Luckymove

Before the day started, it appeared that someone would need a chip stack in the region of 600,000 to vie for the chip lead in the Winamax SISMIX Main Event. However, Winamax Team Pro Pierre Calamusa knocked it out of the park, bagging up in excess of one million chips to become the outright chip leader heading into Day 2.

• Finale Departementale Winamax Poker Tour 2018
• Final Winamax Poker Tour 2018 Highlights
• Finale Winamax Poker Tour 2018
• Final Winamax Poker Tour 2018 Youtube

At the end of play, the former Winamax Poker Open Dublin said that such a big stack was only possible because of the six-max format of the tournament.

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'There's a lot more action,' said Calamusa as he was bagging. 'I got a lot of good hands and hit a lot of good boards. People never believed me, and they kept paying my bets! It was very easy today.'

Calamusa will be joined in Day 2 by fellow Winamax Team Pros Sylvain Loosli, who qualified yesterday and Adrian Mateos who steadily accumulated chips throughout Day 1c to bag 309,000. However, they won't be joined by Gaelle Baumann, namely because Calamusa eliminated her!

'It's been a very good day. Gaelle and I are very good friends and the chips stay in the family so we're both happy!'

The Winamax SISMIX has been highlighted by a community atmosphere, and Calamusa says that everything here is made for the amatuer to enjoy.

'Winamax chose to have a tour for the amateurs. Other tours have high buy-ins, but with us it's more family stuff. We all enjoy it. Even if you bust a tournament you still have a lot of other things to do. You have games, pool parties. Everybody comes back every year!'

Calamusa himself is no stranger to the off-the-felt activities, winning yesterday's Beer Pong Tournament.

'It was so cool; everybody was cheering for us. I mean it's unbelievable. I will remember this for my whole life. Even better than my WPO Dublin victory a few years ago, because this had like 100 people cheering for m.e

But if he goes on to add the 2018 SISMIX title to his poker resume, will that top his beer pong triumph.

'Obviously not,' he said with a smile.

It was clear from the outset that the record for largest Winamax SISMIX event was going to get smashed, and in the end the 1,252 entries not only broke the SISMIX record, but became the largest field ever held for a poker tournament in Africa.

104 players will advance to Day 2, lead by Calamusa, with other big stacks including Raphael Loiseau (747,000), Jerome Paveaux (699,000), Abdelhamid El Khayati (667,000), and Julien Baldassarre (636,000).

There are still several notables in the field, including 2017 Winamax SISMIX final tablist Said Hahou (428,000), Paul-Francois Tedeschi (287,000), Said El Yousfi (180,000) and Marvin Dupre (22,800).

Play will resume at tomorrow at midday, with 12 50-minute levels schedule. Stay tuned to PokerNews.com as we get closer to crowning a winner here in Marrakech.

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The final table is set in the 2018 World Series of Poker $10,000 buy-in main event. From a field of 7,874 entries, the second largest field in the tournament’s history, now only nine players remain to battle it out for the championship gold bracelet and the first place prize of $8,800,000. By making the final nine each player remaining has locked up at least a million-dollar payday.

There are two players essentially tied for the chip lead after the final hand of the night saw Nicholas Manion win a three-way all-in that vaulted him to the top of the leaderboard. Manion raised to 1,500,000 from under the gun. Antoine Labat called and bracelet winner Yueqi Zhu moved all in for 24,700,000 from the hijack.

Manion then shoved for 43 million and Labat, who had everyone else in the hand covered, made the call with the KK. Zhu, who was the shortest stack, also held pocket kings with the KK. Manion had picked up the AA to find himself in an incredible position on the final table bubble. The board ran out J743J and Manion’s aces held up to see him soar to 112,775,000.

Zhu was eliminated in 10th place, taking home $850,025 for his impressive run while Labat fell to the short stack. Manion shot to the top of the chip counts, surpassing Michael Dyer who had held the lead for much of the day. Dyer ended the day with 109,175,000.

The two leaders each have more than 180 big blinds in their stack. While those two have the most chips, the undisputed headliner of the final table is none other than 2009 WSOP main event champion and three-time bracelet winner Joe Cada.

Cada already has a special place in poker history as the youngest main event champion ever, having become world champion at just 21 years and 11 months old. Now Cada will have a chance to become the first two-time main event winner in poker’s modern era. Stu Ungar’s third main event win in 1997 marked the last time a previous world champion came out on top in the WSOP main event. Cada will enter the final table with 23,675,000 in chips, or just shy of 40 big blinds.

Here’s a look at the final nine players (by seat position) who will come back with 300,000-600,000 blinds with a 100,000 ante.

1. Artem Metalidi (15,475,000):

The Ukranian poker pro is one of the most accomplished players at the table outside of Cada. The native of Kiev has more than $2.1 million in prior lifetime live tournament earnings before making this final table, including second place finishes in the 2012 WSOP $3,000 six-max no-limit hold’em event and the 2017 Card Player Poker Tour Venetian $5,000 main event. The 29-year-old is not the first Ukranian player to make the main event final table (Anton Makiievskyi earned that honor in 2011), but he does have the chance to become the first champion from Ukraine. He will start the final table with 26 big blinds.

2. John Cynn (37,075,000):

You may recognize John Cynn from when he finished 11th in this very event just two years ago. That’s right, he placed 11th out of a field of 6,737 players and now will finish at worst ninth from an even larger field of 7,874. The 33-year old from Evanston, Illinois earned $650,000 for his 2016 deep run in this event, which accounts for the majority of his $944,786 in lifetime live tournament earnings. He has 28 career cashes, but no titles to his name. That could all change if he is able to run up his 62 big blinds (good for fourth on the the leadeboard) and take down this event.

3. Alex Lynskey (25,925,000):

Australia’s Alex Lynskey is also quite the accomplished poker player. He has 42 career live tournament cashes, totaling just shy of $1.5 million dollars worth of earning. The 28-year old from Brisbane’s biggest score came when he finished second in the 2017 WSOP ‘Marathon’ no-limit hold’em event, taking home $426,663. He has also made the final table of the Aussie Millions main event, finishing fourth in 2016. With 43 big blinds, he will enter the final table in fifth chip position.

4. Tony Miles (42,750,000):

bestbet Jacksonville had 25 players win packages for the 2018 WSOP main event through the cardroom’s two $590 buy-in with $60 rebuy MEGA satellites. One of the packages ended up being transferred to 32-year-old poker pro Tony Miles, who now finds himself in third chip position at the final table. Miles has $53,288 in prior live tournament earnings to his name, but that number is soon to grow dramatically with Miles having locked up at least $1,000,000 by making the final nine.

Finale Departementale Winamax Poker Tour 2018

5. Nicolas Manion (112,775,000)

Nicolas Manion surged up the leaderboard in the final hand of the night to enter the final table with the chip lead. With 188 big blinds, the 35-year-old has nearly 29 percent of the chips in play. The Muskegon, Michigan native has only $10,970 in recorded prior live tournament earnings. Manion was given a freeroll into a few $2,175 satellites into the main event by some friends who work with Solve For Why Academy and managed to win two seats into the big dance. Now he is the player to beat with just nine remaining.

Final Winamax Poker Tour 2018 Highlights

6. Aram Zobian (18,875,000)

Cranston, Rhode Island’s Aram Zobian came into day 7 of the main event as the chip leader with 26 players remaining. He started with more than 41 million in chips, but ended up putting just shy of 19 million in the bag. Despite losing chips during the playdown day, he still will enter the final table with 31 big blinds. The 23-year-old poker pro had $112,011 in live tournament earnings before entering this year’s main event, with 25 cashes to his name. His largest score prior to this tournament came when he finished second in a $1,675 Megastack Challenge event for $47,000 earlier this year.

7. Michael Dyer (109,175,000)

If it weren’t for Manion’s meteoric rise up the leaderboard in the final hand of day 7, Dyer would have been the runaway chip leader heading into the final table. The 32-year-old from Houston, Texas knocked out Paulo Goncalves in 21st place to take the lead early in the day, and then scored four more knockouts before the final table was set. Dyer has $136,418 in prior live tournament cashes, with his largest score being an eighth-place showing in a $2,000 no-limit hold’em event at the 2009 WSOP. Dyer’s 182 big blinds mean that he has just shy of 28 percent of the chips in play.

8. Joe Cada (23,675,000)

Nine year’s after he became the youngest main event winner in WSOP history, Joe Cada is back at the main event final table. The 30-year-old poker pro from Shelby Township, Michigan has won two bracelets since then, including taking down the $3,000 no-limit hold’em shootout earlier this summer for $226,218. With $10,780,089 in lifetime earnings, Cada is by far the most accomplished player at the final table. He won $8,546,435 as the champion in 2009, and is looking to add another $8.8 million to his earnings by the end of the week.

9. Antoine Labat (8,050,000)

Antoine Labat’s pocket kings in the final hand of the night cost him more than 80 percent of his stack. He spent much of the later part of day 7 as one of the larger stacks in the room, but now enters the final table as the shortest stack with just 13 big blinds. The 29-year old Frenchman from Paris had $99,023 in live earnings coming into this tournament, a number which will greatly increase regardless of how he fares at the final table.

Finale Winamax Poker Tour 2018

Here is a look at the payouts for the final table:

Final Winamax Poker Tour 2018 Youtube

Check out _Card Player TV’s preview of the final table below:

For more coverage from the summer series, visit the 2018 WSOP landing page complete with a full schedule, news, player interviews and event recaps.