Winamax are one of the largest online poker rooms in Europe and they currently operate two live tours: The Winamax Poker Open and Winamax SISMIX. Both tournaments are played six-handed, making them some of the largest six-handed tournaments in the world outside of the WSOP.
PokerNews has provided live reporting on both the WPO and the Winamax SISMIX since 2016.
The Winamax Poker Open has been held in Dublin since 2010. Before then, Winamax sent dozens of online qualifiers to the European Deep Stack Championship before teaming up with D4 Events to launch the festival.
The very first WiPO took place in 2010, attracting 313 players and was won by Alan Trueick from Ireland. After the United Kingdom's Steven King won in 2011, it took until the third WiPO in 2012 for France to take down the title for the first time as Cyril Delaire emerged victorious.
The Main Event surpassed 1,000 entries for the first time in 2013 with Jerome Guermeur taking home €75,00 after winning.
A string of three straight French winners saw PokerNews live report the Winamax Poker Open for the first time in 2016, and the Main Event surpass 1,000 entries for only the second time in 2017, with Otto Richard (pictured) scooping the biggest Main Event payout in history.
After Karol Wojciechowski secured victory in the 2018 Winamax Poker Open Main Event after a four-way deal for almost €90,000, 2019 saw the largest Main Event in history.
Post the pandemic, the WPO returned with a bang in 2022, with two stops taking place in Madrid, Spain and Bratislava, Slovakia. Omar Del Pino won in Madrid after he topped a record-breaking field of 2,182 to win €130,000. That attendance record only lasted a few months; there were 2,221 entries in Bratislava. Lithuania's Deividas Daubaris was the victor at that time and collected the €120,000 first-place prize.
The following year, Winamax returned to the Slovakian capital for another edition of the WPO, and saw Martin Bartos leave as the victor with the €100,000 first-place prize.
Launched in 2014, the Winamax SISMIX combined the excitement of a six-handed poker festival with the entertainment of live music and parties.
Just like the Winamax Poker Open, there wasn't a French winner until the third installment of the Winamax SISMIX as Belgium's Davidi Kitai and Jerome Sgorrano picked up wins in 2014 and 2015 respectively.
Bruno Lopes clinched victory for France in 2016, as did Hugo Larachiche in 2017 as the Main Event surpassed 1,000 entries for the very first time.
In 2018, Adrian Mateos topped a field of 1,252 players to win €89,000 in what was the largest poker tournament ever held in Africa.
One year later, the festival moved away from Marrakech to Costa Brava for the very first time. The change of venue didn't do anything to dampen the appeal of the festival as another record was broken.
The 2020 Winamax SISMIX was due to return to Costa Brava but was ultimately cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Following a four-year hiatus, the next edition of SISMIX took place in 2023 in Marrakech. Issam Benhaddou became the latest champion and pocketed the €86,250 up top.