Resort in Namur.

The table shows 106 players in the running for 110 entries on Day 1C of the €550-per-entry Circus Cup. The average chip count is 42,000, and many more familiar faces have turned up.

Ferdinando D'Alessio, Cyril Fabre, Theo Erkamps, Fred Blehaut, Ali Bilgin, Daniel Colacurcio, Taner Ayhan, Reda Belkhou, Thierry Aqua, Fabien Garcia, Raf Ielegems and Christianus Lovrencevic are all in the running.

Iryna Tsikhanskaya tries again, as do Shawn Morales, Gianni Lodi and Dominique Potenza. First try for Cedric Kedziora or Raynald Coppin... almost everyone is there! 

Ca Chauffe

Express passage for Mathieu Choffardet, in at the start of Day 1C of the Circus Cup. The Frenchman bowed out after opening button and callingAndreas Van Deyck 's 4,000-chip 3-bet from the small blind.

Andreas sends in 2,000 chips on a Jack Queen 9 flop and Mathieu holds to uncover an Ace turn. Checkècall from the Belgian for 8,000 chips this time, the dealer then unlocks a river 4.

Van Deyck checks again... and snap-calls when Choffradet sends in his 16,000-chip stack. Mathieu is caught red-handed with 9 and Ten... Andreas flips Ace 4 for two runner-runner pairs to climb to 80,000 chips as the field nears 150 entrants... 

Break

It's the first break of the third starting session of the €550 Circus Cup. 154 players went on break for a table showing 181 entries!

The average is 47,000 chips, with a restart at 5:30 p.m. in blinds 200 - 500 (500)... Before the break, from the small blind, Gilles Magny tried to isolate a limper with the Arrows and his opponent 3-bet all-in when the floor came back to him. Gilles snapped to uncover the Kings in front, but a King on the turn propelled him into the red zone! 

Chipcount
Reda Belkhou 117,000
Domenico Romano 111,000
Fouad Elmouhmouh 107,000
Paschalis Papadopoulos 105,000
Patrick Schuhl 101,000
Emile Verpoort 101,000
Pascal van Bouwel 92,000
Andreas van Deyck 83,000
Gaele Koening 78,000
Taner Ayhan 43,000
Thierry Aqua 41,000
Fabien Garcia 33,000
Daniel Tordjman 20,000
Gilles Magny 13,000

Say 200!

The 200-entry mark has been passed on Day 1C of the Circus Cup... registration is open until 11.10pm and the start of level 10!

With 20 minutes left to play on blinds 200 - 500 (500), the table now shows 166 players seated at the Circus Casino Resort tables in Namur.

The average chip count has climbed to 50,000, while the provisional overall attendance for the opening tournament of the Circus Poker Series has passed the 525 mark! 

Toujour du Monde

The blinds have been raised to 300 - 600 (600), and the 5th of 12 levels on the Day 1C program is underway. The number of entrants has risen to 220, with 172 players still seated at the tables of the Circus Casino Resort in Namur.

The average is 51,000 chips and Harrie Snijders (photo), Fabien Garcia, Tim Verheyen, Heni Mokni or Mihaita Georgita will have to try their luck again. Johann Mertens, who was eliminated from the Freezout once silver had been reached, has already jumped from this flight too!

The dinner break will take place at the end of level 6, between 7.30 and 8.45 pm... 

Tripick Time

It's aperitif time, level 6 is underway and the dinner break will start at the end of it. The dinner break will run from 7.30pm to 8.45pm...

Registration is open until the end of level 9, and the field continues to grow, with 241 entrants on Day 1C of the €550 Circus Cup. There are still 169 players in the running, with half an hour to go before the dinner break which symbolically marks the halfway point of the day. 

Almost halfway through the tournament, the average is 57,000 chips and Pel Nieuwenhuis (above) made his entrance a few minutes ago. The Winter 2024 winner cashed for over €90,000 in his landmark win, and has just arrived at the table with Thomas Alarcon, Philippe Riminucci, Raynald Coppin and Iryna Tsikhanskaya...

Thomas calls me to tell me about a squeeze with Ace-King that didn't work and left him at 1,300 chips as Iryna trapped him with 6 and 4 to climb to 100,000 chips. The Frenchman has since climbed back to 15,000 chips... Philippe recovered well from his bubble on the Freezout with 80,000 chips in front of him.

Dinner break

Resumption at 8.45pm on blinds 500 - 1000 (1000) with currently 166 players in the running for 252 registered! Taner Ahyan has lost the Ace-King flip to the queens and will be able to take his time and have dessert before probably re-entering.

Irina Tsikhanskaya lost some chips before the break, but not her smile...

Chipcount (average 60,000)
Ismail Kalkan 211,000
Edirlei Batista Dias 208,000
Francois Valdes 189,000
Haidar Mousa 183,000
Markus Gieser 156,000
Domenico Romano 142 000
Rui Da Costa 124 000
Raynald Coppin 126 000
Ercan Atmaca 124 000
Louis Vial 124 000

Nicolas Christiaens 123 000
Philippe Riminucci 116 000
Aldabert Buhl 115 000
Karim Ryadi 111 000
Ludovic Ruperto 107 000
Eric Vancraywinkel 106 000
Floris Pop 103 000
Patrick Schuhl 101 000
Cyril Fabre 87 000
Fred Blehaut 61 000

Daniel Tordjman 57 000
Tobias Peters 54 000
Pel Nieuwenhuis 48 000
Iryna Tsikhanskaya 30 000
Fabien Garcia 28 000
Johan Mertens 23 000
Philippe de Schepper 9 000

Back to top

Half an hour of play on blinds 500 - 1000 (1000) since the end of the dinner break, the board now shows 163 players in contention for 279 entrants... unsurprisingly, the Circus Cup is gradually turning into a massive event.


The average is 68,000 chips, and Laurent Michot from Paris is right on schedule with 85,000 chips, right next to Guy Goossens, who is in position.

Top 150

Registration is still open for a good hour and 150 players are competing in the 1000 - 1500 (1500) blinds on Day 1C of the Circus Cup.

There are 10 minutes left to play on level 8, and a break will take place at the end of level 9 to allow late buy-ins... so far theprovisional attendance for the third of the six opening days is 291 entries! 

The start of Day 1D has been delayed from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m., and this session will be contested on levels shortened by 20 minutes. Once again, you'll need to pass 12 levels to reach Day 2, with registration open for 9 levels until 1.20 a.m.!

That's more than 700 entries before two explosive qualifying sessions on Friday. 

300 incoming

Registrations have been slowing down for half an hour on this third qualifying session of the Circus Cup... with ten minutes to go before the 20-minute break that will mark the end of late registrations, the counter shows 296 entries. That should make 300+ all the same!

122 players are still in the running out of 1000 - 1500 (1500)... we'll take a look at the stacks during the final break... 

Last Push

The final break of Day 1C is underway, and play will resume in three minutes on blinds 1000 - 2000 (2000) with an average of 47 blinds...

The table shows 125 players for 301 entrants on this third starting flight of the Circus Cup guaranteeing a half-million euro prizepool. A German, Markus Giesen, took the lead with already 468,000 chips at 3 levels and two hours to go at poker .

Morgan Poisson gave up just before the break and will be back tomorrow on Day 1E, starting at 2pm... 

Chipcount
Markus Giesen 468 000
Benjamin Naffrechoux 346 000
Fred Blehaut 251 000
Fabien garcia 240 000
Haidar Mousa 220 000
Giovanni Camardella 216 000
Faycal Ait Ouccime 215 000
Christianus Lovrencevic 201 000
Philippe Riminucci 192 000
Gert Jan van der Linde 162 000
Reda Belkhou 162 000
Eric Vancraywinkel 162 000
Pel Nieuwenhuis 160 000
Laurent Michot 152 000
Guy Goossens 141 000
Philipp Meyer 133 000
Ralf Geens 126 000
Paul Covaciu 136 000
Nicolas Christiaens 122 000
Eskan Kumer 103 000
Domenico Romano 95 000
Mathias Moutaoukil 36 000

Top 100

With 18 minutes left to play on blinds 1000 - 2500 (2500), the field for Day 1C of the Circus Cup has just dropped to 100 players. It's level 11, the penultimate level of the day... 

Only a third of the 301 entrants remain on this third of six starting days for the opening event of the 2024 SPCs. With 470,000 chips Markus Giesen is always on top... Le Français Benjamin Naffrechoux (photo) is not far behind with over 300,000 pawns. 

Sprint

With 40 minutes left to play, the final level of Day 1C of the Circus Cup is underway. Play is going on at blinds 1500 - 3000 (3000) with 92 survivors from this field of 301 entrants.

The day is over for David Botty, who has just given up... like Patrick Schuhl, Nourdine Loulidi, Joseph Bardakji, Patrick Hutsch, Karim Ryadi, Theo Erkamps, David Olurebi, Alio Staes, Lukas Trzcinski and François Heine, he'll have to try his luck again on Friday to make it through to Day 2!

71 qualifiers on one day

Unsurprisingly, Day 1C is currently the busiest of the €550 Circus Cup starting sessions. With 301 entries, the third of six starting sessions for this €500,000 guaranteed event has been fully booked. 626 entries were registered at the end of Day 1C, ahead of a massive Day 1E on Friday from 2pm at Circus Casino Resort Namur. 

After 8 hours at poker, 71 players had completed the 12 40-minute levels... Enough to create a Provisional field of 151 players on Saturday, Day 2This is before the verdict of the last three starting days. 

In the lead for the last three hours, Markus Giesen didn't flinch, bagging up just over half a million chips and almost 13 times the starting stack.

Daniel Tordjman, Armand Muratoglu, Paul van Oort, Fred Blehaut or Gilles Magny have avoided playing again tomorrow. We're off to Turbo 1D, which is coming to an end! 

Partial Chipcount
Markus Giesen (photo) 503,000
Armand Muratoglu 446,000
Daniel Tordjman 402,000
Paul van Oort 380,000
Fabien Garcia 367,000
Oceccim Faycal 314 000
Fred Blehaut 314 000
Arthur Stachyra 297 000
Benjamin Naffrechoux 296 000
Gilles Magny 270 000

Guy Goossens 246 000
Ludovic Ruperto 240 000
Philippe Riminucci 238 000
Guillaume Tricoire 213 000
Haidar Mousa 209 000
Laurent Michot 199 000
Pel Nieuwenhuis 164 000
Angelo Aliberto 160 000
Harrie Snijders 114 000
Domenico Romano 113 000

Cedric Kedziora 102 000
Tobias Peters 94 000
Mathias Moutaoukil 78 000
Raynald Coppin 77 000