The Winamax Poker Open €550 buy in main event was the biggest 6 max tournament held in Europe (disclaimer: to our knowledge) with 656 participants. As you would expect with an event sponsored by a French poker site the field was mainly from France but at the end of it all English poker pro Steven King took the lion's share of the money after a deal heads up with Belgian player Michael Gathy.
This was the first time D4 Events has offered re-entries into a tournament with this level of buy in. 26% of the players who busted out on Day 1A took the opportunity to re-enter on Day 1B including the eventual winner Steven King. Interestingly the player who knocked Steven out on Day 1B, Jean-Claude Marets also made the final table.
Winamax also paid out 9 free entries to players who won good beat jackpots by hitting a straight flush and bounties for knocking out their pro's.
Big names in attendance included Ludovic Lacay & Michel Abecassis.
The event was so popular with players that Marvin Brailly who could not board his flight from France made his way to the nearest port, got a ferry to Dover, a train to Birmingham, a bus to Liverpool and then another ferry to Ireland! He ended up finishing on the bubble and won a free entry onto the 2012 event.
This was the third year of this event and it is growing to be as popular as The D4 Events European Deepstack Poker Championship. In year one the field was 141, year two 313 and now 656. Next year it is expected to be even bigger.
D4 events is now taking this event on tour with stops coming up in Luton, Vienna and Coventry over the next few months and then it is time for the players favourite - The European Deepstack Poker Championships where over 1000 players are expected to participate in the main event. This is currently the largest un-sponsored poker event in Europe with over 90% of players buying in direct.
To see the full results please click here
To see the full results please click here
