From a record-shattering field of 2,036 players, just 430 have made it through to Day 2 after four starting flights here in the Winamax SISMIX Main Event.
With the players returning at 12pm, they will have 18 35-minute levels today to keep their hopes and dreams of becoming the latest winner of this unique and prestigious event.
Leading the way is Vincent Cavailles, who topped the Day 1b chip counts, beating Day 1a chip leader Yves Sanchez into second place.
Several players made it through Day 1d late last night, including Winamax Team Pros Bruno Lopes, a former winner, Sylvain Loosli, a former runner-up, and Adrien Delmas. They join Leo Margets, Adrian Mateos and Guillaume Diaz in the Day 2 field.
Other notables include Antonin Teisseire, Erwann Pecheux and Winamax SISMIX High Roller champion Jon Ander Vallinas who all survived through Day 1d.
The payouts and prize pool are set to be confirmed shortly after play resumes, so stay tuned to PokerNews for all the action.
On the feature table and in one of the first hands of the tournament, David Descieux was all in with having shoved all in from the small blind for his last 19 big blinds.
Ronan Houssein was in the big blind and called with and held on the runout to add some early chips to his stack, moving to around 700,000 in chips in the blink of an eye!
Adrian Mateos was all in for 215,000 and was at risk against Lorenzo Arduini. The players were made to wait until the hands at other tables had finished before their cards were turned over.
Adrian Mateos:
Lorenzo Arduini:
The defending champion was in dire straits and the runout was no use to him and he was eliminated just short of the money here in Lloret de Mar.
Over the course of the festival, we've sat down with three Winamax Team Pros to have a chat about the festival, the poker careers and what's next for them. Check them out!
Guillaume Diaz
"It was pretty exciting to come here," Diaz says. "To see all the new faces and guys who play on Winamax when we expanded to Spain. Everything is good — the pool and party are good!"
This year I want to be better than last time, and I've set myself the goal of 15 cashes and €100,000 in winnings. Obviously, if I get that goal sooner than I will set a bigger goal, but I don't think that's too ambitious."
"This is a really fun week," said Lewis. "It might be low buy-ins for all of the Team Pros but we're also here to be together, and if we bust and go to the pool we'll find at least four of five pros and friends there. It's half seminar and half a poker stop for us."
After check-calling 125,000 on a river and being shown the for a rivered set by his opponent, Sylvain Loosli shoved all in for 205,000 from under the gun. It folded to Mattia Neclerio who called in the small blind
Sylvain Loosli:
Mattia Neclerio:
The flop came giving Loosli an open-ended straight draw. He made a pair on the turn and although the river improved him to two pair, Neclerio had rivered a straight and Loosli was eliminated.
Bruno Lopes is not just the last remaining Winamax Team Pro in the WInamax SISMIX Main Event, but he's also the last remaining former champion after triumphing in 2016.
Kool Shen took home €78,341 after beating Alexis Fleur heads-up.
In a tournament made up predominantly of Frenchmen, and held for the first time this year in Spain, it is a German that tops the chip counts at the end of Day 2 of the Winamax SISMIX Main Event.
After making it through Day 1a and enjoying two days off, Tim Hartmann soared to the top of the standings during the middle of the day and cemented his status there with a series of eliminations late on to take 15,070,000 through to Day 3 with just 20 players remaining.
"There were three or four hands towards the end," said Hartmann. "But they were all pretty standard. One where I turned a flush and he turned a straight. Things like that."
Hartmann knocked out Winamax Team Pro Adrien Delmas before the bubble, as Delmas, Guillaume Diaz, Adrian Mateos and Leo Margets were eliminated before the bubble.
Delmas ran ace-nine into the ace-queen of Hartmann, while Mateos ran nines into pocket kings and failed to catch up.
Former Champion Through to Day 3
However, there is one Winamax Team Pro through to Day 3. 2016 SISMIX Champion Bruno Lopes bagged at the end of the day, although is short with 12 big blinds. He says that considering what's happened in the past, that's not a problem.
He explained to our French colleagues that the year he won, he was short with 12 big blinds at the end of Day 1.
"My wife was coming the next day," said Lopes. "So I knew I wanted to bag so that I could have the other Day 1 off. I had 12 big blinds and folded ace-jack to an open!
"So I bagged up 12 big blinds and went on to win the tournament!"
Lopes will be hoping that lightning strikes twice if he is going to be in with a chance of taking home €120,000 and an unprecedented second Winamax SISMIX title.
Here are the remaining payouts:
Place
Payout
1
€ 120,000
2
€ 85,000
3
€ 61,500
4
€ 44,000
5
€ 32,000
6
€ 24,000
7
€ 17,990
8-9
€ 14,000
10-11
€ 11,000
12-14
€ 8,350
15-17
€ 6,500
18-20
€ 5,300
Day Recap
With 430 players remaining at the start of the day, it was always going to be a hectic flurry of activity once the cards were in the air. And so it came to pass, with play just two eliminations off the money by the first break.
The money bubble eventually broke when Laurent Prudhomme's ace-nine butted heads against the pocket jacks of Winamax SISMIX High Roller winner Jon Ander Vallinas. Vallinas duly flopped top set to send Prudhomme to the rail and burst the bubble.
With a fast six-max structure and players continuing to fly out the door, the chip lead was elusive and ever-changing. It wasn't until a spell on the feature table that Hartmann emerged as a contender.
By the dinner break, just 61 remained with Hartmann third in chips behind Aliaury Legait and Matthieu Rodriguez. Hayg Badem had his spell at the top after picking off an outrageous bluff from High Roller champion Vallinas who bet all three streets with seven-deuce only to get called by the top pair of Badem.
But back came Hartmann, who by now was back on feature. He was lucky to river trips to oust Alexis Hernandez, and even more fortunate when the perfect turn card saw all the chips go in the middle to eliminate Anthony Boyer.
There was still time for the German to add a third elimination in quick succession to seal his chip lead and is well clear of Morgan Aceto (12,785,000), who is the only other player in the eight-figure category.
Other big stacks include Milos Babovic (8,270,000), Hayg Badem (7,995,000), Jeffrey van de Heuvel (6,475,000) and Gregory Luttke-Grech (6,000,000).
Play resumes at 12:30 pm on Sunday 26th May and will play down to a winner. PokerNews will be on hand throughout the day to bring you all the action!