Circus Poker Series: Max Wind raids the Main Event (€129,083)

Max Wind wins CPS Main Event for €129,083

the €2,200 Main Event attracted 555 entries and a prize pool of €1,053,945, making it the second biggest tournament held at the Circus Casino Resort in Namur in terms of prize pool. It was an unusual tournament in Namur, attracting a lot of new, seasoned players not found at other festivals, who found it the perfect warm-up for the EPT Prague.

RELIVE THE CPS WITH FULL COVERAGE OF THE MAIN EVENT

At the end of a final table where he was never in danger, Max Wind was the great triumph of the first Circus Poker Series Main Event. After a 5-way deal in which he secured €109,083 from a split at the ICM where he was 2nd in stack, Max Wind finally pocketed €129,083 for his victory as well as a ticket to the EPT Prague Main Event.

In the upper echelons of the ranking since the 3-table left redraw, Max Wind offered himself the scalp of Tobias Peters to go huge and has hardly wavered since, playing applied poker and surfing the run good.

After his victory, he spoke to us about the magical week he has just had in Namur:

"I don't know what happened! I don't know where I am, but I'm very happy. "

"I played a lot when I was 18 and for two years it was an obsession then I took a bit of a break from the game, I'm an actor and playwright in fact I'm writing a play at the moment... but during the Covid, I didn't have a job anymore so I got back into online poker. There was a little spark that pushed me to play live again but nothing more... and then this summer I'm going to Valkenburg for a SPA trip. The casino wasn't far away and I went there to play a cash game. I took €1,600 and the feeling was there, the poker feeling was back... I told myself I was going to play a few tournaments".

"I got back in touch with my coach and then I came back from the MCOP in Amsterdam, a few final tables and with good momentum, I just had to keep playing. I'm looking for festivals not too far away so that I can get back home between events and I've heard about the renovation of Namur. I came here 4-5 years ago to the Beauregard hotel and it's changed a lot... my friends told me that there were big fields and the CPS programme was good. It wasn't far, there are big guarantees, I had a good feeling about this seamine".

"The start of the week was bad and one evening I was sitting in the cash-game and I got a message from a friend saying that there was a guy who looked like me in Namur. I hadn't seen him for a year, I turned round and our eyes met - it was Michael Ender. We're in the same coaching group, we fall into each other's arms... that was the pivotal moment of the week. From then on, the signs were everywhere. Frankly, I went into the Main Event feeling very confident even though I wasn't planning on playing it. The last 5 days have been incredible.

Max Wind with his mate Michael Ender

"So I convinced him to play the Mystery Bounty and we had a little agreement... he was confident and he went and got a €30,000 envelope (the maximum bonus, editor's note) so I used what he gave me to play the Main Event. It's my second-biggest buy-in, along with the €3,000 MCOP Main Event. What a run! He's going to get some money back (laughs). Now we need to keep the planets aligned and I need to find a hotel in Prague.

"I've got to keep the spirit of the good run, find that special rhythm and use it, and I'm very happy despite being tired. I'm happy with my game even if I think I made a few mistakes at the end, but that's life.

Final table standings

Final table recap

An official short-stack at the start of the final table, Maxence Melin thought he could get back into the game after winning the most classic of corner flips against Mickaëk Arcidiaco. But a few minutes later, his reshove with As-Queens came up against As-Kings in the hands of young Théo Milioni, to finish in 9th place in the event. After finishing 11th in the Mystery Bounty, Maxence Melin ended the festival on a high note by pocketing €19,720.

Next up was Mickaël Arcidiaco. Going all-in with an overpair against a huge combo-draw from Cyril Richard, Mickaël Arcidiaco saw his opponent find one of his 15 outs on the river to send him into the rail. Mickaël finished his big one-time hand in 8th place in the Main Event, with a prize of €23,660.

It's now 1.30pm and you'd think that the final table of the Circus Poker Series Main Event wouldn't last long. However, it took almost 6 hours for the next elimination to take place. In the meantime, Matthias Van Der Perre found a way not to lose everything with As-King against Gary Hasson's Aces, then went chipleader by taking a nice shot at Cyril Richard with full against full, before treating us to a strange 3-bet/fold with Jacks against Théo Milioni's As-King.

It was clearly Théo Milioni who was attracting all the limelight at this point, managing to draw the winner in a battle of blinds against Gary Hasson, the Belgian player making a small blocking-bet with a straight on a board showing 4 spades. With third pair, Théo Milioni managed to make Gary Hasson fold by turning his hand into a bluff. The man with the biggest record at the final table would never recover. He busted a few minutes later with a pair of 4s against Max Wind's suitered As-2, ending his fine run in 7th place for €30,760 in winnings.

Théo Milioni seemed to be on course for a big performance, so diligent and successful did he seem at this final table. And yet, he first doubled Ngoc Nguyen with As-Queen against King-Queen suit, then found himself in a terrible spot against Cyril Richard. After limping/calling with Queen-Jack of Diamonds, he found a flop of Queen-Jack-8 with 2 hearts on which Cyril sent a first nugget, then an all-in bet on the Ace of Hearts on the turn. After a good five minutes of thinking it over, Théo Milioni convinced himself that his opponent might have quite a few bluffs and ended up calling drawing dead against the chipleader's queens. After his 10th-place finish in the BPC Main Event, Théo Milioni confirms his superb 6th-place finish in this CPS Main Event, for a substantial prize of €40,010.

At dinner-break, 5 players remain at the final table. An initial deal was discussed between the players, but short-stack Mattheus Van Donselaar, who was then offered €65,000, decided to turn down the deal, demanding more money than the ICM had promised him and scuppering the attempted deal. The game continued until ... the same Mattheus Van Donselaar became chipleader and Cyril Richard officially became the short-stack. This time, the deal was accepted by everyone and Mattheus Van Donselaar took the biggest slice of the cake, securing €125,384 and the chance to win an additional €20,000 EPT Prague ticket if he won.

The deal in figures:

This deal was concluded on the basis of the chip-counts below:

Shortly after the deal, it was Cyril Richard who ended his magnificent run in this Main Event in 5th place for €85,779, on a shot where he failed to fold a set against the flush found by Mathias Van Der Perre.

It was the same Mathias Van Der Perre who then went out in 4th place, the victim of a bad beat inflicted by Max Wind As-8 against the Belgian player's queens. The finalist in the GG Poker Boss9 promotion leaves Namur with €89,172.

Mattheus Van Donselaar then fell to the inevitable Max Wind, following a bad beat with As-Queens against King-Tens. He turned in the biggest performance of his career as a live player, winning €125,384, a fine improvement when you consider that the figures for the first attempt at a deal offered him €65,000.

The heads-up play lasted just a few minutes after that, with Max Wind inflicting yet another bad beat on local Ngoc Nguyen. All-in with As-8 against As-9 on the final hand of the tournament, he found a full house to conclude his magnificent week in Namur and pocket the title, the €129,083 cheque that went with it and the ticket to the EPT Prague Main Event offered by PokerStars.