WSOP Circuit Returns to Card Casino Šamorín With €350 Mini Main Event

The WSOP International Circuit is back in Slovakia. Card Casino Šamorín, on the outskirts of Bratislava, opened its second edition of the festival on Friday with two starting flights of the €350 Mini Main Event. According to the German poker outlet Hochgepokert, which reported on Aug. 1, the series carries total guarantees of €2.8 million across the full schedule and will award 12 gold WSOP rings.

This is the second time the WSOP Circuit has stopped in Slovakia. For players based in Bratislava or travelling into Central Europe, the event is a relatively low-cost way to play a WSOP-branded tournament without flying to Las Vegas. The Mini Main Event, with a €350 buy-in, is designed to attract a wider field than the higher-priced ring events on the schedule.

A bigger second edition with ring bonuses

Card Casino Šamorín is a well-known casino venue just outside the Slovak capital. The current festival expands on the first Slovak WSOP Circuit edition, offering €2.8 million in guaranteed prize pools across the series. That guarantee is the headline number for the stop, but there is an additional incentive: each of the 12 ring winners receives a $5,000 WSOP package to be used for WSOP Europe or WSOP Paradise.

The combination of local ring events, guaranteed money and a travel package helps explain why the Mini Main Event has already pulled in hundreds of entries over its first two flights. Ring winners are not just playing for a trophy; they are also securing a seat package that covers entry into another WSOP-branded series elsewhere in the world.

Mini Main Event: first numbers in

The Mini Main Event is being played over five starting flights, with a €300,000 guarantee. The first two flights, Day 1A and Day 1B, both ran on Friday. Hochgepokert’s report showed a strong turnout: Day 1A logged 321 entries, and Day 1B added 231 more.

From Day 1A, 49 players finished in the money, and 33 advanced to Sunday’s Day 2. From Day 1B, 35 players were paid, and 24 survived. The final table is scheduled for Monday. Here are the facts in brief:

Chip leaders set the pace

Bulgarian player Plamen Yakimov bagged the biggest stack from Day 1A, ending with 927,000 chips. Greek player Georgios Orestidis took over the overall lead after Day 1B, finishing with 945,000 chips. That means Orestidis will enter Day 2 as the tournament’s chip leader among all survivors from both completed flights.

The report does not list the full Day 2 seat counts for all flights or the exact payout structure for the Mini Main Event. What is known is that the remaining flights will continue to feed into Sunday’s Day 2, and the tournament will reach its final winner on Monday.

What remains unclear

Hochgepokert’s report confirms the structure and the early numbers, but a few important details are not yet public. The dates and registration terms for the remaining three Mini Main Event starting flights were not included in the report. The full prize distribution for the Mini Main Event is also not available in the source, so players cannot yet calculate exact pay jumps or min-cash values.

Players considering a last-minute trip should treat the €300,000 guarantee and the €2.8 million festival-wide guarantee as confirmed, but should check the casino’s own schedule for late registration rules, re-entry policies and the exact times of the remaining starting flights. None of those details should be assumed from the early report.

How to follow the festival

Card Casino Šamorín is positioned for players in Bratislava and the wider Central European region. The WSOP Circuit’s Mini Main Event is a compact, low-entry version of the series, making it a practical option for players who want ring-event experience without a five-figure buy-in. Day 2 begins Sunday, the final is set for Monday, and the remaining starting flights need to be completed before then.

More details are expected as the festival moves forward, including results from the remaining flights and the full winner’s payout. For now, the confirmed story is that the WSOP Circuit in Slovakia is off to a busy start, with more than 550 entries already recorded across two Mini Main Event flights.

Source: Hochgepokert, “Card Casino SK – WSOPC Auftakt mit dem Mini Main Event!”, Aug. 1, 2026, https://www.hochgepokert.com/2026/08/01/card-casino-sk-wsopc-auftakt-mit-dem-mini-main-event/