Start at 4 p.m. for Day 1G, then from 10 p.m. for Day 1H Turbo. 

2,310 entries have been counted so far after 6 of the 8 starting days... 403 players have qualified for Day 2, starting Saturday at 2pm in blinds 5000 - 10,000 (10,000)... 

Foule Namuroise

250 players already registered with half an hour to go, and 300 players seated on Day 1G, the penultimate day of a Winter Festival Main Event already boasting over 2,600 players. Last year's record is about to be broken, and we're heading for 3,000+! 

Play begins at blinds 100 - 200 for the tournament's only no-ante level. 15 levels of 30 minutes each are on the program for this seventh opening day. 

Half a million! 

All three rooms at poker are in use, with 366 registrations and 364 players seated. There are still plenty of people at the cash desks on this penultimate day of the MainEvent Winter... the prizepool has climbed to €541,000.

400+

The antes have made their appearance, the blinds are 100 - 300 (300). 35 minutes of play and still two outs with 407 players seated at the tables of the Circus Casino Resort in Namur for 409 entrants at the start of Day 1G. 

Keep Growing

446 players seated at the tables, 450 in at the moment, while registration is open until the end of the 9th level, at around 10.20 p.m... and there are still people at the cash desk.

Day 1G got off to a strong start, with the record 2,876 entries in 2023 already almost wiped out. 

Rico Chevalot, Denis Charlier, Ann Roos Callens, Aziz Kendel, Paul van Oort, Samuel Bovy, Vanessa Arnold, Farid Azarkan, Laurent Barrague, Taner Ayhan, Simon Bouaksa, Steeve Daulon, Sébastien Guidez, Jeff Hemmer, Morgan Poisson and Pascal Libert and Constantin Ifrim are all in the game...

Stephane Figoni, Leo Tocque, Alexandra Quach, Regis Eisenstein and Claudine Couppe represent the poker Parisian contingent, as do a number of Frenchmen including Aurelio Martin Garcia, Elie Payan, Jeremy Pinson and Fabien Perrot...

Record broken

80 minutes of play, it's still level 3 and 490 players are currently competing on Day 1G for 502 entries. It's official: the WInter 2024 has passed the 2,800-entry mark and the record attendance of the previous edition, with the first 6 starting days already attracting 2,310 entries. 

Noémie Gujan has come to warm up before the Florida Fury, and Dang Nguyen has also just arrived. Mathieu Desmet and Aymeric Dolignon are trying their luck again, as is Michel Fajga... Everyone's here, and with over 500 unique players in the Circus Casino Resort, attendance is set to soar even higher! 

The prizepool rose to €573,000! 

Toujours Plus

Level 4 began with Samuel Bovy all-in. Samuel bet big from the big blind on Ten 8 7 rainbow and nobody let up with a call from the player under the gun and a call from Badre Al Ghouch on the button. On the 6 of hearts turn, which opens a flush draw, Samuel goes all-in and the button is the most reluctant to give up his cards...

This confirms a good start for Bovy, who is up to 75,000 pawns with the blinds now at 200 - 400 (400). The table shows 550 players in the running for 569 entries on this penultimate flight! 

Noah Alem, Patrick Aerts, last year's runner-up Fabio d'Annolfo, Cristian Bogdan, Dario Falco, Joao Brito, Cyril Jacquin, Moncef Karoui or Nafaoui are on hand... 

Say 600

Eight minutes before the end of the fourth level of the day and the first break, the counter has just reached 603 entrants. 562 players are in the running and Loic Xans has already gone to the bar.

"I've played 5 minutes, I've raised 15,000, let's have a drink", he says, taking his break early. Tripick round one!


Jean Yip, Axel Santoni, Gilles Magny, Roberto Mauro, Talolo Sayag are now on track, while Mike Nigho will make his entrance after the break. Busto for Claudine Couppé who went all in with Top Pair and a color draw with her Ace Queen of Diamonds... her opponent had three of a kind and she didn't hit!

Break

573 players on break for 620 registered on Day 1G! Resuming on 400 - 800 (800) after a well-deserved break for staff and participants. 

Runner-up of the 2023 edition, Fabio d'Annolfo had a shorter break, calling time for his opponent who ended up folding to Queen 4 9 Jack 3 with a double flush draw on the turn and a heart flush draw present as soon as the flop re-entered river. Faio bet 23,000 in 35,000 to get a fold and reach the break with 96,000 chips. At this table, WSOP winner Elie Payan (17,000) and Philippe Dhont (65,000)...

Fabien Perrot has the starting stack of 50,000 chips, and has just arrived. Franck Greaux, who was probably there from the start, took the lead with 268,000 at the break! 

Chips
Franck Greaux 268,000
Igoris Barkagnas 165,000
Michl van Wissen 160,000
Sikma Gerber 145,000
Lionel Hamelryck 134,000
Fabio d'Annolfo 96,000
Morgan Poisson 72,000
Samuel Bovy 68,000
Fabien Perrot 50,000
Jeff Hemmer 40,000
Elie Payan 17,000

Restart

Play resumed about ten minutes ago, with 574 players now in the running for 633 entries. The teams at Circus Casino Resort in Namur are doing everything they can to get as many players as possible into the tournament as quickly as possible... 

The average is 55,000 chips in blinds 400 - 800 (800)...

602,000€ prize pool

A quarter of an hour of play since the resumption and the Winter Festival Main Event prize pool has passed the €600,000 mark!

The table now shows 592 players in the running for 661 entrants, as players continue to come in... Quentin Thavisouk and Prash Knight made their appearance at the Circus Casino Resort in Namur. 

Pietro Amoroso, Mark Baas, Hacine Chatteur, Johann Compagnon, Heidi Croone, Dennie Cordromp and Robin Cornet are there too! 

Split Dinner

In view of the crowds, and for everyone's comfort, the lunch break is split into two groups. 

The first group will take a break at the end of level 6, starting at 7.30pm. This group, comprising tables 18 to 46, will resume at 8.45pm to compete in levels 600 - 1200 (1200) and 800 - 1600 (1600). 

The second group, comprising tables 1 to 17, 50 & 51 and 101 to 124, will play 8 levels before taking a 75-minute break. This break will run from 8.30pm to 9.45pm. 

The junction will take place on level 9 and blinds 1000 - 2000 (2000), from 9.45pm for the last level of late registration. 

Say 700, Say 3,000

The 700 mark is passed 10 minutes before the end of level 6. Tournament tops 3,000 entries!

The blinds are 400 - 800 (800) and the first group will go for a dinner break at the end of this level while the second group will play two more levels before going for a meal. 570 players are currently in the running, so there are still some new players at the Circus Casino Resort cashier... 

Dinner break

The first half of the field is on a dinner break until 8:45 p.m., when it will return to play the 600 - 1200 (1200) and 800 - 1600 (1600) levels.

The other half continues to play and will go on a dinner break at 8:30 p.m...

At the start of this shared dinner break, the table showed 581 players in the running for 740 entrants! Big hood day for the staff...

Paye Ta Crêpe

For Candlemas, the Circus Casino Resort in Namur decided to offer its customers a crêpe... and most of the players enjoyed a sweet crêpe in the freeroll! 

Checkpoint (I)

The second group will play for another 15 minutes before taking a dinner break until 9.45pm. Meanwhile, the first group will return to play the two identical levels... 

The table shows 574 players for 789 entries and a €630,000 prizepool !

Here are some stacks of players currently on break, those who have only played 6 levels and stopped after 500 - 1000 (1000). 

Chips 
Franck Greaux 267,000
Melvin Maes 182,000
Fabrrce Somers 180,000
David Janssen 166,000
Henrique Tiago 161,000
Yoann Anselme 
Robert Janssen 142,000
Badre AL Ghouche 140,000
Sébastien Guidez 135,000
Yann Truchot 132,000
Michael Schellenbeck 128,000
Stehane Vincent 123,000
Daniel Woessner 117,000
Vincent Touil 114,000
Joel Sart 113,000
Jeremy Pinson 106,000
Fabio d'Annolfo 72,000
Morgan Poisson 66,000
Samuel Bovy 65,000
Elie Payan 40,000

Dinner break (II)

The second group's Dinner Break begins after 8 levels at poker, these players will return to 1000 - 2000 (2000) at 9.45 p.m., when they join the first group, which has just finished its dinner break and is currently playing on level 600 - 1200 (1200)...

The table now shows 558 survivors for 799 entrants! We meet again at 9.45 p.m. for reunification and the end of the dinner break...



Chips
Vincent de Neve 313,000
Paul Tielens 208,000
Gerardus van Veene 204,000
Giel Timmers 204,000
David Nolle 197,000
Dominique Potenza 192,000
Hartmut Dettmar 182,000
Yannick Bornebroek 171,000
Bjorn Vereecke 166,000
Paul van Oort 152,000
Mike Nieuwenhuis 145,000
Ronald van Bergen 144,000
Christophe Lohman 143,000
Jay Hoebe 135,000
Philipp Montreal 135,000
Robin Cornet 130,000
Davyd Huyst 121,000
Fred Renard 113,000
Karim Ghiatt 104,000
Heidi Croone 92,000
Mike Niegho 90,000
Xavier Servais 90,000
Rico Chevalot 80,000
Axel Santoni 69,000
Aurelio Martin Garcia 64,000
Jean Yip 53,000
Marc Hansens 50,000
Talolo Sayag 49,000
Abdel Lamrani 35,000
Bart van Heugten 27,000

Restart

The first group finishes the 800 - 1600 (1600) level, while players in the second group are looking forward to their dinner-break. They'll be joining up for 1000 - 2000 (2000) in a few moments... and the board is still showing a rising attendance. 

550 players in the running for 843 entries, while late reg' will be possible until the end of level 9, at 10.20 p.m.! 

Quart d'heure Chrono

Fifteen minutes remain before the end of Level 9 and the end of registration for Day 1G of the Winter Festival. The table shows 851 entries with 524 players in the running. 

Turbo 1H started with about sixty playersThis year's event will bring the total number of players to over 3,000, and the prizepool to over €650,000. Big money for the finalists of this 2024 edition of Winter!

Xans at the Turn

Late registration has closed and the blinds have been increased to 1,000 - 2,500 (2,500) with 877 entries on Day 1G, an unofficial figure which would provisionally bring the total number of entries to 3,187 for a prizepool of over €660,000! 

Loic Xans is in the running to take his share. After a good start that saw him up to 110,000 chips, he found a blinds battle to explode. Loic opened with 1000 - 2000 (2000) before putting it all in when the big blind raised to 28,000 chips. Paid by Ace-King, Loic turned over two Kings to suck in his opponent at the end of a suspenseful table with an Ace on the flop and the last King of the pack on the turn! Heading for 238,000 to play at poker...

500 players were still in the running at the start of level 10... 

887 on 1G for a total of 3,187 incoming customers


Level 10 is already well underway, with the game continuing on 1000 - 2500 (2500) with 475 players in the running. 500 players were present at the end of late registration, for a day with 877 entries! 

This takes the field to 3,197 entrants before the final Turbo Flight currently underway. The prizepool now stands at €661,000! 

Top 400

With 18 minutes left to play in level 11, the final break of Day 1G will take place at the end of this level contested on blinds 1500 - 3000 (3000). 



For Aziz Kendel, Octavian Ripan, Rico Chevalot and Joel Sart, it's all over and they're off to the Turbo for their only chance of reaching Day 2. Talolo Sayag, Demir Ismael, Fares Slila, Amir Shah Hosseini, Alexandra Quach, Morgan Poisson, Robin Visser have no alternative either. 

Finito also for Geert Sluyts, Jeremy Pinson, Ann Roos Callen and Ben Jeuris, Ali Nafaoui and Daniel Veloson...

Last Break

The game has been paused for a few minutes, giving the 359 players still in contention for the biggest flight of the Winter Festival Main Event a little rest. Day 1G attracted 887 entrants! 

The average is 116,000 chips for a replay on 2000 - 4000 (4000)... not a problem for the man probably in the lead with just under 600,000 chips, Marius Mueller. 

Average 124,000...




Chips
Marius Mueller 560,000
Amanullah Khall 486,000
Giovanni Ventura 380,000
Melvin Maes 330,000
Aurelio Martin Garcia 330,000
Laurent Barrague 310,000
Ivan Palamiuk 305,000
Romain Bertrand 300,000
Heidi Croone $250,000
Jordan Leroux $230,000
Roel Feenstra 227,000
Jonathan Hamon 225,000
Philipp Zimmerman 225,000
Jorge Brito 225,000
Davy Maes 210,000
Ippolito Italiano 210,000
Aymeric Dolignon 207,000
Michael Ender 200,000
Alexandra Kouao 190,000
Fabio d'Annolfo 181,000
yoann Argence 140,000
Paul van Oort 130,000
Mike Niegho 100,000
Steeve Daulon 90,000
Lionel Hamelryck 80,000
Fabien Perrot 73,000

Top 300

The 300-player mark was passed just after the start of level 13. The game is being played on blinds 2000 - 5000 (5000) and a break will take place at the end of this level, to make the 500 chips disappear. 

It's a good opportunity to take a look around the Salle Océan, where Ahmed El Kaddouri is dominating proceedings. Kaddouri is up to 590,000 chips at a table where Robin Cornet (215,000) is just to his right. With 530,000 chips, Vincent de Neve is also doing the job. 

In this room, Johann Compagnon (200,000) isn't doing too badly, while Axel Santoni is calling my name. "How long on the Turbo?" he asks, with 3 blinds in front of him. Midnight 36 buddy! 

Kim Pauwels (230,000), David Nolle (330,000), Frederic Renard (230,000), Andrei Chirilic (360,000), Paul Verheul (360,000) or Cueneyt Senguen (310,000) have chips in this secondary room... 

Last break

Play is paused to allow the 500 chips to disappear. 245 players have reached this final break, and at 1 a.m. they will return to 3000 - 6000 (6000) for the final hour of poker on Day 1G and two half-hour levels. 

Aymeric Dolignon (365,000) is well positioned, but is still some way off Marius Mueller (500,000), Rony Cebola (480,000), Amanullah Khall (480,000) and Aurelio Martin Garcia (430,000)...

This pretty little world is better off than the bustos of the last few minutes... these players didn't all have the time to eventually jump in. Day 1H Turbo, last chance to reach Day 2 on Saturday at 2 p.m....

Vanessa Arnold, Yann Truchot, Christophe Simonis, Lars Vogel, Julie Bismuth, Joao Faria, Heinz Peters, Mathieu Desmet, Vincent Lalou and Dimitri Verez have all given up the ghost...

3,423 Winter entrants, €689,392 prizepool

Registration is closed for the Turbo 1H, the last of the eight starting days of the €250 Winter Festival Main Event. With 226 additional entries, a total of 3,423 were accumulated over the Winter Festival, a record attendance in Namur.

The winners will share €689,392, with a first prize of around €100,000 for a starting stake of €250!

The average chip count on the lee Turbo is 77,000, with four 15-minute levels still to play. There are 147 players still in the running on this last chance to reach Day 2. from Saturday 2pm...

Day 1G has become the best-attended flight in the history of poker in Namur, making the Winter Festival 2024 the best-attended tournament in the history of the Circus Casino Resort in Namur. On this 1G flight, there are 240 players in the running with just under 50 minutes to go before the wrap-up... 

Top 200

There's a quarter of an hour left to play on 4000 - 8000 (8000) and 200 players in the running on Day 1G.

Leo Tocque, Valentin Dubois, Stéphanie Da Silva, Francis van Unden have jumped. Identical verdicts for Iulian CHiriac, Gilles Magny, Fabio d'Annolfo, Loic Xans, Davy Maes, Paul van Oort and Jonathan Hamon. 

5 Last Hands

189 players are still in the game as the clock winds down. 5 hands to go before returning to blinds 5,000 - 10,000 (10,000) on Saturday 2pm...

Yoann Argence dominates the biggest day in Namur's history

Visit busiest flight in the history of Circus Casino Resort de Namur is in the books. Day 1G attracted 887 entries for a final score of 3,423 admissions and only 165 managed to complete the 15 half-hour levels. These survivors join the 403 qualifiers from the previous 6 days... as Turbo 1H draws to a close, there should be nearly 640 qualifiers for Day 2 on Saturday 2pm. 

Play resumed on 5,000 - 10,000 (10,000) with 171 qualifiers from the penultimate starting day. There were players everywhere at the start on Friday, with 300 players seated at kick-off... more than 600 unique players played on Day 1G, which helped to boost prizepool of €689,392.



It was probably Yoann Argence who came out on top on Day 1G, as the winner of the 7Handed Festival at the end of 2023 went from strength to strength after the dinner break. He bagged "1 million and change" to become the tournament's second millionaire, and a priori the only one on this penultimate opening day. 

Behind him, Rony Cebolla finished with 948,000 in chips. He started strongly and finished well... he also won Aces against Kings for 300,000 in the middle. Robert Jansen, Giovanni Ventura, Ifrim OCnstantin and Erwan Pirotais also made good stacks, giving them the confidence to start Day 2 close to the money...

Chipcount partial Day 1G
Yoann Argence 1,000,000
Rony Cebola 948,000
Robert Jansen 779,000
Ifrim Constantin 683 3000
Martin Berge 676,000
Cornelius Orry 602,000
Erwan Pirotais 596,000
Giovanni Ventura 573,000
Roel Feenstra 570,000
Mickael Poitoux 458,000
Jeffrey Jol 440,000
Sebastien Guidez 397,000
Gaetan Dupret 395,000
Aurelio Martin Garcia 393,000
Mike Niegho 383,000
Laurent Barrague 380,000
Olivier Janry 324,000
Loic Mattern 320,000
Alexandra Kouao 284,000
Mathieu Jasserand 268,000
Eric Boge 244,000
Heinz Schneiders 240,000
Aymeric Dolignon 226,000
Heidi Croone 218,000
Davy Huyst 208,000
Fabien Perrot 206,000
Ervin Vu Duc 187,000
Elie Hallouss 165,000
Karim Riah 114,000