Omar Del Pino Wins Biggest Winamax Poker Open €500 Main Event to Date (€130,000)
The biggest six-max tournament in the history of live poker has come to a conclusion. It took nearly sixteen hours for the 2022 Winamax Poker Open Madrid €500 Main Event to crown a champion and when the final river card was dealt, the Spanish rail celebrated in the early morning hours at the Casino Gran Madrid in Torrelodones.
Out of a field of 2,182 entries, Omar Del Pino defeated Matthieu Lamagnere in heads-up to claim the biggest slice of the €960,080 prize pool. The top prize of €130,000 was the second-biggest of his career and trails only a payday of €179,000 on home soil from back in 2018. His name will be engraved in the history books of the French poker and sports betting operator as the marquee tournament of the festival obliterated the previous WPO attendance record.
It was the first time Winamax visited Spain with its flagship live poker tour and the return to the live poker circuit after a three year hiatus for the operator was one to remember. They crushed the previous Winamax Poker Open Main Event record from back in 2019 (1,389 entries) and also surpassed the largest SISMIX edition (2,036 entries) that took place in the same year as well, raising the bar for future stops.
The late shift for both players saw Lamagnere once more come close to winning a WPO Main Event after his third place finish in Dublin back in September 2018. This time around, he came one spot closer to victory but had to settle for the runner-up spot and a consolation prize of €94,000 for his biggest score on the live poker circuit.
"I don't really have any big ambitions and am happy to play in all of the Winamax tournaments," runner-up Lamagnere said in the interview after his elimination. The Frenchman excelled multiple times in the six-handed format in previous years and can usually be found in the poker clubs of his home country.
The seven-handed final table was entirely in French and Spanish hands, as three French contestants were up against four participants hoping to keep the trophy on home soil. Third-place finisher Hugues Mazerolle can be found regularly on the Winamax online poker tables and made a deep run supported by a boisterous rail that only trailed the frantic shouts by Del Pino's friends.
Final Table Result 2022 Winamax Poker Open Madrid €500 Main Event
| Place | Winner | Country | Prize (in EUR) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Omar Del Pino | Spain | €130,000 |
| 2 | Matthieu Lamagnere | France | €94,000 |
| 3 | Hugues Mazerolle | France | €67,000 |
| 4 | Antonio Lopez Del Alamo | Spain | €48,000 |
| 5 | Angel Rodriguez Sanchez | Spain | €35,000 |
| 6 | Pablo Herrera Medina | Spain | €26,000 |
| 7 | Anthony Soules | France | €19,230 |
Only 24 players returned to their seats in the Mandalay Room when the action recommenced at half past noon and the frantic early stages certainly didn't point towards a very late finish. Four tables quickly became three with notables such as Sergio Alonso Camunas and Juan Manuel Pastor among the first to bust.
Kevin Mastrosimone was one of the contenders pushing for the top spot but his rush suffered two major setbacks. Eventual runner-up Lamagnere cracked his aces with king-queen suited to remain in contention and Adrian Garcia Marin then earned a full double when they got it in with middle set for the Spaniard against the top pair and flush draw for Mastrosimone. Soon after, Lamagnere knocked out Mastrosimone to reduce the field to the final 18 hopefuls.
Within 20 minutes, four players were sent to the rail as Pablo Herrera Medina and Hugues Mazerolle went on streaks to climb on the leaderboard. Adriano Abbracciavento, who made waves early on with a five-bet shove holding ace-eight suited and cracked pocket aces, came up short of the final two tables after losing the vast majority of his chips in a flip against Gytis Juskevicius. Only 11 players returned for the redraw, however, as Timothee Marlin hero-called at the wrong time to bow out next.
Joaquim Marques quickly departed after the restart but the race towards the final table then turned into a tense affair. With several short stacks fighting for their survival, two bigger stacks suddenly had their hopes all but crushed. Anthony Soules doubled through Adrian Garcia Marin but was then involved in a memorable clash with Omar Del Pino on the final table bubble after which he was left with fumes.
Another pivotal hand that set Del Pino en route to victory was the elimination of former dominating chip leader Herrera Medina. In a preflop contest, Del Pino was trailing with jacks versus aces but spiked a gutshot on the flop and turned a set of jacks to take a commanding lead. He excelled in using his large advantage and the field was suddenly down to three after Angel Rodriguez Sanchez and Antonio Lopez Del Alamo fell in back-to-back hands.
Mazerolle's ride ended in third place and the heads-up duel between Del Pino and Lamagnere lasted for more than two and a half hours. Both contenders held strong leads but Del Pino eventually had the best of it when his ace-jack came out on top against king-queen in a preflop all-in.
What followed was pure ecstasy by the Spanish rail as they chanted his name for several minutes. With the record-breaking 2022 WPO Madrid €500 Main Event in the books, Winamax is now looking forward to the return of the regional tours with more details to be announced soon. The next Winamax Poker Open has also already been confirmed from 26th September to 2nd October 2022 at the Crowne Plaza in Bratislava.