Mantas Petrauskas Tops Record-Breaking Day 1a of Winamax SISMIX Main Event
A total of 256 players have been whittled down to just 51 on Day 1a of the fifth edition of the Winamax SISMIX Main Event. This denotes a 27% increase on last year's numbers and means the tournament looks set to increase its year-on-year total for the fourth time in a row.
Leading the way after 14 levels is Mantas Petrauskas (643,000), who emerged early on as a player to look out for. Towards the latter stages he was put under pressure by Olivier Marchet, however, in one of the final hands of the night, he doubled up an opponent. Marchet held ace-king against the tens of his opponent, and an ace on the flop looked like it would hand Marchet the chip lead by a handsome margin. However, the ten came on the turn to hand the chip lead to Presauskas and left Marchet (405,000) thinking what might have been.
Other big stacks include Mike Alonso (590,000), who was responsible for the first elimination on Day 1a, Laurent Lefevre (548,000), Abdeliah Belalia (534,000) and Bruno Mandagaran (478,000).
Several big names were in action today, some joining proceedings after their elimination from the High Roller, with Michel Abecassis (180,000), Alexandre Reard (142,000), Said El Yousfi and Winamax Team Pros Sylvain Loosli and Romain Lewis all jumping across.
Only Abecassis and Reard would make it through to Day 2, with El Yousfi, Loosli and Lewis busting, the latter after getting it in king-ten against pocket fours, and failing to win his flip. He, like Loosli, will be back tomorrow for Day 1b and another shot at making Day 2.
Others to play in Day 1a included Winamax Team Pros Gaelle Baumann and Adrien Delmas, along with Pierre-Antoine Quignard and Paul-Francois Tedeschi, all of whom are expected to try again tomorrow.
Day 1b gets underway at 12:00 local time tomorrow, with another 14 levels of play scheduled. Stay tuned to PokerNews.com for all the action from the Casino de Marrakech at the Es Saadi Resort.