A few hands after Marius Aldea doubled through him with aces, Diogo Moreira moved all in from the small blind for 1,395,000 and was called by Nolan Madene, who had previously opened from the hijack.
Diogo Moreira: A♦10♠
Nolan Madene: A♥6♠
Moreira was on his way to double up, but a flop of 6♣9♠2♣ put Madene in the lead. The 4♥9♦ runout didn't change anything and Moreira was eliminated one place away from Day 3.
Picking up the hand on the turn on a board of 5♠8♠4♠3♦ in an already inflated pot, Mohamed El Wely led out for 650,000 and Leo Choquelle called.
The river came the 6♦ and El Wely checked. Choquelle pushed out a stack of black chips worth 2,000,000 and El Wely called. El Wely had Q♠8♥ for a pair of eights, while Choquelle flipped over A♠10♠ for the ace-high flush to win a huge pot.
Just as the next hand was being dealt, cheers erupted as the screen switched from 25 players to the 24 remaining who would bag for Day 2.
On the feature table, Maxime Bossard open-raised to 400,000 from the cutoff with Q♣Q♥ and Thomas Bus called in the big blind with 3♠3♦.
The flop came 4♣J♦2♣ and Bus checked. Bossard continued for 400,000 and Bus called. The J♠ turn paired the board and Bus checked again. Bossard made it 700,000 to go and Bus called.
On the A♠ river, Bus checked for a third time and Bossard moved all in. Bus had a pained expression on his face as he started talking through the hand. He eventually made the call for his last 1,250,000.
Players revealed their hands and Bossard had the best of it with his pocket queens, two pair with the jacks on board. Bus was eliminated in 25th place, the final bustout of the night.
The remaining 24 players bagged and tagged to return for Day 3.
The 24 remaining players have bagged and tagged to return for Day 3. They are each guaranteed a payout of at least 65,500 MAD (around €6,285) and the outright winner is set to walk away with the trophy and 1,200,000 MAD (approx €115,145).
The 2025 Winamax Sismix Main Event trophy has never been closer for the 24 remaining players who qualified today for tomorrow’s Day 3. Out of a record-breaking 3,390 entries in this event, 562 players returned at noon with hopes of making it through an emotion-filled Day 2.
“It swung a lot,” Jean-Côme Haye admitted after bagging the chip lead with a massive 20,335,000 stack. “I won a few big pots,” he explained. “I had this hand where I called three barrels with ace-jack, and another one on the feature table that helped me build my stack. But nothing is done yet, I have to stay calm and focused tomorrow,” he added.
While Haye topped the overall chip counts in the main poker room, Jérôme Crantz claimed the title of the biggest stack among the three tables under the dome, where the feature table is set up. With 15,140,000 chips, he was nearly caught by the end of the day by Maxime Bossard (13,575,000), who eliminated Thomas Bus with queens to close out the day.
Day 2 Top 10 Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Jean-Côme Haye
France
20,335,000
102
2
Jerome Crantz
France
15,140,000
76
3
Maxime Bossard
France
13,575,000
68
4
Lucas Lago
France
12,805,000
64
5
Leo Choquelle
France
10,005,000
50
6
Victor Guinand
France
9,950,000
50
7
Victor Rials
France
8,705,000
44
8
Nolan Madene
France
8,575,000
43
9
Dario Alonso
Spain
8,245,000
41
10
Mohamed El Wely
Mauritania
8,035,000
40
Léo Choquelle (10,005,000) became the fifth player to bag more than 10 million chips after a day that saw him eliminate Aurélien Guiglini (35th – 53,500 MAD), who had just previously knocked out Gaëlle Baumann (45th – 37,000 MAD) at the feature table. That same TV table also proved fatal for the Day 2 chip leader François “POG” Dequidt, who reached over 4,000,000 chips before losing two massive pots in a row and ultimately busting off-camera.
Those cameras, however, will be focused on Marc Bougaret (5,400,000) on Day 3. Known online as “Lima.Europa,” the French professional is a familiar name to the Winamax community thanks to his online results, and he’ll enter Day 3 as one of the main contenders. “I’m not feeling any pressure,” he said. “But live events are very different from online tournaments. I don’t have as much live experience as some of the others. The real challenge for me is staying focused on those differences.”
Despite that, Bougaret acknowledged having a solid day, "more preflop than post flop". “I doubled up several times with premium hands,” he explained. One such example came when he doubled through 2015 Sismix champion Jérôme Sgorrano, who was eliminated shortly after.
Marc Bougaret
Among the remaining players, Victor Guinand (9,950,000), Nolan Madene (8,575,000), and Mohamed El Wely (8,035,000) will be strong contenders on Day 3. They’re joined by Raphaël Davidou (4,910,000) and Julien Veyssiere (4,900,000), who won a 8,000,000-chip pot with ace-king against kings and ace-seven. “That hand saved me from suffering today, but I still suffered anyway,” he joked.
Said Abdel Attey was involved in that same hand but still managed to bag 4,395,000 chips, one million more than Patrick Faraut (3,080,000), who got lucky cracking aces in the final hands of the day to double up.
Last but not least, Lucas Vervey (2,480,000), Victor Marques (1,500,000) and Mathis Livolant (895,000) will return with the shortest stacks, but no shortage of motivation.
Lucas Vervey
Play is set to resume at 12:30 p.m. local time, with blinds at 100,000/200,000 and a 200,000 big blind ante and 40-minute levels. The 24 remaining players have already locked up a minimum cash prize of 65,500 MAD, but all have their sights set on much more.
2025 Sismix Remaing Payouts
*Place
Prize (in MAD)
Place
Prize (in MAD)
1
1,700,000
8 - 9
215,000
2
1,200,000
10 - 11
165,000
3
900,000
12 - 14
128,000
4
655,000
15 - 17
101,000
5
490,000
18 - 23
81,000
6
365,000
24
65,500
7
280,000
Stay tuned as PokerNews continues to provide you updates from Marrakech until a winner is crowned!
