Winamax Pro Calamusa Leads Africa's Biggest-Ever Poker Tournament
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. Winamax Team Pro Pierre Calamusa knocked it out of the park, bagging up more than one million chips to become the outright chip leader heading into Day 2.
At the end of play, the former Winamax Poker Open Dublin champion said that such a big stack was only possible because of the six-max format of the tournament.
"People never believed me, and they kept paying my bets! It was very easy today."
"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 on 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 amateur 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 me."
But if he goes on to add the 2018 SISMIX title to his poker resume, will that top his beer pong triumph?
the 1,252 entries not only broke the SISMIX record but became the largest field ever held for a poker tournament in Africa.
"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.
Based in the United Kingdom, Will started working for PokerNews as a freelance live reporter in 2015 and joined the full-time staff in 2019. He graduated from the University of Kent in 2017 with a B.A. in German. He also holds an NCTJ Diploma in Sports Journalism.
