Day 1a: Eugenio Sanchioni Leads the Way; Sitbon, Margets and Najchaus Qualify for Day 2
The first out of four flights of the 2024 Winamax Poker Open Bratislava Main Event came to an end moments before the clock strikes midnight, here at Banco Casino in Bratislava.
A total of 212 entrants were registered in Day 1a, with 35 players reaching the money at the end of the night. Qualifying for Day 2 seemed like an easy task for Italy's Eugenio Sanchioni, who ended up as the chip leader with 932,000 chips. He is the only player approaching one million chips so far, only followed by Ion Juravliov (840,000).
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 |
Out of the five Winamax Team Pros who took part in this flight, three of them managed to find a bag. With 127,000 chips, Leo Margets has the largest stack of the team, but she's been on the edge of elimination a few times during the last minutes of the day. She first doubled up through her teammate Alexane Najchaus, then played a 110,000 chip-pot on the bubble against Arthur Lacroix (573,000) but made a good fold. Najchaus ended the day with 105,000, while Julien Sitbon completes the trio with 121,000. Pierre Calamusa and Bruno Lopes also played today but will have to come back.
Last year's finalists Victor Fryda and Victor Hoogstoel both managed to find a bag, with 479,000 and 114,000 respectively. Former Winamax Top Shark Maxime Manzone (486,000) also made his way to Day 2 with a big stack, as well as Daniel Koloszar (373,000) and Winamax Stream Gang streamer Benjamin "ClassedeManu" Tessier (116,000).
However today was not a good day for players like Mathieu Choffardet who ran into kings, 2024 WSOP Main Event finalist Malo Latinois, Sismix winner Anthony Dasbourg, Nicolas Vayssieres, Moundir Zoughari or streamer Hadrien "zChance44" Gallois who were all eliminated out of the money.
The same goes for Robin "ChoveKiPeu" Gerard who didn't avoid queens, and Abel Pruchon, who saw his opponent hit a one-outter turn to be eliminated just a few minutes before the bubble burst.
The 2024 WPO Bratislava Main Event continues tomorrow, Thursday, September 26 at noon local time with Day 1b. The structure will be the exact same one as in Day 1a, with a 50,000 chip starting stack and 30 minute levels.
Stay tuned to PokerNews as we follow all the action through the next flights until a winner is crowned.