While the vast majority of players in the WInamax SISMIX Main Event came to compete from France, there is also an unusually high number of players from Lithuania, a country with less than 3 million people, in the mix. One such player, Arunas Sapitavicius isn't as fairing as well today as some of the others.
In a recent hand, the action folded to Sapitavicius who completed the blinds. Louis Linard from the big blind raised the action to 6,000 chips before the Lithuanian limp-reraised to 19,000. Linard went all in for 51,500 which Sapitavicius called.
Sapitivicius turned over and was well behind Linard's and unable to catch-up when the appeared on the board. Sapitavicius is now holds one of the lower stacks in play, while Linard's stack surpasses six-digits to around 109,000.
Level 14 just got underway with blinds at 1,200/2,400 and an ante of 300. The field is a little lighter than to start the day with 26 players being eliminated. Some of the latest to hit the showers are Martynas Kukucionis, Gwendal Le Foll, Dan Simcelescu, and Steve Chambard.
Team Winamax pros seem to be starting off well today, but perhaps none better than Florian Decamps who now has 250,000 chips. Decamps, who started the day with around the average stack now has double the average. Decamps who can always be seen smiling started out the day with some good fortune when his beat his opponents for a huge pot.
We are still 43 players from the money, but 39 players that started the day are no longer in their seats just less than halfway through the second blind level of Day 2 including Arnaud Paul, Loic Pailler, Lucas Di Nicolantonio, Philippe Anchisi, Armesto LLargues, Lamzariki Hassan, Thibault Morvan, Arnaud Enselme, Donatas Daprkevicius, and Pierre Hakem.
We mentioned that LIthuania appeared to represent the tournament only with the third most players heading into Day 2 with only France and Morocco seemingly more represented. It is possible that Spain is equally if not more represented as well, but we are not able to confirm the names and nationalities of all these players due to regulations allowing them to play semi-anonymously.
However, Lithuania's domination changed a bit early on in Day 2. First Martynas Kukucionis and Donatas Daprkevicius were eliminated. Now, Arunas Sapitavicius, who early on in Level 13 lost a big hand with to Team Winamax's Florian Decamps holding , has joined his two fellow countrymen on the rails short of the first break.
Also recently eliminated before the money were Charles Kmieciak, Gilbert Diaz, Rocio, Gregory Dupuy, and Said El Yousfi.
France's Mathieu Papineau is well-known throughout Marrakech as one of the better live poker players. He bursted on the scenes in Winamax circles after taking third place in the inaugural Winamax SISMIX Main Event in 2014 for 300,000 MAD or almost €30,000.
In March, Papineau ran wild in the Marrakech Poker Open which include two final tables and a semi-final table.
Date
Buy-in
Tournament
Place
Prize (USD est)
Prize (MAD)
March 15
5,500 MAD
Marrakech Poker Open Deepstack
13
$1,468
14,500 MAD
March 17
10,000 MAD
Marrakech Poker Open Main Event
5
$11,223
110,000 MAD
March 20
6,000 MAD
Marrakech Poker Open 6Max
5
$1,207
12,000 MAD
Papineau will be unable to add to his total winnings in Marrakech being eliminated today before the money.
Players are on their first 15 minute break. Out of the 195 to start the day, just 136 remain. We are 23 away from the bubble which is likely to burst before the next break.
Blinds will increase after the break to 1,500/3,000 with an ante of 400.
Andre Mabille seemed like one of the players likely to make it deep in the money today after finishing Day 1b as the chip leader with 217,000 chips. Unfortunately for Mabille, his day is prematurely over finishing just outside the money before the first break.