After he opened on the button, Antoine Delorme bet 700,000 on 2♦5♦J♣. Max Deveson, who called preflop, check-raised to 2,800,000 on the flop. Delorme made the call.
They both checked on the turn 5♥, and Deveson checked again on the river A♠. Delorme then bet 2,800,000 with J♦J♠, but Deveson snap-folded.
Thanks to small pots, Max Deveson managed to be back in the lead, and he is now significantly chip leader thanks to one hand.
He limped from the button and Antoine Delorme checked his option. On the flop J♥6♦10♦, Deveson bet 700,000 and Delorme check-called, then Deverson fired a second barrel of 2,200,000 on the turn K♣. Deveson check-called once again.
On the river A♥, after Delorme checked, Deveson asked for 3,800,000. Delorme struggled to make a decision, but eventually called after a few minutes with K♦6♥. Unfortunately for him, Deveson hit a straight on the river with Q♥Q♣.
After they split, both players flipped over their cards again, with Antoine Delorme in the big blind still at risk for 5,600,000 chips.
Antoine Delorme: Q♣9♣
Max Deveson: K♥10♠
On a board of 4♥5♠5♥9♥, Delorme hit two pair and was on his way to double up. "Seven of hearts" shouted Deveson's friends when the dealer moved to reveal the river. And the 7♥ landed on the felt, completing Deveson's flush.
The final duel felt like a roller coaster! After a two-and-a-half-hour-long heads-up battle where both players had opportunities to win, Max Deveson was the one who was finally crowned the champion of the 2024 WSOP Circuit Marrakech Main Event, here at the Casino de Marrakech inside the Es Saadi Resort.
Deveson is now the proud owner of a WSOP Circuit ring and takes home 2,150,000 MAD (approximately €200,000). Obviously exhausted and disappointed, Antoine Delorme finishes in second place out of a field of 1,163 entrants, going back home with 1,550,000 MAD (€143,000).
2024 WSOP Circuit Marrakech Main Event Results
Place
Player
Country
Prize (in MAD)
Prize (in EUR)
1
Max Deveson
United Kingdom
2,150,000
€200,000
2
Antoine Delorme
France
1,550,000
€143,000
3
Sandro Jose Alves
Portugal
1,100,000
€101,000
4
Nicola Pezzullo
Italy
800,000
€74,000
5
Jean-Claude Ruche
Belgium
610,000
€56,000
6
"Victor"
Spain
490,000
€45,000
7
Guillaume Garcia
France
405,000
€37,000
8
Yuzhou Yin
China
335,000
€31,000
9
Igor Picone
Belgium
275,000
€25,000
Winner's Reaction
The British player, now established in South Africa, began the festival on a high note, finishing fourth in the Opener for 162,000 MAD. "I was kind of sad but very fortunate," he said, remembering this tournament.
However, any lingering sadness completely disappeared from his range of emotions after winning the big one—the Main Event. "I'm very tired. But getting through 1,163 players and having two deep runs in big fields in one week is kind of crazy. Hopefully, it will happen again!"
Yet, winning the tournament wasn't an easy feat for this cash game player who transitioned to tournaments. "I didn’t really think about that win until four or five people left. Then, once I started to build a stack and got to the chip lead, I was confident I was gonna get to the final two," he explained.
However, once in heads-up, his confidence was tested with multiple turnarounds against Delorme. "To be honest, when I had a big chip lead, it felt like I was winning every hand. Then I lost the all-ins, and as soon as he won those, he built confidence. It was a bit deflecting. It felt like it was his tournament. But I was fortunate with the king-three against king-jack. And from there, I cruised control, had good hands, played as well as I could, and I was fortunate I came out on top".
Max Deveson
Final Day's Action
Out of a total field of 1,163 entrants, 21 players returned on Day 3, all with dreams of winning the prestigious WSOP Circuit golden ring. However, for Filippo Lazzaretto, who started the final day with the shortest stack, the dream seemed a bit far. And he became the first player eliminated of the day, finishing 21st for 73,000 MAD.
Lazzaretto was followed to the cashier by Day 1a chip leader Jean-Pierre Grand-Moursel (20th, 88,000 MAD), Jawad Bengourane (19th, 88,000 MAD), Mostafa Essanhaji (18th, 88,000 MAD), and Endravuz Lahdo. Unlike his brother Samiyel Duzgun, the winner of the Main Event in 2020, Lahdo was eliminated in 17th place (110,000 MAD). However, this was for the best, as he immediately jumped into a Turbo event and won his first WSOP ring.
Endravuz Lahdo
Following Lahdo's elimination, the remaining 16 players gathered at the last two tables, but Wim Verhaegen (110,000 MAD) quickly abandoned them. The same fate befell Roger Tondeur (14th, 140,000 MAD), Manuel Machado (who struggled for a long moment with a very short stack), and Adrien Sanz (13th, 180,000 MAD).
The chip leader at the beginning of the day, Mohamed Hakim maintained his lead during the first hours, but failed to reach the final table as he was eliminated by Nicola Pezzullo's kings. Pezzullo began the final table with the biggest stack thanks to this pot.
From this point onward, Pezzullo dominated the final table, becoming the first player with over 10,000,000 chips and sending both gor Picone (9th, 275,000 MAD) and "Victor" (6th, 490,000 MAD) to the rail. Between these eliminations, Yuzhou Yin with jacks ran into Jean-Claude Ruche's queens, finishing in eighth place for 335,000 MAD, and Guillaume Garcia (7th, 405,000 MAD) saw Delorme hit his king on the river.
The same Alves found himself at risk not long after with queens. However, Deveson was lucky enough to hit a runner-runner flush to send Alves to the rail (3rd Place, 1,100,000 MAD) and start the heads-up play with almost twice Delorme’s stack.
Antoine Delorme and Max Deveson
The beginning of the final duel was one-sided, with Deveson quickly extending his lead to 80% of the chips in play. However, the situation took a turn when Delorme doubled up twice, allowing him to have a first opportunity to win the tournament. Holding king-jack, he had the best hand preflop, but Deveson hit a pair with king-three to double up. Deveson doubled up again a few hands later, reclaiming the first-place position.
