Abdellah El Ghrari Leads After Marrakech Poker Open Main Event Day 1
When Barny Boatman walked into the Casino de Marrakech, it must have been a strange sensation with barely a dozen players ready to take their seats. However, just over seven hours later, that number had swelled to 170 total entrants, 94 of which will be coming back tomorrow to continue their Main Event campaign.
Boatman (25,800) was joined in the Main Event by a whole host of regulars to Marrakech, including Leo Margets (86,000), Mathieu Selides (49,000) and Pierre Neuville (41,000).
Neuville was constantly in the action over the course of the day. Whether it was rivering pairs against Erdal Turker in Level 4 or eliminating Nassima Ouberdous in Level 8, the Belgian November Niner was always ready to get involved.
Another November Niner also joined the field. Fernando Pons didn’t have it all his own way, but he battled hard to bag up 45,800.
Leading the way is Abdellah El Ghrari with an astonishing 244,400. No one in the field comes close to him apart from perhaps Robert Escribano (143,000) or Jens Erik Ostergaard (116,000)
There were also several of the players who cashed in last night’s Main Event who joined the party, with Abdelhadi Kondah, [Removed:432], Jerome Sgorrano , Paul Guichard, Houssein El Otmani and Said El Yousfi all entering. El Yousfi managed to bag up 73,000 despite also being in the High Roller where he eventually busted in second place.
A nice sub-story to the day was that father and son duo Lionel Grobocopatel and Benoit Grobocopatel both advancing to Day 2, bagging up 52,200 and 29,200, respectively. Lionel had most of the chips throughout the day, with Benoit relying on opportune moments, and of course, the elimination of Guichard to stay alive.
Other notables include Kully Sidhu (79,600), Sonny Franco (63,000), and Guichard (25,000).
Play resumes tomorrow at 1:00 p.m., so stay tuned to PokerNews for full chip counts, and of course the conclusion of the Marrakech Poker Open Main Event.
and Vargas doubled through Sgorrano, who finished 5th in yesterday's High Roller.
bested his opponent's 
run out. Benoit's father Lionel immediately turned around to confer with his son. It remains to be seen just how far the pair of them can go...
with one diamond.
. We didn't get the river cards, but we were told that they were both diamonds, giving Neuville a flush and eliminating Sow.
. It checked to Anas Elamrani who bet 1,200. Paul Guichard and Benoit Grobocopatel called.
. It checked to Guichard who moved all in for 25,000. Grobocopatel called and Elamrani folded.
for a rivered pair of jacks. Turker shook his head and showed 
and his opponent called. The river was the 
. It checked to Boatman who bet 600. The blinds both folded and Grobocopatel raised to 1,550. Boatman called.
. Grobocopatel bet 3,000 and Boatman raised to 6,000. After some thought his opponent re-raised to 14,000. "Nice hand," said Boatman, before folding.
