Winamax Tournaments

Last Updated on October 6, 2026 by Bala Kumar

What Is Winamax?

Winamax is a Paris-based online poker and sports betting operator, licensed in France by the ANJ (Autorité Nationale des Jeux). The company describes itself as a leader in French online poker, with around 350,000 monthly poker players. It also says it operates in Spain and Germany, with Italy and Portugal planned. Which products are offered (poker, betting or both) can differ by country.

Winamax tournaments are built around two pillars:

•           Online series on the Winamax client, led by the Winamax Series, which ran three times in 2026.

•           Live events, led by the Winamax Poker Tour (WiPT), which you can qualify for free, and the Winamax Poker Open (WPO).

Both flagship live events set new entry records in 2026, and the January Winamax Series carried a record €35 million in guarantees.

Winamax Tournaments 2026 at a Glance

Winamax Tournament Schedule 2026

All major Winamax tournament dates for 2026 and the start of 2027 in one table. The status is as of October 6, 2026.

Winamax’s stage listings show 16 Grande Finale seats and about €11,000 in prizes per WiPT stage. In 2026 the Winamax Series ran in January, April and September, but Winamax hasn’t announced the next edition yet. Add it here when it does.

Winamax Tournament Calendar by Month

October 2026

November 2026

December 2026

January 2027

Winamax Series 2026: Schedule & Buy-Ins

The Winamax Series is Winamax’s flagship online festival. Each edition runs for about 12 days with more than 300 tournaments across buy-in levels.

September 2026 Edition: Key Events

Fill in exact dates, buy-ins and results from the Winamax results page. The “3 Million Event” name suggests a €3 million guarantee, but confirm it before publishing.

What changed from 2025: The September guarantee stayed at €30 million, the same as September 2025, and about 15 extra tournaments were added.

Satellite routes: Expresso Series tickets let players win Series entries by playing Expresso games. “Road to Series” tournaments award tickets to selected Series events.

Winamax Islands 2026 (Summer)

Winamax Tournament Buy-Ins

Winamax tournaments cover almost every budget. Here is what’s typically available in each range, based on 2026 schedules.

How much bankroll do you need? A common guideline for tournament players is 50–100 buy-ins for your usual level, because tournament results swing a lot. For example, if you regularly play €10 tournaments, that means a €500–€1,000 tournament bankroll. Recreational players who play for fun can use a separate monthly budget instead. Just decide on it before the series starts.

Winamax Tournament Formats Explained

Industry note: On October 5, 2026, GGPoker launched “Ocean KO”, a version of Winamax’s Space KO with bounty multipliers of up to 400x.

Winamax Tournaments for Beginners

The cheapest ways to start

1.         Free: WiPT Sit & Go Starting Block freerolls. You risk nothing and can win a seat at a live event.

2.         €2–€5: Micro-stakes Series events and satellites.

3.         Low-cost satellites: Win Series tickets instead of buying in directly.

Expresso or MTT: which should you start with?

Our suggestion: If you’re brand new, start with low buy-in MTTs or the free WiPT qualifiers. You’ll see many more situations per euro. Add Expresso later, once you’ve learned basic push-fold ranges.

Beginner checklist

•           Learn the poker hand rankings and basic Texas Hold’em rules first.

•           Start with one table at a time.

•           Set a budget for the month or the series, and don’t chase losses.

•           Use the free WiPT route before spending money on live events.

•           Check event start times in French time (CET/CEST).

How to Qualify for the Winamax Poker Tour for Free

The Winamax Poker Tour is free to enter at the first stages. Here’s how the route works for the 2026–27 season.

The 2025–26 season in numbers:

Most of the Grande Finale field doesn’t come through the freeroll route, so the free path is competitive. But it’s genuinely free, and every season about 190 players turn €0 into a €500 seat.

Important: The WiPT runs through Winamax.fr. You need a valid Winamax France account and must meet Winamax’s eligibility rules.

Winamax Poker Tour 2026–27 Schedule

Source: Winamax.fr WiPT pages. Winamax announced 11 live stages (the launch plus ten 800-player stages) but names only nine cities after the launch, so one stage is still to be confirmed. Update the venue names and TBC rows when Winamax publishes them.

WiPT Grande Finale History

2026 Grande Finale Final Table (Partial)

2026 highlights: Cohen started the final table with 50.4 million chips, nearly twice the second-biggest stack. He is the son of Claude Cohen, a 1997 WSOP bracelet winner, and a member of Winamax’s “Stream Gang”.

Winamax Poker Open (WPO)

The WPO began in Dublin in 2010. It’s now held at Casino Grand Cercle in Aix-les-Bains, in the French Alps. The €500 Main Event is played 6-max.

WPO Aix-les-Bains 2026: Main Event Numbers

WPO Main Event History

2026 highlights: Archeny began playing for free at local clubs at 18, moved up to low-stakes tournaments, and then beat a field that included Team Winamax pros. Adrian Mateos was the first Team Winamax pro to reach the money. Defending champion Jeremy Cauchard finished 145th.

Winamax Tournament Results 2026

All confirmed major results in one place. Add new results at the top.

Notable Winamax Tournament Winners

Winamax doesn’t publish an all-time public leaderboard that we can verify. Here are the players behind the biggest Winamax results of the last two years. Update this table with official series leaderboards when they’re published.

Winamax Satellite Strategy

Satellites are the cheapest way into big Winamax events. They need a different strategy from normal tournaments.

Satellite vs direct buy-in

Key satellite rules

•           A seat is a seat. Finishing with 1 chip or 1 million chips wins the same ticket. Near the seat bubble, fold almost everything that isn’t a premium hand.

•           Big stacks should stop gambling. If you’re safely inside the seats, folding is often correct.

•           Short stacks must act early. Shove before the blinds eat your stack completely.

•           Don’t fire too many bullets. Five €20 satellite entries for a €100 seat costs as much as buying the seat directly.

Satellite bankroll guide

Other Winamax Live Events

Winamax News Log

Newest first. Update weekly, and daily during series.

•           October 6, 2026: WiPT Rennes qualifiers are open (until Oct 28). Dunkerque qualifiers open on October 7.

•           October 5, 2026: GGPoker launched Ocean KO, based on Winamax’s Space KO format, with bounties up to 400x.

•           September 27, 2026: Lucas Archeny won WPO Aix-les-Bains for €150,000 from a record 2,873 entries.

•           September 19–20, 2026: The WiPT 2026–27 season launched at Casino Grand Cercle, Aix-les-Bains.

•           September 6–17, 2026: The Winamax Series ran 352 tournaments with €30 million guaranteed.

•           July 26 – August 2, 2026: The Winamax Islands ran 137 tournaments with €5 million guaranteed.

•           April 5–16, 2026: The Winamax Series ran 352 tournaments with €30 million guaranteed.

•           March 2026: Sacha Cohen won the WiPT Grande Finale for €180,000 from a record 3,610 entries.

•           January 4–15, 2026: The Winamax Series opened the year with a record €35 million guaranteed.

Winamax vs PokerStars Tournaments

Tips for Playing Winamax Tournaments

•           Expect 6-max live. WPO and WiPT Main Events are 6-handed, so open more hands than you would at a full-ring table.

•           Value bet in big fields. Large, recreational-friendly fields often call too much. Bet strong hands for value.

•           Respect qualifier deadlines. Each WiPT stage has its own Tremplin window, and once it closes you miss that stage.

•           Convert start times. Events are listed in French time (CET/CEST). Players in Asia, including India, would see evening events run late into the night.

•           Learn the bounty formats. Space KO and Progressive KO change your calling ranges.

•           Set a budget before every series and stick to it.

Who Can Play Winamax Tournaments?

Winamax is licensed in France by the ANJ. The company says it also operates in Spain and Germany, with Italy and Portugal planned, but the products on offer can differ by country. The WiPT is run through Winamax.fr. Online poker rules vary by country and can change, so check whether Winamax is licensed where you live and only play on licensed sites.

India: the legal position for online real-money poker can change. Readers in India should check the current rules for their state and only use licensed platforms.

FAQs