129 players enjoy a massive Day 1E

The fifth and penultimate starting day of the Circus Cup finally brought together 491 entrants, taking the prizepool to over €602,000 and tournament attendance to 1,333. Another great score for Namu!

At the end of the 12 40-minute levels and 8 effective hours of poker, 129 players had bagged chips. 291 players have validated a stack for Day 2, which kicks off on Saturday at 2pm on blinds 2000 - 4000 (4000). Around a hundred players are still hoping to join them at the end of Day 1F, on which there's still just over an hour to play... 

It was Germany's Siegfried Bund (photo) who bagged up 390,000 chips and finished top of the leaderboard on Day 1E... a far cry from the bosses of previous days. The German had a great time, and he told me that he spewed a huge chiplead in Aachen a few days ago...

Bund narrowly edged out Arno Coene (384,000), while Guillaume Navaro, Djamal Boutaleb, Claudio Guadagnino, Rene Franck, Yann Nasser and other regulars cleared the hurdle. Omar Lakhdari finished with 150,000 chips in the nick of time, doubling up Ace Jack against King Queen of Diamonds preflop. The dealer unpacked a Ten 8 2 flop with two diamonds before laying two bricks on the felt...

The BPC 2023 champion can still dream of one more big deep-run in Namur. Rui Dias Da Costa (353,000) finished strongly, taking out David Debue with three hands to go. Rui shook with preflop Jacks against 5s and 4s of diamonds from the 2015 WaSOP champion, who hit a flop with two diamonds, a 7 and an 8...

Partial chipcount 1E
Siegfried Bund 390,000
Arno Coene 384,000
Rui Dias Da Costa 353,000
Djamal Boutaleb 338,000
Luc Ta 291,000
Rene Franck 270,000
Karim Guelaz 266 000
Danny Ummels 265 000
Regis Oliveira 257 000
Claudio Guadagnino 236 000

Yann Nasser 225 000
Guillaum Navaro 221 000
Daniel Veloson 221 000
Lorenzo Furia 184 000
Omar Lakhdari 164 000
Andreas Gondrom 158 000
Steve Peeters 151 000
Luc Gillard 150 000
Samir Akhoullou 149 000
Lukas Trzcinski 122 000

Sebastien Bodson 129 000
Lionel Hamelryck 115 000
Abdel Chenoufi 112 000
Chris Rubbini 91 000
Gaetano Morecci 88 000
Cyril Fabre 40 000

Complete Chipcount 1E in the document belowbelow as soon as possible

73 players rob the Turbo, 364 players on Day 2

After 12 20-minute levels, it was Frenchman Yannis Bidard (pictured) who bagged up the chiplead and 311,000 chips on Day 1F, the final qualifying day of the €550 Circus Cup. 

With 186 additional entries on Day 6, the opening tournament of the CPS 2024 finally attracted 1,334 entrants for a prize pool of €602,701!

A total of 353 players bagged up chips for Day 2 at 2pm on Saturday. Rami Awad, Dominique Potenza, Greg Fournier, Miro Alilovic, Stephane Meo, Dennie Cordromp or Egemen Ohran validated their ticket for the rest of the competition on this last chance flight...

Partial Chipcount Day 1F
Yannis Bidard 311 000
Dennie Cordromp 245 000
cardenia 186 000
Marco Valente 155 000
Cees van den Griendt 153 000
Sami Agel 148 000
Ken Claessens 144 000
Egemen Ohran 124 000
Rami Awad 123 000
Raphael Istas 114 000
Gianni Lodi 108 000
Michael Becker 93 000
Thomas Jansen 86 000
Badre Luca Toni 81 000
Dominique Potenza 72 000
Miro Alilovic 71 000
Taner Ayhan 53 000
Yves Sergeant 45 000
Stephane Meo 38 000

1,334 entries in the Circus Cup, €600,033 to share

Seatdraw Day 2

90,000 to win, 9 CPS Main Event tickets for finalists

As 362 players open their bags at the Circus Casino Resort tables in Namur, the payout for the Circus Cup, which attracted 1,334 entrants, is announced. Jackpot for the champion who will pocket €90,000 and a €2,200 CPS Main Event ticket for a buy-in of €550!

199 places paid, it will probably take just under 3 hours on Day 2 to reach the ITM... good luck to the survivors! 

Top 20 at restart

Play will resume in a few seconds on blinds 2000 - 4000 (4000) with 362 players for 199 paid places and a min-cash of €850... here are the 20 most afficace players of the opening six days... 

Y'a de la Joie (or not)

Table 46... huge momentum for shorts at the start of Day 2... first of all Joy Waldau who 3-bets shove 37,000 chips after a late opening by his neighbor Yves Kupfermunz. The Belgian snaps with the Roix and faces Ace 5... an Ace on the flop pushes him into the red zone while the German reraises to 20 blinds on blinds 2000 - 4000 (4000). Yves will skip the time to write this article... 

Two minutes later, Leroy Aussems open-shove cutoff for 45,000 chips and 11 blinds. In the small blind Mustapha Al Sayegh wakes up with the jacks for an easy call. The Dutchman returns 6 and 2 of hearts and if he finds nothing on the flop, a 6 on the turn and a 6 river propels him to 25 blinds. Another Belgian on the wrong side at the start of the day! 

Play resumed 20 minutes ago and 28 players jumped to bring the field down to 334 survivors for an average of 159,000 chips. Antoine Vranken, Philippe Lima, Thomas Jansen, Mercedes Osti, Michal Kil, Guillaume Navaro (below), Sami Agel, Pieter Stragier, Fabien Nguyen, Najam Ghulam, Chris Rubbin, Walter van Camberg, Morten Faas and Mtanyos Obei have jumped. 

At the Gallows

With one minute left to play on the opening level, the field had already fallen to 300 players. 62 victims in 40 minutes, and Namur is still a lively place. 

"I couldn't take it anymore, he broke my head in 20 minutes", laughs Gregory Fournier after eliminating Dominique Potenza. "I don't know him," confides the Frenchman, visiting Namur for the third time! 

With 185,000 chips and an average of 175,000 chips in the 2000 - 5000 blinds (5000), Greg is in the right frame of mind to stay a little longer and keep himself coming back for more. Greg adjusted to local customs and opened Dame 8 suité, Dame Ouitre as they say here, and paid Dominique's big blind shove. Potenza sent in 6 blinds with King 3 suited but a Queen came on the flop. "I'm ahead," grumbled Dominique, who had qualified in-extremis on Turbo 1F... 





Among those eliminated are Carmine GIordano, Leroy Aussems, Xavier Servais, Cyril Fabre, Luc Gillard, Celine Diot, Yves Sergeant, Pascal Vos, Gaetan Lheureux or Anton Degline, Vincent Vinet and Gilles Masaud... So there are 300 in the running for 199 paid places! 

Top 275

With 8 minutes left to play in the 2000 - 5000 (5000) blinds, only 275 players remain in the running for the Circus Cup, which promises €90,000 for the winner and 9 CPS Main Event tickets at €2,200 for the runners-up.

The 199 paid places are approaching and it will be without Davy Huyst, Remco Verbakel, Fabien Perrot, Mohamed Razkou Allah, Raphael Islas, Nengming Wang, Moncef Karoui, Harrie Snijders, Lucas Derpin, Laurent Michot, Jean-Pierre Cruccas, Winter Namur winner Pel Nieuwenhuis, Jeroshan Rex or WSOP champion Tobias Peters.

Among the survivors, it's getting tough for Stéphane Meo, who has just two blinds left and no spot to put it all in. Sebastien Guidez (90,000) Rayane Moktavarium (50,000) and Miro Alilovic (80,000) also see the chopping block approaching.

For Van Tran (540,000), Rui Dias Da Costa (650,000), Erwin Vu Duc (430,000), Damien Hupé (460,000), Heni Mokni (420,000) and Quentin Destoky (340,000) are all on the right track... 

51 Je t'Aime

There are still 250 players in the running with 28 minutes to play on 3000 - 6000 (6000)... 51 players left to go out and secure 850€. Stéphane Meo has retired, as have Alain Fleurent, Karim Guelaz, Thierry Bay, Cees van de Griendt, Aldabert Buhl, Fedele Ricotta, Hans Zarfl, Sebastien Guidez, Dominique Woiry, Omar Lakhdari and Giovanni Camardella. Alexandru Sandu, Johannes Boeren, Tony Kiorpes, Antonio Gazziano and Antoine Cochet are also finished with the Cup... 

For those still dreaming of min-cash and the big deep-run, we find Paul van Oort nearing 600,000 chips after defending on an open from Mathias Moutaoukil. No action on 8 8 3 and the Dutchman check-raises the Jack on the turn to take the pot... the Frenchman drops to 150,000 chips.

Jordan Levy (515,000), Danny Ummels (400,000), Lukas Trzcinski (300,000), Raphael Canta (180,000), Siegfried Bund (235,000), Philippe Riminucci (440,000) and Gilles Magny (430,000) should at least make it through to the 199 paid places... 

Top 230

Level 15 ends in 10 minutes, and there will be a break afterwards. Plenty of time to breathe before the bubble! There are still 230 players in the running on blinds 3000 - 6000 (6000) with 199 places paid and therefore no right to happiness for Salvatore Alessi, Arno Coene (photo), Daniel Pastor, Luca Delfino, Egemen Ohran, Paschalis Papadopoulos, Martin Pahl, Yi Lin, Domenico Romano, Constantin Ifrim or Sandro Pitzanti...  Rayane Moktavarium just before the break. 

With an average of 228,000 chips, we meet again during the break for a checkpoint of the forces at work... 

Last break before the money

After three levels and two hours of poker, it's pase. There were 362 players on the starting line at the 2 p.m. restart...

Resuming at 4.35 p.m. on blinds 4000 - 8000 (8000) with 220 players for 199 paid seats and a €850 min-cash. Gert van der linde, Robert Auer, Duc Nguyen, Antoine Berruel, Tino de Zutter, Jean-Bernard Decharneux, Samir Akhoullou (photo), Daniel Tordjman and Erwan Pirotais jumped in just before the break... 

Chipcount (average 241,000)
Armand Muratoglu 840,000
Rui Dias Da Costa 730,000
Fabien Garcia 700,000
Wilhelmus Vosters 675,000
Paul van Oort 616,000
Lukas Trzcinski 565,000
Ludovic Ruperto 560,000
Gilles Magny 560 000
Heni Mokni 555 000
Jordan Levy 545 000

Alain Theisen 540 000
Yannis Bidard 530 000
Efe Levent 530 000
Ayhan Taner 530 000
Philippe Riminucci 520 000
Maxime Robin 500 000
Danny Ummels 490 000
Abdessamad Ayyad 465 000
Lukasz Ciechanowicz 465 000
Erwin Vu Duc 455 000

Damien Hupe 430 000
Yann Nasser 380 000
Denis Charlier 355 000
Guy Goossens 355 000
Artur Stachyra 345 000
Steven Vansenten 335 000
Daniel Veloson 325 000
Simon Duprat 320 000
Carina Voncken 303 000
Raphael Canta 280 000

Abdel Chenoufi 260 000
Siegfried Bund 235 000
Claudio Guadagnino 191 000
Mathias Moutaoukil 160 000
Kevin Pietquin 135 000
Miro Alilovic 120 000
Sebastien Dobson 80 000

Tension rises

The pace changed, with 12 exits in 20 minutes... the shorts tightened up, but that wasn't enough for Nam von Loon, Mahir Cirak, Sam Tropez, Maxime Henry, Joy Waldau, Mickael Decker, Ali Chaieb or Marcellus van der Wolf, who left empty-handed.

There are 208 players for 199 paid seats, and we meet again after the entry into the money. 22 minutes of play remain on 4000 - 800 (8000) with an average of 242,000 chips. 

The bubble for Bernd Roeser 

After 7 hand-for-hand deals and the switch to blinds 5000 - 10,000 (10,000), the bubble burst. The field had shrunk from 201 to 200 players by the time the floor announced this special period half an hour earlier... Efe Levent had a short stack doubled up, his Ace-King finding no help against the Queens of a less well-stocked player.

Down to 17 blinds, with Ace-Queen, Efe went 3-bet shove from the blinds on an open on the button fromEric Boge. Eric returns the Aces to reduce the field to 200 players. 

There were 362 players at the start of Day 2, and it took 2 hours 30 of poker to reach the pure bubble. After several double-ups, it was finally Bernd Roeser (below) who was the only one to jump in a hand with four all-ins & calls. Yoann Nigro tripled up, Amadeus Janotta doubled up, as did Anthony Dasbourg (above) and we end with showdown between Bernd and Yannis Bidard. The Frenchman has 3-bet big blind shove with Ace 4 suit following the German's open on the button... who pays with Kings.

An Ace Jack Ten flop followed by two bricks clears the room. With 10 minutes to go before a break, only 175 players remain. The traditional post-bubble hecatomb proved fatal for Mathias Moutaoukil, eliminated by Danny Ummels, and Greg Fournier, who put his 9 blinds straight from sb with 9 and 7 suite to lose to King-Queen in the big blind... 

Le Replay de la Bulle

Reprise

Play resumes with 161 players guaranteed €920... there's still €546,000 in the pot to share!

The blinds are now 5000 - 15 000 (15000) with an average of 329 000 chips. Last woman standing, Carina Voncken still believes. "I've got 175,000 chips, a double-up and I've got the average," motivates the Dutchwoman at the start of Day 2, which began with 362 players at 2pm at the Circus Casino Resort in Namur... 

Chipcount
Paul van Oort 1,050,000
Paul Covaciu 960,000
Lukas Trzcinki 950,000
Eric Boge 925,000
Van Tran 900,000
Armand Muratoglu 900,000
Artur Stachyr 815 000
Wilhelmus Vosters 790 000
Gilles Magny 780 000
Simon Duprat 705 000

Kjell de Meulemeester 700 000
Mathieu Rigolot 660 000
Rene Middleberg 650 000
Miro Alilovic 620 000
Danny Ummels 600 000
Michel Zangardi 525 000
Philippe Riminucci 480 000
Kader Slila 450 000
Koray Akguel 405 000
Yannis Bidard 375 000
Bart de Roever 350 000

Sebastien Bodson 250 000
Lorenzo Furia 180 000
Carina Voncken 175 000

Streaming

Day 2 live with cards revealed... Aliosha Staes and Damien Hupé are at this table, with the blinds at 5,000 - 15,000 (15,000) and 161 players left to play out of the 1,334 who started. The remaining players will share just over €546,000! 

850€ and the door

3 Digits

A plateau, but not 4 figures, for these players who held out for at least a few minutes after the bubble burst. Finito for Daniel Veloson, Tonio Ruggiu, Fabri Cardenia, Anthony Dasbourg, Lionel Hamelryck, Patrick Zallum, Mihai Stinca, Frederic Simon, Sebastien Matrige, Lorenzo Furia, Giovanni Ventura, Jordan Levy, Julien Montois, Abdel Chenoufi or even Kevin Pietquin...

On the live side, the game is played on 5,000 - 15,000 (15,000) for another 10 minutes, and only 125 are left, with an average of 424,000... The 70-minute dinner break takes place at the end of the next level, from 8.35pm to 9.40pm.

Between Men

With the exit of Carina Voncken, there are no women left in this €550 Circus Cup... There are still 113 players in the running, with 35 minutes to go before the dinner break. The blinds are 10,000 - 15,000 (15,000) and Paul van Oort has 1.8 million in chips, leading the proceedings, while the average is 470,000. 

There's still €498,000 to be shared in the pot, with a first prize of €90,000... but it won't be for Danny Ummels or Dennie Cordromp...

Pause imminent

There are still 95 players in the running with just a few minutes to go before the dinner break. The average chip count has climbed to 559,000 and Paul van Oort is still in the lead. Raphael Canta missed the cut-off, so all survivors are guaranteed a €1,290 payout... 

Dinner Break

Resumption at 9:30 p.m. with 91 players in the Circus Cup... The survivors will share €473,000 but are guaranteed only €1,290. 

The game resumes at blinds 10,000 - 20,000 (20,000) with 583,000 average chips... and a Paul van Oort well ahead. 





Chipcount
Paul van Oort 2,530,000
Miro Alilovic 1,675,000
Artur Stachyra 1,225,000
Armand Muratoglu 1 75,000
Joseph Bardakji $1,175,000
Alexandru Matei $1,175,000
Rene Middleberg $1,150,000
Paul Covaciu 1,100,000
Alexander Thiel 1,100,000
Abdessamad Ayyad 1,050,000

Simon Duprat 975,000
Dylan Gessel 975,000
Emile Custinne 950,000
Erwin Vu Duc 915,000
Guy Goossens 900,000
Jani Tuivonen 900,000
Cedric Kedziora 880,000
Eric Boge 830,000
Lesley van Overdijk 820,000

Rui Dias Costa 800,000
Alain Theisen 760,000
Elmar Schueti 700,000
Kjell de Meulemeester 700,000
Amir Pahlawani 660,000
Claudio Guadagnino 605,000
Mohamed Mangroe 600,000
Yannice Bahri 575,000
Lukas Trzcinski 570,000
Michel Zangardi 550,000

Jhonn Lienard 530,000
Giuseppe Pitruzella 525,000
Jordy Engelen 420,000
Kevin Mad Max 415,000
Steven Vansenten 380,000
Rami Awad 370,000
Marco Valente 350,000
Mathieu van Dezande 280,000
Julien Pincemaille $250,000
Quentin Destoky 200,000

Ahyan Taner 200,000
Yoann Nigro 80,000

Another 5 Levels

It's already been 15 minutes of play in the 10,000 - 20,000 blinds (20,000) since the restart, and they're down to 82 after the exit of Rachid Oufaska on a flip. The Dutchman's Ace Dame was no match for the Luxembourger's Jacks. Rui Da Costa. The latter exults and climbs to 1.4 million chips for an average of 647,000 counters... enough to explain his big shout at the end of a board height Ten, all under the eyes of a Rami Awad still alive with fifteen blinds. 





Taner Ayhan has given up the ghost since the post-dinatory recovery. Finito too for Pieter Bosmans and Julien Pincemaille on this Level 20... we're going to play until the end of Level 24 on this Circus Cup where the last 199 players in the running have started to share €600,033! 

Acceleration

There are 68 players left in the 10,000 - 25,000 blinds (25,000), with 32 minutes of play on this level 21. The average has risen to 800,000 chips, withAndreas Gondrom, David Kahan and Heni Mokni all finishing the tournament. 

Ouch

Aliosha Staes ' endless run came to a halt just outside Belgium. The WPO Bratislava winner came up against Artur Stachyra... he was ahead of the pack, going all-in with 225,000 chips from the blinds on King Ten 3. Staes revealed King Ten and faced King Queen, a Queen right on the turn sending him into the rail in 64th place for €1,465. Stachyra pockets this pot of 25 blinds and climbs to 2.4 million.

Paul van Oort sits down to replace Alio... with €2.8 million and the Circus Cup chiplead. Joseph Bardakji also arrives, but with 800,000 chips, the average.

Emile Custinne, Erwin Vu Duc and Ludovic Ruperto are in the million-dollar gang. CS van de Griendt, Abdessamad Ayyad and Damien Hupe are sailing with half as much, but still there.

63 players remain with 15 minutes to go before blinds rise to 15,000 - 30,000 (30,000)... we've lost Kader Slila, Jhonn Lienard and Kristof Everaerts...

Top 60

Another half-hour of play on 15,000 - 30,000 (30,000) and that will be the final break of Day 2. There are still two levels left, heading for the Final Day, which will be contested over 50-minute levels.

There are still 58 players in the running, and Dylan Gessel (pictured) has just moved up to 1.3 million chips for an average of 930,000. The Dutchman's Aces held on a King high flop againstAmir Pahlawani 's King Jack, which falls back to 1 million.

Gessel has the tournament chipleader to his right, Paul van Oort (3.4 million), and runner-up Artur Stachyra (2.5 million) directly opposite. There's some action at this table as just behind Gessel's double-up it's Joseph Bardakji who finds himself on the wrong end of an Ace-As-King-King encounter.

The Frenchman couldn't find any Kings and fell back to 450,000 chips, while Belgium's Michele Zangardi took the opportunity to climb to 550,000. 

Action Table(s)

The chips keep moving at Paul van Oort's table. Joseph Bardakji hasn't recovered from his Kings and has joined the rail... and a big pot ensues between Artur Stachyra (pictured) and Amir Pahlawani. The duo find themselves on a 9 7 4 2 Ten board and there are 1.3 million chips in the middle. Amir checks and Artur goes all-in from the button.

The German quickly pays for 640,000 chips and tables Ace 7 of spades when Artur can't reveal anything better than King Jack of spades. Pahlawani climbs to 2.4 million, with chipleader Paul van Oort at 3.4 million just to his left. 

At the table just behind, things were also moving, with players shocked by Koray Akguel's moove. The latter opened under the gun and 4-bet shove 600,000 counters after David Hu's 200,000-chip 3-bet. The Dutchman sanp'd and his ace-king held to propel him to 2.1 million. Quite a dinner-break comeback for David, who made it times 6!

Yann Nasser is just to his left, witnessing Lukas Trzcinski 's double-up open-shove from the button. Lukas' King 6 hits a 6 on the flop to beat the big blind's pair of 2s... heading for 600,000 chips for Trzcinski with 13 minutes to go before the break and 51 players still in contention.

On this table, Hakin Boutarene is the lieutenant with 1.4 million chips... still better than the 400,000 of Markus Giesen who started Day 2 with the chiplead. 

Last Break

Play resumes at 11:45pm on blinds 20,000 - 40,000 (40,000). The 46 survivors are guaranteed €1,700, and are about to embark on two 40-minute levels...

The average is 1.1 million and Rene Middleberg has taken the lead with 3.8 million. One player didn't believe his 3-bet and went all in with a mismatched Ace 8... enough to pay serenely with the Aces and cash in.

There's still €408,000 to go on this Circus Cup with a final prizepool of €600,033. The average st at 1.1 million chips for returning players...

Chipcount
Rene Middleberg 3 800 000
Paul van Oort 3 425 000
Simon Duprat 2 450 000
David Hu 2 200 000 (photo)
Elmar Schueti 2 200 000
Amir Pahlawani 2 100 000
Dylan Gessel 1 900 000
Wilhelmus Volters 1 800 000
Djamal Boutaleb 1 700 000
Rui Dias 1 500 000
Erwin Vu Duc 1 400 000
Artur Stachyra 1 400 000
Hakin Boutarene 1 300 000
Abdessamad Ayyad 1 250 000
Paul cavaciu 1 100 000
Paul Minzariu 1 050 000
Navid Saberin 1 000 000
Yann Nasser 950 000
Guy Goossens 500 000
Lukas Trzcinski 450 000
Damien Hupe 315 000
Rami Awad 200 000

Top 40

There are 10 minutes left on 20,000 - 40,000 (40,000), the penultimate level of this Day... and we've just passed a milestone as the last eliminated player was the last to cash in €1,700. There are now 39 players who will pocket at least €1,950...

RuiDa Costa is having the time of his life. He's just passed a big flip after 3-bet shove an open fromAlexandru Matei. The Romanian snaps with queens and hits a Jack Queen 2 flop to put himself well ahead. With Ace-King, Rui calls the Ten but a 9 appears on the turn. The river makes Rui exult for the second time of the evening, the Ten of Spades gives him a straight and raises him to 2.4 million.

"Pussy, you're allowed to have pussy", adds the Luxembourger before concluding with a magnificent "a bit of sunshine in my garden". Poker passion in Namur as Day 3 of this Circus Cup approaches! 

A few seconds later, at the next table, it's Frank Blumenfeld who puts on his jacket in a blinds battle. The Frenchman goes all-in, remains seated but puts on his jacket to stay ahead of Paul van Oort's ace-2 suiter. No Aces on the board and the Frenchman reraises to 950,000 chips for an average of 1.3 million. PvO is still in second place with over 3 million with less than 50 minutes to go before bagging... Rene M is up to 3.7 million!

If Frank doubles up, he also takes the extra €250, since at the other end of the room it's Claudio Guadagnino who finally gives up in 40th place... 

Money Time

With 20 minutes left to play on Day 2, the shots are worth a ton... Djamal Boutaleb has just climbed to 2 million, while 34 players remain, averaging 1.5 million on blinds 25,000 - 50,000 (50,000).

In Table TV, Miro Alilovic tanked for 7 minutes on Ace Ten 8 Queen Ten and ended up check-folding his Ace King when he was confronted with a bet fromArmand Muratoglu. The Frenchman turned over the Queens to raise to 1.9 million, a little less than Miro... Gilles Magny also has nearly 2 million at the table. 

At the outside tables, after having been next to Damien Hupé (who has two blinds, editor's note) for a while, Rami Awad fell in 39th place. The Egyptian fell with ace-valet against ace-king to Rui Dias, now in possession of 2.7 million in bankroll. 

A nice stack well above that of his Luxembourg compatriot Navid Saberin. Saberin rinsed Guy Goossens (above)... the Belgian joined the rail in 35th place with a pair and a flush draw against Saberin's top pair...

It's not all doom and gloom for Belgium, even though Erwin Vu Dufinally fell to 37th place in a big pot against Alain Theisen. The Belgian climbs to 3 million just before the gong! 

5 Last Hands

The clock is running down on Day 2 of the Circus Cup, with 31 players still in contention at the start of the final 5 rounds of the evening. Christophe Ubbelohde (34th), Mathieu Rigolot (33rd) and Damien Hupé gave up their weapons for €1,950... 

29 players on Final Day, another €376,600 in the prizepool

The exit of Sébastien Dobson (30th) at the TV table was the last of a Day 2 that began with 362 players out of the 1,334 who entered. It took just under three hours of play to keep all 199 players in the money... at the end of 12 levels of 40 minutes, only 29 players remained assured of a €2,220 prize.

The big money is still a long way off, but the €90,000 first prize has never seemed so close for the big stacks. There's still €376,600 to be shared, which doesn't include the 9 €2,200 CPS Main Event tickets for the 9 finalists.

The day ended without Lukas Trzcinski (31st), who put up 14 blinds with Ten and 6 of diamonds to impale himself on the Kings ofAbdessamad Ayyad, a German who had already won a Main Event here in Namur a few years ago. 

It was another German who finished in the lead, Amir Pahlawani (photo) . The latter capitalized at the end after a big call against a player who rolled over on Day 2 but ended up a little further back, Artur Stachyra. Pahlawani will have 3,775,000 chips when he resumes play on 30,000 - 60,000 (60,000), Sunday at 2pm on 50-minute levels.

Amir came into his own in Namur with some interesting deep-runs, but often exploded in mid-air. With nearly $200,000 in earnings on the circuit over the last 15 years and a best score dating back to 2010, Amir has a good opportunity to prove himself solid.

He'll have to be wary, though, as he'll come up against a number of regulars on the stakes circuit. BPC runner-up Miro Alilovic from France is still there, as are Dutchmen David Hu and Paul van Oort.

Belgium's Alain Theisen has done well, and France's Simon Duprat has been very strong since Day 1C... Spirit finalist Ludovic Ruperto is in fine form, as is Djamal Boutaleb, who won the Big Tuesday... this fine bunch will be back on Sunday to do battle, and Armand Muratoglu, Yann Nasser, Rui Dias and Wilhelmus Vosters will all be hoping to join the party.