On the button, Fahd raised to 51,000 and [Removed:215] flat-called out of the big blind to see a flop of . Groppi check-called a continuation bet worth 80,000 before both players then checked down the turn and the river.
Groppi revealed and that scooped the pot. Abdenbi Abida mentioned he had folded king-ten preflop, while Anas Tadini complained on the rail that were rather tight after being all in with jack-nine suited last night.
Henrique Pinho raised to 45,000 from the cutoff and was called by Ali Mechiche on the button before Abdenbi Abida squeezed to 155,000 out of the small blind. Fahd gave it some thought but folded, as did the Portuguese and Mechiche. Abida flashed the and raked in the pot.
In a battle of the blinds, Henrique Pinho raised and Ali Mechiche called to see a flop of . Pinho check-called a bet worth 50,000 and both then checked the turn and river. Mechiche's scooped the small pot.
In the first hand, Abdenbi Abida raised to 35,000 from under the gun and Michael van der Ghinst shoved for 94,000 to pick up a call by the chip leader.
van der Ghinst:
Abida:
The board ran out and the pot was shipped to the Belgian.
The dealers and chips are here, as are most of the finalists. But the table is not ready yet with a different flop camera being installed right now. It may take up to half an hour for the final table to start, so just grab a tea in the meanwhile!
In approximately half an hour from now at 1 p.m. local time, the Casino de Marrakech will see eight players out of a 220-entry strong field return to battle for the title of the 10,000 Dirhams Marrakech Poker Open Main Event. All players have 55,000 Dirhams locked up for their efforts, but all eyes are set on the trophy and first-place payout of 440,000 Dirhams.
Half of the remaining hopefuls comes from France and Abdenbi Abida leads the final table line up with 1,499,000 chips with Portugal's Henrique Pinho closely behind on 1,425,000. [Removed:215] (1,080,000) and Ali Mechiche (1,027,000) also bagged up seven digits overnight as well.
Mathieu Papineau (886,000) and Fahd (456,000) are in the middle of the pack and the latter has made his second final table of this festival after already being part of a four-way deal in the 15,000 Dirhams High Roller that paid smooth 250,000 Dirhams.
The two short stacks Mathieu Biague (126,000) and Michael van der Ghinst (94,000) are under immediate pressure when play resumes with 5:26 minutes left in level 22 at blinds 8,000-16,000 and a running ante of 2,000.
2016 Marrakech Poker Open Main Event Final Table
Seat
Player
Country
Chips
1
Fahd
Morocco
456,000
2
Michael van der Ghinst
Belgium
94,000
3
[Removed:215]
France
1,080,000
4
Mathieu Papineau
France
886,000
5
Mathieu Biague
France
126,000
6
Henrique Pinho
Portugal
1,425,000
7
Ali Mechiche
Morocco
1,027,000
8
Abdenbi Abida
France
1,499,000
Make sure to tune back into the PokerNews live reporting to find out who is crowned champion in the first-ever casino on Moroccan soil.