An unforgettable Thursday, that of the PokerStars Open Campione 2026. Between the ballroom and the PokerStars Live Room, a total of 832 players took part in Day 1C and Day 1D of the €1,100 Main Event with a €1,000,000 guarantee. Among them were many familiar faces from the poker world, as well as some old football legends…
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PokerStars Open Campione Main Event: guaranteed already surpassed, today is Day 2 among many VIPs
With 704 players from Day 1C and 128 from Day 1D, the PokerStars Open Campione Main Event field has already surpassed the guaranteed prize pool of €1,000,000. At the end of yesterday’s two flights, there were 1,365 participants, for an actual prize pool already exceeding €1.3 million. But it’s not over yet, as late registration and any re-entries will be open for the first two levels of Day 2! Let’s take a detailed look at how Day 1C and Day 1D went.
Day 1C: incredible field and Candio still hot, in the top 10
A truly exceptional field filled the ballroom on the 9th floor of the Casinò di Campione d’Italia. 704 players took their seats, with a very high number of well-known faces, worthy of the golden age of live poker. 240 of them managed to bag chips at the end of the 10 scheduled levels. The best was an Indian player with a frankly unpronounceable surname, but the news was the 5 Italians in the top 10 and, above all, the presence of Filippo Candio among the top 10.
The Sardinian former November Nine has evidently “got the bug again” and, after finishing third in the High Roller, he also entered the Main Event with the best intentions. He will have 191,500 chips to defend in today’s Day 2.
| POSITION | PLAYER | NATION | STACK |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tanmmay Jhunjhunwala | India | 307,000 |
| 2 | Simone Gatto | Italy | 305,800 |
| 3 | Martin Alcaide | Bulgaria | 294,900 |
| 4 | Tal Darchevits | Israel | 265,000 |
| 5 | Hugo Torres Da Silva | Brazil | 227,600 |
| 6 | Michele Brandes | Italy | 213,600 |
| 7 | Alexander Codemo-Klaui | Switzerland | 201,200 |
| 8 | Federico Calo | Italy | 201,000 |
| 9 | Igor Saia | Italy | 191,700 |
| 10 | Filippo Candio | Italy | 191,500 |
Other Italians: what a field, with Sammartino there’s also Cerci!
Day 1C was a flight to remember, with many illustrious names present in the room, but the percentage of Italians who qualified is truly high: considering the 5 in the top 10, there are 138 out of 240, or over 57%.
You can enjoy scrolling through this substantial list of 132 names, which includes established super champions like Dario Sammartino, recently hired as a talent for PokerStarsNews, a former football talent like Alessio Cerci, and the ever-present “Mr EPT” Salvatore Bonavena:
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| PLAYER | STACK |
|---|---|
| Gabriel Iemmito | 189,500 |
| Mirko Vinelli | 178,700 |
| Massimo Armenio | 175,800 |
| Paolo Compagno | 171,400 |
| Gianluca Cabitza | 165,000 |
| Michele Perego | 162,000 |
| Dario Sammartino | 158,800 |
| Daniele Bassutti | 158,600 |
| Andrea Pedruzzi | 151,100 |
| Luca Bernardi | 148,300 |
| Davor Lanini | 145,200 |
| Orazio Bruno | 144,300 |
| Fernando Colazzo | 142,100 |
| Felice Bucci | 141,800 |
| Gianluca Sardella | 140,000 |
| Liberato Savino | 135,000 |
| Umberto Ruggeri | 132,100 |
| Roberto Palmieri | 131,800 |
| Francesco Legnaro | 130,200 |
| Luca Pio Imperato | 129,300 |
| Marco Galli | 127,200 |
| Christian Magi | 123,600 |
| Claudio Tornetta | 123,400 |
| Giacomo Sciuto | 123,100 |
| Augusto Botti | 122,400 |
| Cristian Battaglia | 122,000 |
| Ciro Petta | 120,500 |
| Barnaba Perone | 120,500 |
| Luigi Pignataro | 116,900 |
| Francesco Congiu | 114,900 |
| Roberto Ghidini | 114,900 |
| Abaz Bushi | 114,200 |
| Ettore Esposito | 113,500 |
| Federica Fabiani | 113,300 |
| Massimiliano Patroncini | 111,500 |
| Giovanni Persio | 110,500 |
| Valerio Parodo | 109,600 |
| Nicola Renda | 109,500 |
| Francesco Di Filippo | 109,100 |
| Andrea D’Aniello | 107,600 |
| Danilo Mercuri | 106,600 |
| Michael Sottini | 105,800 |
| Domenico Murtas | 101,000 |
| Thomas Olivieri | 99,000 |
| Karim Radani | 98,200 |
| Guido Presti | 97,300 |
| Vincenzo Fiorino | 96,950 |
| Luca Pataro | 96,700 |
| Andrea Bottinelli | 95,400 |
| Leonardo Tononi | 92,000 |
| Lorenzo Esposito | 91,800 |
| Enrico Iacopetta | 91,800 |
| David Pardini | 89,500 |
| Alessio Cerci | 88,700 |
| Manuel Ferrari | 88,300 |
| Bruno Pacelli | 88,000 |
| Andrea Salamone | 86,500 |
| Roberto Iannetti | 86,100 |
| Michele Galeotafiore | 82,300 |
| Davide Suriano | 81,400 |
| Nicholas Traini | 81,000 |
| Roman Fondos | 80,400 |
| Basilio De Lorenzo | 80,300 |
| Salvatore Bonavena | 78,500 |
| Michele D’Amico | 78,000 |
| Andrea Liso | 76,500 |
| Aris Marcellino | 76,200 |
| Leonardo Rizzi | 75,100 |
| Michelangelo Longo | 75,000 |
| Andrea Baroni | 70,700 |
| Niccolò Messeri | 70,400 |
| Gianluca Trebbi | 68,700 |
| Riccardo Allegrini | 68,500 |
| Riccardo Panicali | 68,000 |
| Gaetano Fiore | 66,700 |
| Edoardo Accornero | 65,400 |
| Nicola Di Chio | 65,100 |
| Fabio Giamberardini | 63,400 |
| Stefano Baroni | 61,200 |
| Samuele Salvucci | 60,500 |
| Lorenzo Arduini | 59,300 |
| Paolo Calculli | 58,900 |
| Leonardo Manna | 57,100 |
| Luigi Minolfi | 56,900 |
| Marco Massetani | 56,600 |
| Domenico Pannullo | 56,500 |
| Carmelo Battaglia | 55,900 |
| Elvis Kallashi | 55,300 |
| Vitalie Putina | 54,400 |
| Francesco Pilato | 54,300 |
| Luca Testugini | 53,500 |
| Gianluigi Mannarino | 53,200 |
| Marco Gambini | 51,900 |
| Filippo Marcolini | 51,300 |
| Alessandro Minasi | 50,800 |
| Adolfo D’Aniello | 50,800 |
| Federico Eliseo | 49,400 |
| Orazio Pellegrino | 48,800 |
| Lorenzo Parente | 48,200 |
| Alessandro Comi | 47,200 |
| Mauro Guastamacchia | 46,700 |
| Gaspare Giglio | 46,500 |
| Luca Mondino | 44,300 |
| Mirco De Martini | 42,500 |
| Eugenio Peralta | 41,500 |
| Luca Accornero | 40,800 |
| Mario Gritti | 40,000 |
| Niccolò Mingotti | 39,600 |
| Pietro Monzio Compagnoni | 39,000 |
| Vincenzo Lapenna | 38,500 |
| Giorgio Favotto | 38,500 |
| Mirko Numerato | 35,900 |
| Giuseppe Castagna | 35,600 |
| Pio Antonio Russo | 35,400 |
| Federica Tasca | 33,800 |
| Giovanni Gagliardo | 33,200 |
| Aldo Nobile | 31,500 |
| Franco Polidori | 31,500 |
| Pier Paolo Ruscalla | 31,300 |
| Eduard Fondos | 31,100 |
| Bruno Morra | 30,000 |
| Giacomo Beneforti | 28,800 |
| Danilo Lunelli | 28,300 |
| Francesco Meschini | 26,000 |
| Roberto Manfredi | 25,000 |
| Kevin Dauti | 22,800 |
| Dario Mancuso | 22,700 |
| Stefano Rege Gianas | 22,100 |
| Domenico Paparo | 21,500 |
| Francesco Isoldi | 20,300 |
| Federico Castiglioni | 16,800 |
| Francesco Russo | 13,800 |
Day 1D: Amoruso leads the turbo flight
In the evening, Day 1D took place, with the level duration shortened to 20 minutes each. The challenge was accepted by 128 participants, and another 61 joined the qualifiers for today’s Day 2. Here too, there were no shortage of illustrious names, although the top 10 is substantially devoid of them. Good for Luca Amoruso, chip leader with 255,000. Italy is also represented in the top 10 by Mazza and Caramazza, and that’s not a play on words:
| POSITION | PLAYER | NATION | STACK |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Luca Amoruso | Italy | 255,000 |
| 2 | Xavier Sitruk | France | 210,400 |
| 3 | Domenico Ciancio | Switzerland | 161,400 |
| 4 | Samuel Ju | Germany | 153,000 |
| 5 | Franck Dechaud | France | 124,000 |
| 6 | Milan Rabsz | Poland | 121,600 |
| 7 | Aleksej Grenz | Germany | 107,700 |
| 8 | Francesco Caramazza | Italy | 104,600 |
| 9 | Sascha Steffens | Germany | 104,000 |
| 10 | Nicolo Mazza | Italy | 101,600 |
Other Italians
Even in Day 1D, the percentage of Italian players among the qualifiers is excellent, over 50%. There are 38 out of 61, or about 62%, and you’ve already seen three of them in the top 10. There are thirty-five others, the details of whom we provide below. Among them are EPT winners like Antonio Buonanno and several veterans, from Vasta to Sorrentino and Piroddi, as well as career grinders like Di Vito:
| PLAYER | STACK |
|---|---|
| Vincenzo Mangiapane | 95,400 |
| Alessandro Confalone | 95,000 |
| Carmelo Vasta | 82,600 |
| Luigi Ginobbi | 80,200 |
| Nicolo Di Perna | 68,600 |
| Dario Ciravegna | 65,300 |
| Riccardo Lombardi | 64,100 |
| Danilo Donnini | 63,100 |
| Domenico Di Vito | 62,500 |
| Carlo Catelani | 58,500 |
| Fortunato Festa | 56,400 |
| Alessio Casiraghi | 49,000 |
| Pino Paoletti | 48,500 |
| Giuseppe Catalano | 48,000 |
| Giorgio Soceanu | 46,500 |
| Federico Donnini | 44,500 |
| Antonio Buonanno | 43,000 |
| Gianbattista Chiesa | 42,300 |
| Alex Sampirisi | 40,900 |
| Antonio Gaeta | 40,500 |
| Massimiliano Nobili | 39,700 |
| Simoni Lancini | 38,400 |
| Umberto Sorrentino | 38,200 |
| Federico Piroddi | 32,900 |
| Alice Sicconi | 32,900 |
| Alessio Albore | 30,600 |
| Vincenzo Errico | 26,700 |
| Andrea Conti | 26,400 |
| Valentino Ferro | 23,300 |
| Haifeng Hu | 22,700 |
| Piero Piccirillo | 22,400 |
| Riccardo Sponsiello | 22,200 |
| Giovanni Salvatore | 20,400 |
| Vincenzo Merola | 18,100 |
| Marco Daquino | 16,600 |
Pataro’s dream continues
In Day 1C, Luca Pataro, one of the qualifiers for the tournament through the freerolls of the Club del Poker, was also playing. Davide De Luca met him during the dinner break, and the interview proved to be lucky, as Luca finished the day with 98,000 chips!
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PokerStars Open Campione 2026: today’s schedule
Today, Day 2 of the Main Event begins, but there’s an interesting “Second Chance” starting at 4 PM, while in the evening there’s a satellite for the Super High Roller. Here are the details:
| DATE AND TIME | EVENT | BUY-IN | LATE REGISTRATION |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30/01/2026 13:00 | Event #13 – Main Event – 60 min levels – €1M GTD | €1,100 | Until 15:10 |
| 30/01/2026 16:00 | Event #18 – Second Chance – 30 min levels – Unlimited Re-Entry | €550 | Until 22:20 |
| 30/01/2026 21:00 | Event #19 – Qualifier to Super High Roller – Win Your Seat @ 100K chips | €570 | Until 23:55 |
Cover image: Dario Sammartino with Riccardo Trevisani in the background (Manuel Kovsca & RHL)
