Moundir Zoughari (compliments of Caroline Darcourt)
French reality television personality Moundir Zoughari is known for his many years appearing on the French version of Survivor before more recently starring in his own reality action-adventure show called Moundir.
Moundir is also well-known among the French poker community, especially Winamax players where he is a Winamax VIP helping to promote the brand.
With over $35,000 in tournament cashes according to The Hendon Mob, Moundir proved he is more than just a reality star and can play as well. Moundir's biggest cash was also at a Winamax event, when in 2012 he outlasted a field of 205 entrants in a Winamax Poker Tour Paris €225 no-limit hold'em side event to bank a cool €10,000.
Well-known poker pro Alexandre Luneau becomes the second Team Winamax member to join today's Day 1a field. Luneau focuses mostly on high-stakes cash games, however, has been known to dabble occasionally in tournaments as well.
He shared with us that he busted near the end of Day 1 of the Highroller last night and seems excited about playing today.
Luneau commented that today was the first time he has attended a SISMIX festival and so far he is impressed sharing that, "It's nice, Winamax does a good job with the poker festival."
At the first break we are at 124 players with 111 remaining. This includes 5 re-entries. Play will resume in 20 minutes with the antes being introduced with blinds at 100/200 along with an ante of 25.
[Removed:366] (picture compliments of Caroline Darcourt)
We noticed the possibility of players wearing the WAM-Poker.com badge, so we were curious to find out a bit more about this. We were explained that this is a big French poker community where players can connect with one another.
Early on, it was just Damien "Hr. H" [Removed:381] wearing the badge, but he hopes to see others do the same. "I put my logo hoping to meet other Wameurs but I'm the only one for now!" shared [Removed:381].
Day 2 of the Highroller is about to kick off with 63 of the original 163 players taking their seats. Players still have a bit of time before they hit the money with 23 players getting paid a minimum of 27,000 MAD or about €2,500. The winner will be walking away with a huge prize of 500,000 MAD or about €46,000.
Karim Bennani Smires (Picture Compliments of Caroline Darcourt)
Among the players to start off the opening day is France's Karim Bennani Smires. Smires has had some luck in the past in Morocco with a win in the Mazagan Poker Million for 357,000 MAD ($42,987) in 2010 and another win two years later in the WPT National Series for 158,000 MAD ($17,168).
Smires' biggest cash haul, however, came in the continent of Europe when he took eighth place in the 2009 EPT London Main Event for £50,100 ($79,757)
Florian Decamps at the moment is the loan representative of the 11 member contingent of Team Winamax. Part of this is due to the Highroller which began yesterday getting back into action soon. While Decamps shared with us he busted yesterday, many of his fellow team members are still in action and thus won't be involved in the Main Event until Day 1b.
Others not involved in the Highroller are still expected to get in on today's action, however, it is possible with the weather being perfect that a small minority may choose to soak in the sun instead.
The tournament has grown to 100 players with still 15 minutes left during Level 2. We were informed that late registration will remain open until Level 8, however, players are not waiting that long to take advantage to get back in the action.
Two of the three players that were early eliminations have already ponied up another 6,000 MAD (€550) to get back in the action.
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