20 Remain in Winamax SISMIX Main Event; Former Champion Lopes Advances
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!