Kestutis Gecevicius opened to 3,500 from the cutoff, then Mohamed Henni to his left three-bet to 10,500.
Gecevicius called, then checked the 8♥3♦2♦ flop. Henni immediately announced "all-in" for 83,000. Gecevicius prepared his chips and called.
Mohamed Henni: K♠K♦
Kestutis Gecevicius: 9♥9♠
"Incredible", Henni said a few times while filming the action. The A♣7♥ runout didn't change anything and he doubled up. "Well played," Gecevicius said.
Sismix winner Anthony Dasbourg called from the small blind after Vytautas Spakauskas limped from the small blind. The big blind checked his option, so all three of them discovered a flop of K♠7♠8♦.
Both players in the blinds checked to Spakauskas, who bet 3,000. Dasbourg was the only one to call.
On the Q♣ turn, Spakauskas fired a second barrel of 10,000. Dasbourg check-called again.
The J♦ completed the board and Dasbourg slid forward a pile of blue chips to force Spakauskas to go all-in. The player from Lithuania snap-folded.
Gaelle Baumann raised from under the gun, recving calls from Mohamed Aissaoui, in the hijack, and Davidi Kitai, in the big blind.
The action checked to Baumann, who bet out 4,000 on the 9♣2♠8♠ flop. Aissaoui called and Kitai folded.
The 4♣ turn saw Baumann size up to 11,000. Aissaoui was undeterred.
The J♦ river slowed down Baumann with a check. Aissaoui placed a bet large enough to put Baumann all in for her remaining 16,000 and Baumann snap-called for her tournament life.
Gaelle Baumann: 10♠10♣
Mohamed Aissaoui: J♠9♥
Baumann was almost in the clear to gain three streets of value, but she fell behind Aissaoui's rivered two pair, sending her to the rail.
The €500 Main Event of the Winamax Poker Open at the Banco Casino, here in Bratislava, continues today with Day 1b. This is the second of four starting flights and is set to kick off today at noon local time.
As Day 1a drew to a close last night, a total of 212 entries amassed by the conclusion of late registration, of which 35 players bagged and tagged for the Day 2 restart on Saturday. It was Eugenio Sanchioni who bagged the overall chip lead, taking through a total of 932,000 after putting on a dominating performance throughout this Day 1 flight.
Sanchioni is the only player to be within touching distance of the one million chip mark with his closest competitor, Ion Juravliov, having accumulated 840,000 by the conclusion of play.
2024 WPO Bratislava Main Event Day 1a Top 10
Rank
Player
Country
Chip count
Big Blinds
1
Eugenio Sanchioni
Italy
932,000
133
2
Ion Juravliov
Moldova
840,000
120
3
Arthur Lacroix
France
573,000
82
4
Antoine Malle
France
536,000
77
5
Timothe Labassa
France
521,000
74
6
Dylan Cechowski
France
498,000
71
7
Maxime Manzone
France
486,000
69
8
Kiryl Vatayeu
Belarus
483,000
69
9
Victor Fryda
France
479,000
68
10
Tobias Traussnig
Austria
443,000
63
Winamax Team Pro had a strong showing with three of the five professionals to compete on Day 1a managing to materialise a stack for Saturday’s restart; Leo Margets (127,000), Julien Sitbon (121,000) and Alexane Najchaus (105,000). Meanwhile, the likes of Pierre Calamusa and Bruno Lopes will be sure to fire some more bullets before they give up on joining their colleges for Day 2.
Alexane Najchaus
Those participating in the main event on Days 1b will play through levels of 30 minutes with 13 levels of late registration. Those to advance to Day 2 and Day 3 will benefit from a clock of 35 minutes and 40 minutes respectively. Each Day 1 will conclude when approximately 16.6% of the field remains; all advancing players will be in the money.
But it’s not just poker that the players can sink their teeth into; today’s schedule boasts the Winamax Beer Pong Open, kicking off at 7 p.m. where, perhaps, the most important trophy of the series will be on offer. As well as the infamous €10 buy-in Midnight Deglingo happening daily.
Stay tuned to PokerNews as we follow all the action through the next flights until a winner is crowned.
