After Max Deveson opened from under the gun, Christopher Marcadet in the big blind three-bet to 340,000 and was called by Deveson.
Marcadet continued with a bet of 235,000 on a flop of 5♣10♣2♦, and Deveson called. Then on the turn 8♣, Marcadet shoved for almost 1,000,000 chips. Deveson snap-called.
Christopher Marcadet: K♦K♠
Max Deveson: 8♦8♥
Marcadet's kings were cracked by Deveson's set hit on the turn. Fuming, Marcadet was eliminated in 22nd place after the river 3♦.
A few hands after he doubled up, Wim Verhaegen opened to 80,000 from under the gun. All the other players folded to Manuel Machado, who defended from the big blind.
Machado check-called when Verhaegen continued with a bet of 90,000 on the J♣7♠K♦ flop, and he check-called again on the turn J♥ after Verhaegen bet 230,000.
On the river 2♠, Verhaegen finally moved all-in for 420,000. Machado was obviously facing a painful decision. For more than a minute, he kept moving on his chair. And he eventually folded K♣10♣. It was the right decision, as Verhaegen had A♥J♣ for a set.
Out of the 1,163 entrants in the WSOPC Marrakech Main Event, 245 players returned for Day 2 at the Casino de Marrakech inside the Es Saadi Resort. Among them, 170 runners reached the money, but only 21managed to find a bag at the end of the day and qualify for Day 3.
Thanks to a massive pot won after the dinner break, Mohamed Hakim jumped into the top spots of the chip count and kept his big stack until the end as he bagged the chip lead with 3,890,000 chips. Only Max Deveson, who takes the second place, will be back tomorrow for the final day with more than three million chips (3,325,000).
End-of-Day 2 Top Ten
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Mohamed Hakim
Morocco
3,890,000
78
2
Max Deveson
United Kingdom
3,325,000
67
3
Sandro Jose Alves
Portugal
2,475,000
50
4
Jean-Claude Ruche
Belgium
2,365,000
47
5
Nicola Pezzullo
Italy
2,255,000
45
6
Luis
Spain
2,140,000
43
7
Igor Picone
Belgium
2,090,000
42
8
Guillaume Garcia
France
1,875,000
38
9
Ramon
Grenada
1,800,000
36
10
Roger Tondeur
Switzerland
1,615,000
32
France will be the most represented country on the final day with five players, including Guillaume Garcia (1,875,000), Antoine Delorme (1,165,000), Jawad Bengourane (1,010,000) and 2023 Marrakech Poker Open winner Adrien Sanz (655,000). Chip leader at the beginning of the day, Jean-Pierre Grand-Moursel now holds one of the shortest stacks with 620,000 chips.
Belgium will also be well-represented with three players: Jean-Claude Ruche, who is fourth in chips tonight (2,365,000); Igor Picone, also holding over two million chips (2,090,000); and Wim Verhaegen, who doubled up in the final hands of the day to bag 1,610,000 chips.
However, Day 3 won't just be a battle between France and Belgium. Players from other countries, such as Nicola Pezzullo (2,255,000), Roger Tondeur (1,615,000), Endravuz Lahdo (1,340,000), and Yuzhou Yin (1,215,000), will also be vying to win the tournament. Same for Filippo Lazzaretto, the shortest stack of all (510,000).
The remaining players will return tomorrow, Sunday, January 21, for Day 3 of the Main Event. Play resumes at 1 p.m. local time in Level 26, which has a small blind of 25,000, big blind of 25,000 and a running big blind ante of 50,000. Levels will be 60-minute long during this final day.
WSOPC Marrakech Main Event Payouts
Place
Prize (in MAD)
Prize (in EUR)
Place
Prize (in MAD)
Prize (in EUR)
1
2,150,000
€200,000
9
275,000
€25,000
2
1,550,000
€143,000
10-11
225,000
€21,000
3
1,100,000
€101,000
12-13
180,000
€16,500
4
800,000
€74,000
14-15
140,000
€13,000
5
610,000
€56,000
16-17
110,000
€10,000
6
490,000
€45,000
18-20
88,000
€8,000
7
405,000
€37,000
21
73,000
€6,700
8
335,000
€31,000
Come back tomorrow to see who will be crowned the winner and take home the Gold ring as well as the 2,150,000 MAD prize (around €200,000) for first place. PokerNews will provide start-to-finish coverage of the final day.