Damien Hupé's Dream

Still in the CPS Main Event at midday, Damien Hupé is at the bottom of the leaderboard... but he's got a huge smile on his face as he's just won the €5,300 EPT Prague seat offered by the Circus Casino Resort in Namur.

The Poker One boss had already planned his trip to the Czech capital, so he won't have to pay his entry fee for the season-ending Main Event on the European Poker Tour!

At the break of the Main Event, Tournament Director Adrien Cauchie presided over the draw. We already had to fill the table for this flash 9... and it took a long time. But what a pleasure it was to see enthusiastic players, happy as kids to be able to play for the pleasure of the game. 

Each player taking part in the Circus Cup, Main Event, Mystery Bounty and High-Roller of the Circus Poker Series received one ticket per buy-in for the draw. The number of tickets was doubled for entries on Day 1a of each event, so there were a ton of tickets in the ballot box as each tournament exceeded its guarantee.

The first seat had to be taken about ten times before it filled up- absentees are always wrong! Quentin Destoky, Alfred bacquelaine, Tom Dingenen, André Otten missed the bus to Prague and it was finally Ismail Kalkan who was the first to take his seat. He was called twice during the draw, but the candidates were only entitled to one place in the final.

Adrien got down to business and continued his Mr Loyal duties... and the lucky ones from Namur didn't answer the call. Djamal Boutaleb, Mihai Stinca, Bryan de Riddere, Ugo Faggioli, Erwin Vu Duc, Mitch Vulperhorst (3 times [!]) were not present at the draw.

Cheryl de Paron will also be missing three times!

Damien Hupé went on to claim the winning seat 2 ticket. He'll be called once again, proving that he was a success and that he'll have to hang on to get out of the main tournament offering €200,000 to the champion... and a €5,300 EPT Prague ticket courtesy of PokerStars! Damien can't take two, and if he goes all the way the runner-up will be entitled to an additional consolation prize on top of his 6-figure winnings.

André Otten, Salvatore Alessi, Abdessamad Ayyad and Benjamin Fesquet also missed the Crazy pineapple call, and the Flash table eventually filled up little by little. Mathias de Meulder will be the last to be called!

Seat 1: Ismail Kalkan
Seat 2: Damien Hupé
Seat 3: Luka Bojovic
Seat 4: Cornelis van Gent
Seat 5: Guy Goossens
Seat 6: Matthias van der Perre
Seat 7: Dove Monaco
Seat 8: Amaury Marie Chalon
Seat 9: Mathias de Meulder

The 9 players were ready for this freeroll with a €5,300 name ticket for Prague... they were going to receive three cards, one of which will have to be returned to the dealer after the flop...

The dealer unwraps a King 5 3 flop, placed behind Dovidio Monaco we see him return 4 6 7 for a wrap, he logically returns the 7 while Damien at the other end of the table keeps 3 and 7 of spades for a backdoor flush and an improbable straight.

The dealer then unwraps a 4 on the turn and a 6 on the river to give Dovidio two pair, but above all a straight to Damien. Let's goooo!

Damien Hupé is still holding 10 blinds with 30 Main Event survivors...

Already crowded on the 6-Max

The €1,100 Event #40 at the end of the CPS festival started an hour late to allow players to take part in the draw for the €5,300 EPT Prague ticket, eventually won by Damien Hupé. 

Since then, as Level 2 draws to a close, the guarantee has almost been wiped out. There are 89 players left for 94 entrants, and there's already €89,000 in the pot. With 5 minutes to play on 100 - 200 since the first hour of play was without ante... 

The game will be played entirely on 30-minute levels, with 12 levels and 6 hours of play on Day 1. Day 2 will resume at blinds 1500 - 3000 (3000) on Sunday at 1pm. 

Late check-ins are permitted for 9 levels, around 23:00 on Day 1. The dinner break is normally scheduled for the end of level 8, which pushes it back to between 9 and 10.20 p.m... perhaps it will be modified later and brought forward? 

Warranty expired

Registrations and re-entries are authorized until the end of level 9 on Event #40 6-Max €1,100 of the CPS... that is, until a few minutes before 11pm. 

At the moment, 88 players are competing in blinds 400 - 800 (800), with a lot of movement already in this two-day tournament with 30-minute levels. 

The entry list includes CPS festival sharks Paul-François Tedeschi, Alexis Lucarini, Fabian Bartuschk, Luka Bojovic, Christophe and Matthias de Meulder, Robin Fore, Nicolas Faure, Samuel Bovy, Sergio Benso, Wouter Beltz, Philippe Bara, Swafwane Bahri and Salvatore Alessi. 



EPT finalist Franck Kalfon came from Paris, as did Arnaud Peyroles, Jeroshan Rajakumar and Nicolas Faure. Charly Mouline, Dovidio Monaco, Anne Trebitsch, Radu Pitic, Antoine Vranken and Fabrice SOmers are also in the dance. 

Argentina's Maria Lampropoulos is also trying her luck at this tournament. prizepool has already ballooned to over €137,000 ! 

€156,585 in the prize pool

Registration is closed for Event #40 CPS 6-Handed at €1,100 per entry... the table now shows 68 players in the running for 165 entrants! 

With the €100,000 guarantee behind them, players will share €156,585 over the course of Sunday's Day 2, which gets underway at 13:00 on 1500 - 3000 (3000). 

Players are in contention for three more half-hour levels, and the average is 73,000 chips. Here are a few stacks just before the start of level 10...



Chips
Philippe Bara 225,000
Mark Roovers 175,000
Romain Le Dantec $170,000
Dovidio Monaco 152,000
Alexis Lucarini 150,000
Nicolas Faure 130,000
Christoph Rech 130,000
Quentin Thavisouk 130,000
Pierre Neuville 125,000
Francesco Pillitteri 120,000
Octavian Ripan 110,000
Mathias Moutaoukil 90,000
maria Lampropoulos 88,000
PF Tedeschi 87,000
Damien Hupe 75,000
Anne Trebitsch 55,000
Eric Geraume 50,000
Franck Kalfon 46,000
Salvatore Alessi 40,000
Samuel Tebege 37,000
Kader Slila 31,000
Guy Goosens 31,000
Fred Hebette 20,000
Piotr Nurzynski 20,000
Raoul Refos 12,000

35,240€ to be won to finish on a high note

Just under an hour to go on Day 1 of Event #40 of the CPS, with 53 players competing in blinds 1000 - 2000 (2000). 

With 20 minutes left to play on the penultimate level of the evening, averaging 46 blinds, the payout has been announced. 

The champion will end this CPS festival with a smile, a trophy and a cheque for €35,240. The final 4 tournament survivors will turn their buy-in into a 5-figure result... all finalists are guaranteed a €7,440 payout. 

With 23 places paid, the min-cash will bring €2,020...



Payout Event #40 6-Max des CPS (165 entrants - €156,750 prizepool)
Winner - €35,240
Runner Up - €22,895
3e - 16 370€
4e - 12 580€
5e - 9 675€
6e - 7 440€

7e - 6 050€
8e - 5 040€
9e - 4 250€

10th and 11th €3,690
12th and 13th - €3,205
14th and 15th - €2,805
16th and 17th - €2,485
18th to 20th - €2,205
21st to 23rd - €2,020

De Doncker Takes Control

A pot of almost 200,000 gives Loic de Doncker the tournament lead with 15 minutes to go on Day 1!

Loic opens with 5,500 chips and Romain le Dantec 3-bets to 15,000 from the button. It's paid out of position... and there's no action on a 2 2 3 flop.

On turn 4, Loic check-calls 21,000 chips to uncover a river 4. Loic checks again, this time for 65,000!

The WSOP winner then flips Kings... and Loic slams 5 and 6 suit for a straight on the turn with a scary river double up. This double up probably saved Romain too... the duo are at the top of the table as 45 players go into the final 3 hands of this opening day of Event #40. 

De Doncker takes 42 players to Day 2, €35,240 to win on Sunday



After 6 effective hours of poker and 12 30-minute levels, 43 of the 165 entrants to Event #40 of the €1,100 CPS have qualified for Day 2, which begins at 1pm on Sunday. 

Play resumes at blinds 1500 - 3000 (3000), with the aim of reaching 23 paid places and taking a share of the €156,750 prize pool. With 326,000 chips and the only stack above 100 blinds among the survivors, Loïc de Doncker will start from pole position. 

Romain le Dantec, Mathias Moutaoukil, Mohamed Taabouni, Philippe Bara, Pierre Neuville and Kader Slila have all booked their tickets for Day 2, which is set to get off to a Fast & Furious start! 

See you at 13:00 for the rest of the competition... 

Chipcount Day 1
Loic de Doncker 326,000
Philippe Bara 225,000
Jan Bobbaers 200,000
Mathias Moutaoukil 195,000
Robin Fore 187,000
Dylan Royer 176,000
Brendan Leetz 168,500 
Romain le Dantec 168,000
Piotr Nurzynski 156,000
Mohamed Taabouni 144,500 

Badre Al Ghouch 140,000
Quentin Thavisouk 139,500
Alexis Lucarini 137,500
Hoa Nguyen 135,000
Benjamin Celaudoux 134,500
Nicolas Faure 131,000
Jeremy Gaisne 131,000
Kader Slila 130,000
Iurii Brechalov 126,500
Wim Verhaegen 118,000

Damien Hupé 116,000
Octavian Ripan 115,000
Axel Bevers 104,000
Toyser 104,000
Duc Tran 99,500
Dovidio Monaco 99,000
Matthias de Meulder 89,500
Mark Roovers 88,000
Cornelis van Gent 86,500
Ken Claessens 83,500

Bernardus van Horssen 83,000
Thijs Hilberts 82,500
Pierre Neuville 75,500
Serafim Kovalevskiy 73,000
Kevin Fluegel 62,500
Mustafa Wardak 60,000
Fred Hebette 52,500
Anne Trebitsch 49,500
Fabian Bartuschk 48,500
Franck Kalfon 43,500

Samuel Bovy 41,000
Lars Vogel 39,500
Maxim Bevers 17,000

Payout Event #40 6-Max des CPS (165 entrants - 156 750€ prizepool)
Winner - 35 240€
Runner Up - 22 895€
3rd - 16 370€
4th - 12 580€
5th - 9 675€
6th - 7 440€

7th - 6 050€
8th - 5 040€
9th - 4 250€

10th and 11th 3 690€
12th and 13th - 3 205€
14th and 15th - 2 805€
16th and 17th - 2 485€
18th to 20th - 2 205€
21st to 23rd - 2 020€