Belgium's Aliosha Staes Defeats an All French Final Table to Win the Winamax Poker Open (€90,0000)
A culmination of four starting flights saw 1,516 hopefuls make their way through the doors of the Banco Casino and onto the felt, competing for their share of the €667,040 prize pool.
Three lengthy days of play concluded with Aliosha Staes lifting the trophy and laying claim to the first-place prize of €90,0000; a handsome return on the initial €500 investment to this Winamax Poker Open Main Event, here in Bratislava.
Winamax Poker Open Main Event Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aliosha Staes | Belgium | €90,000 |
| 2 | Timothe Labassa | France | €62,000 |
| 3 | Benjamin Hammann | France | €43,000 |
| 4 | Valentin Imperatore | France | €30,000 |
| 5 | Dylan Cechowski | France | €21,660 |
| 6 | Jonathan Pastore | France | €16,000 |
| 7 | Hugo Menant | France | €12,080 |
Winner's Reaction
As his rail often mentioned, Staes was the only Belgian at the final table. “That’s true, but I was mostly the small whale in a shark tank,” he joked, holding his big trophy after his victory. “The level was very, very, very high. It was the toughest field I’ve ever faced. From Day 2 to the end, there were no mistakes,” he added.
Yet, Staes is far from an amateur player. He often plays at Casino de Namur and was even a professional player for several years. Although he returned to work in IT in 2019, he still plays under the banner of Team Poker One, a team of Belgian players that allows staking for live tournaments. This time, no staking was needed, as a single bullet was enough to win the title—the biggest of his career.
Contrary to what he said, he was far from being rusty. “Before Day 3, I had decided to play without holding back, telling myself I wouldn’t be afraid to go all in if necessary. I had to stay focused on every hand. I’m glad I kept my focus the whole way through. I was in the zone, and it went well,” he shared in his post-victory interview.
Despite a long seven-hour final table, Staes “strangely didn’t feel tired.” “Maybe it was the adrenaline, but I felt good from start to finish. And with a good run on top of that, it was cool.”
The fatigue will come later, as he will become a father in two months. “Babies are expensive, so I’ll be able to buy a lot of stuff with €90,000,” he joked. It's a beautiful project that will likely keep him away from the poker tables for a few months. In the meantime, he has to land in Belgium tomorrow “at 12:30 p.m. to start work at 2 p.m.”
Action of the Day
Seventeen players returned to the felt early this afternoon with the hopes of etching their name into Winamax history, however, the dream was short-lived for Johnny Andreassen who was the first casualty of the day. Andreassen was on the wrong end of a flopped flush-over-flush collision that saw Dylan Cechowski the beneficiary of his entire stack.
Soon to join Andreassen on the rail were the likes of Victor Hoogstoel in 16th place. Hoogstoel's last recorded live cash was this tournament last year, where he placed fifth for €21,000. However, he failed to improve upon his final table finish, and the Banco Casino seems to remain a lucky venue for Hoogstoel’s live poker ventures.
The departures of Americ Stiller and Alvaro Aparicio were soon followed by the bust out of Matthieu Lamagnere, who was eliminated in 13th place. Lamagnere final tabled the largest live six-max event ever held when he came sixth in the 5,500 MAD Main Event at the 2024 Winamax SISMIX series in Marrakech. However, the pocket jacks of Nicolas Plantin soon swallowed the short stack of Lamagnere to deny him the glory of back-to-back Winamax final tables.
It took three levels of play to see the exits of Plantin, Arthur Lacroix, Clement Albert and Anton Markachev, leaving the remaining eight players on the all-important final table bubble. It was Oscar Peleg who earned the misfortunate title of “bubble boy” as his dominated eight-seven-suited couldn’t improve against the ace-eight-suited of Hugo Menant, setting the scene for the final seven who were now united on the feature table for the first time.
Final Table Action
Cechowski drew first blood at this final table, eliminating Menant in only a matter of hands; a dramatic runout for a classic tournament flip provided high-action entertainment for the live and online railbirds alike.
With an EPT final table, a WSOP gold bracelet, and finishing second place in the WSOP Europe Main Event already amongst his lengthy list of poker results, Jonathan Pastore was certainly one of the most decorated players coming into today’s final table. However, Valentin Imperatore extinguished Pastore’s hope of adding a Winamax Main Event trophy to his already plentiful poker career, ending his deep tournament run in sixth place.
Former PMU Team Pro member, Cechowski, was certainly known to the remaining finalists as fierce competition. With a near-all French lineup, Cechowski’s WPT Prime Aix-en-Provence final table will certainly have been a poignant result fresh in the minds of his opponents. Cechowski couldn’t improve upon his WPT Prime fourth-place finish but added another important final table to his ever-growing resume as a professional.
A combination of all-in and calls resulting in only double-ups, as well as technical issues with the live stream, made for a five-hour long dry spell of eliminations. The departure of Valentin Imperatore came early into the morning as his short stack ran into the aces of Staes. Imperatore told reporters he was ready to sleep in preparation for his early flight tomorrow as he had to be back in school in just two days.
After a lengthy short-stacked battle between the final three, a dramatic three-way all-in saw Benjamin Hammann exit in third place to trigger heads-up play.
Staes dispatched the last of his six French finalists, Timothe Labassa; his flopped straight had Labassa’s top pair dead on the turn, ensuring the trophy, title, and €90,0000 were his for the taking.
That concludes PokerNews’ coverage of the Winamax Poker Open here in Bratislava. Stay locked in for future coverage of Winamax tournaments and upcoming events.