Manuel Bevand Leaves Team Winamax to Focus on Online Poker
The number of sponsored poker pros keeps decreasing around the world, as Manuel "manub_" Bevand and the French poker room Winamax decided to part ways and bring their six-year relationship to an end.
"After six years on the team and nine years as a poker player, I have decided to bow out of poker," Bevand announced from his Twitter account. "I have decided to take a break from live poker. It requires significant investments, a lot time and efforts — and in those very hard competitions, we are not always masters of our own destiny."
Former Magic: the Gathering champion and video game designer, Bevand is now set to play with Winamax until the beginning of December, when he will join the European Poker Tour (EPT) in Prague for what could be his last live tournament in a while.
"Right now I want to head to something that offers me better opportunities and that I can control better," Bevand continued. "I will keep playing online poker, as that stays a great passion for me. It has been an incredible adventure. Winamax gave me the phenomenal opportunity to meet any sort of great people and to travel around the world."
After over six years spent as one of the most loyal members of Team Winamax, Bevand sits 64th on France's all-time money list with live tournament winnings for $716,363, according to the Hendon Mob.
During his nine-year career, Bevand got himself a prominent spot in France's poker community by putting together some significant results such as finishing 23rd in the 2010 EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo for $66,564. That result came right after previous place in the money at the EPT Berlin.
His top cashes, however, came later on when he managed to finish seventh in the 2010 EPT Prague Main Event for $93,873 and fifth in the 2012 World Series of Poker $10,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em for $110,731.
"Yet, I am not going to disappear from the poker community," Bevand wrote in a post published on Winamax's website. "I still have two or three things to say about poker. I will keep [playing] on Sundays, and I also have some plans in London that concern poker and new technologies."
Looking at his personal history, Bevand's decision to play his last live tournament in Prague seems to be an highly-symbolic one. Besides his top win in 2012, Bevand has left the Czech capital as a winner four times, with cashes at the EPT events in 2008, 2009, and 2012, plus at the World Poker Tour in 2012 and 2013.
"My best wishes to your career and your future," Bevand's fellow Team Winamax member Ludovic Lacay wrote on Twitter. "I have absolutely no doubt over the fact that you will be successful in the future."
Davidi Kitai echoed, "We will miss you in the circuit my friend, even if we will still be together outside poker. Thank you for everything you did for the team!"
French players can get code for bonus on Winamax by following the link.
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