Valentin Pinault Bags Chip Lead with One Million Chips; Winamax Team Pro Pierre Calamusa Qualifies for Day 2

Under the heat of the sun in Marrakech, Day 1a of the Winamax Sismix Main Event came to an end after midnight here at the Casino de Marrakech in the beautiful Es Saadi Resort.

549 entrants were recorded on this first of four flights of the tournament. This number is a sign of great success, as it surpasses by far last year's Day 1a 421 entries.

Tonight, only 91 players reached the end of the day, securing a spot in the money and qualifying for Day 2. Among these players is Valentin Pinault, who ended up as the chip leader with 1,065,000 chips. He is the only player with more than one million chips, as the second and third in chips, Johann Greboval and Sunny Cocquempot, have 880,000 and 827,000 chips.

2024 Winamax Sismix Main Event Day 1a Top 10

Rank	Player	Country	Chip Count	Big Blinds
1	Valentin Pinault	France	1,065,000	133
2	Johann Greboval	France	880,000	110
3	Sunny Cocquempot	France	827,000	103
4	Gwendal Le Foll	France	821,000	103
5	Paul Beccari	France	804,000	101
6	Luis	Spain	774,000	97
7	Maxandre Dauphin	France	739,000	92
8	Alexis Fleur	France	729,000	91
9	Nafis Dundar	France	663,000	83
10	Aurelien Guiglini	France	612,000	77

Pierre Calamusa (170,000) is the only Winamax Team Pro who qualified, as Bruno "Kool Shen" Lopes was eliminated earlier in the day.

But LeVietF0u will not be the only member of the Winamax family on Day 2, as former Team Pro and staff member Aurélien "Guignol" Guiglini built a big stack of 612,000, and streamers Hadrien "zChance44" Gallois (490,000), Christopher "chrizzcasual" Marcadet (305,000) or Nemo "k0ering" Israel (261,000) managed to find a bag today.

The same goes for WIP Moundir Zoughari (236,000), recent Belgian Poker Challenge winner Rayane "moktavarium" Mokhtar and French singer Mike d'Inca, who has the second shortest stack of all with 40,000 chips.

Second of the Main Event last year, Christophe Beyer will also be back on Day 2 with 180,000 to try to win the title. 2016 Sismix runner-up Alexis Fleur will be in the same situation, but with a way bigger stack as he filled his bag with 729,000 chips.

Tomorrow, after tonight's party at the Theatro, the 5,500 MAD Sismix Main Event continues with Day 1b at noon local time. Like on Day 1a, players will receive a 50,000-chip starting stack and play 30-minute levels.

For all the other players who just want to enjoy the "fiesta schedule," there will be the daily pool party at 2 p.m. and the highly anticipated Winamax Beer Pong Open at 7 p.m.