Maxime Manzone, alias Jokeezy06

Álex Romero A 29-year-old semi-professional player and family man, this player from Cannes intends to use his promotion within Team Winamax as a springboard for the rest of his career.

There are some for whom poker is an obvious choice, perfectly integrated into their life, like a logical continuation. In the case of Maxime Manzone, destiny had a hand in forcing his luck. A native of Cannes in France, having just completed a vocational baccalaureate (electronics and digital systems) and on the way to a "slightly unsuccessful BTS" according to him, he began to play his first games shortly after his 18th birthday. At first, it was mainly a question of curiosity: "We played a few games with friends in the evening," he recalls, "and then we went to play our first live tournaments at the Mandelieu-la-Napoule casino, just next door to our home.” These experiences gave Maxime his first thrills, with "small final tables in small competitions. I loved to feel the adrenaline rush at the end of the game. Although he "didn't immediately feel the passion" for poker, the southerner "got the hang of it", enough to try his hand at the online tables, "occasionally, in a purely recreational way".

Because at the same time, Maxime has a "real" job. After leaving his studies early to join the working life as soon as possible, he first took a job as a specialist installer for antennae for three years, and then became a fibre network controller for a well-known mobile and Internet operator. "I manage the entire fibre network around Antibes and for the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department: deployment, maintenance and after-sales service.” So if you live in the area, you know who you owe your broadband connection to. But the desire for competition was never far away. A former U18 goalkeeper for AS Cannes (14-year-old national team), in the company of former Bordeaux player Thomas Touré, Maxime is switching from physical pitches to virtual ones, this time with the AS Monaco jersey. A semi-professional e-sport player on FIFA for two years, he represented the Red and Whites in all competitions at national level and even reached the semi-finals of the eLigue1 in 2017. "I love winning and being at the top of my game," he says. “Even if I haven't touched a controller since!"

In the wake of this, Jokeezy started to play poker "a lot" in 2018, even if it was not until 2020 that something clicked. It was through virtual meetings that Maxime climbed the ladder. "I started to have chats with players I met regularly at the tables through the Winamax chat room. I then joined strong work groups, composed of regular players.” This gave him new food for thought. "I wanted to work on my game, but I didn't really know how to do it, or where to look for information. Until then, I was content watching videos and streams.” On the French side, I was definitely influenced by Hadrien 'ViensMonAgno' and Team Winamax's Stream Gang evenings, as well as a few foreign Twitchers like Benjamin 'Bencb' Rolle and Parker 'tonka' Talbot. Gone are the dilettante games: now it's time to analyse hands in groups, and to think more about theoretical concepts.

New working methods that gradually bore their fruit. Playing an average buy-in of €15 in 2020, Maxime gradually raised the stakes. 2021 was the year of his first big wins, on Prime Time and a €50 Pokus tournament, with a first five-figure cheque in between during the Winamax Series. But by his own admission, it's in 2022 that Jokeezy06 passed a milestone in terms of results. More recurring finals at our biggest festivals, with a new high score of nearly €18,000 on a €100 WSeries tourney. And that's without really competing with the most relentless multi-tablers: "Six tables at once, rarely more."

It is this consistency on our most expensive tables that allows him to enter the Top Shark Academy, after crushing a final reserved for the highest ranked players of our annual Grand Prix. For once, things are going a little faster than expected. "In my mind, I still had a lot of steps to take before I could try the Top Shark adventure with peace of mind. But once I had the ticket, I devoted myself to it. Rarely in the lead but never in danger either, Maxime left nothing to chance during the first four weeks of competition. "The 'theoretical' tests gave me a lot of trouble. There were so many exercises that I had never done before. So I went to the archives of previous years, to get inspiration from the best videos, to avoid making the same mistakes as my predecessors, and to get feedback from the jury.

Faced with these trials that take up most of his free time, Maxime can count on the unfailing support of his partner. "She has always been behind me. During the final, she talked to everyone, she followed the ranking every day and she always had the right words when things were not going so well. Whether it's her, my brother - who has almost become my mental coach over the years - or the rest of the family, they are a huge support and a huge strength. That's essential for me.” An energy that Maxime has to draw on during the 12 days of the final, for which he is obliged to "play for an unprecedented time and volume. “I went from six to twelve simultaneous tables (I had to buy two new screens for the occasion) and I decided to play everything, leaving myself the possibility of changing my strategy if things go wrong.” The opposite is true. After two difficult first days, Jokeezy finally gets the hang of it.

Moving in with his parents for the duration of the final event so as not to disturb his wife and child, he regularly swapped the lead with JossTheBoss9, until the moment he considered to be the real turning point of this final: "At the beginning of Day 2 of the Super Championship Mystery, we were at the same table and I eliminated him on a bad beat: two Jacks against two Queens. He had 25 blinds, I was covering him pretty well, but if he had doubled up, everything could have been different." After that, Jokeezy finished the tournament in 20th place, signing his second best performance of the Top Shark final, having opened a €20,000 mystery prize! "It was incredible, I was screaming and jumping around." And to create a gap that none of his pursuers would manage to close.

Now it's time for another, more pleasant challenge: preparing for the busy year of 2023. "I'm thinking about my schedule. There are a lot of things to take into account, both in terms of the EPT and the WSOP. Vegas, of course, is a dream, something every poker player should experience." As you can see, playing live, discovering the most beautiful festivals on the planet, is what Maxime wants most of all. "That's what I prefer! Of course, I'll have to work a lot. I'll have to adapt to the profiles, to playing with eight or more people per table, and to the succession of very long days." But don't expect him to put any pressure on himself. "I don't have any specific goals. I'm simply giving myself this year to evolve as much as possible, to work as well as possible with the Winamax staff and the other members of the team. I could never have dreamed of being surrounded by such players," admits the man who praises Adrián Mateos and João Vieira, with whom he will now be able to exchange ideas on a daily basis.

Will this make him reconsider his current lifestyle, split between poker and a salaried job? "For me, professionalisation is something that should come naturally. I'm a steady person who has to be 150% sure before making a decision. I can either have a string of really good years on the grind, or I can have one defining, huge victory. Either way, when the time comes, I'll know. Head on his shoulders, continuously progressing, motivated and well surrounded: what if Maxime has the ingredients for success?

You can follow him through our coverage of the live circuit or by playing against him on our online tables, under the nickname Jokeezy06.

Tournament accomplishments on Winamax

01/2023	Winamax Series Super Championship - €500	20^th (€24,729)
01/2023	Winamax Series Event 105 - €20	4^th - €4,280
11/2022	Winamax Pokus Event 48 - €50	2^th - €5,717
10/2022	2 Million Week KO Mystery - €50	20^th - €5,636
09/2022	Winamax Series Event 10 - €100	2^nd - €17,754
08/2022	Main Event - €125	5^th - €5,893
07/2022	Summer Shots Event 37 - €50	Winner (€5,622)
04/2022	Winamax Series Event 159 - €50	2^nd - €8,223
04/2022	Winamax Series Marathon Event - €50	6^th - €3,885
11/2021	Winamax Pokus Event 100 - €50	Winner (€3,854)
09/2021	Winamax Series Event 25 - €50	3^rd - €10,804
06/2021	Prime Time - €50	Winner (€4,346)
04/2021	Winamax Series Event 126 - €50	5^th - €8,164
09/2020	Grand Tournament Funday - €500	8^th - €5,895
01/2020	La Fièvre - €10	2^nd - €4,415
01/2020	Digestif - €10	2^th - €2,114
12/2019	La Fièvre - €10	4^th - €2,431

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