Ahmed Sylla Leads the Way After Day 1a of the Unibet Deepstack Open Marrakech
Day 1a of the 2024 Unibet Deepstack Open Marrakech was a day filled with action and excitement from the first shuffle. A total of 167 players made their way to the Casino de Marrakech with the goal of advancing to Day 2. Only 25% of entries were able to accomplish this as just 41 players advanced to Saturday’s Day 2.
Leading the way from this flight is Ahmed Sylla who accumulated 723,000 chips throughout the day. In second place is Pedro (537,000) and rounding out the podium in third is Niels de Vos (419,500).
Sylla is much better known for his exploits off the poker table as a famous actor and comedian, but his poker skills certainly did not disappoint today on his way to the chip lead as he looks to build upon his career earnings of $38,000 USD.
It was a relatively quick day of play with less than ten levels being completed. That means that Day 2 will begin with blinds still at 1,000/2,000 regardless of starting flight, despite the average chip stack being around 200,000.
End of Day 1a Top Ten Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ahmed Sylla | France | 723,000 |
| 2 | Pedro | Portugal | 537,000 |
| 3 | Niels de Vos | Netherlands | 419,500 |
| 4 | Khaled Almudhaf | Kuwait | 412,500 |
| 5 | Louis Michaud | France | 337,500 |
| 6 | Karim El Rharbaoui | Morocco | 312,500 |
| 7 | Abdelghani Bagas | Morocco | 296,000 |
| 8 | Adrien Ricard | France | 290,000 |
| 9 | Idriss Benkhetache | France | 260,000 |
| 10 | Mayis Birdemir | France | 247,000 |
The Day's Action
A number of notable players made their way to the Casino de Marrakech today. Alexandre Reard but not able to find a bag but Unibet Pro David Lappin and WSOP Bracelet winner Michael Lech both advanced to Day 2.
Early in the day, Adrien Ricard was involved in a crazy three-way all-in against Karim El Rhabaoui and Larbi Mabrouki. Ricard held two pair against the flopped flush of Mabrouki and open-ended straight flush draw of Rhabaoui. The board paired on the river to give Ricard a full house in a massive pot.
After dinner, end-of-day chip leader Ahmed Sylla made a great hero call in the largest pot of the day. He held aces against the queens of Hamid Hdech. When the board double-paired on the river, Hdech led all-in and Sylla had a tough decision for 90% of his remaining chips. In the end, he made the right call which catapulted him into the chip lead and he never looked back.
Toward the end of the evening, Aurelie Reard called an all-in from the big blind against two players with queen-nine suited, only to be shown pocket aces by both of her opponents. In miraculous fashion, Reard went runner-runner straight to eliminate both opponents.
For those who advanced, Day 2 resumes on Saturday, September 28 at 1 p.m. local time. However, there are still three more opening flights for those who were less fortunate. Day 1b kicks off on Thursday, September 26 a 1 p.m. local time and follows the same structure as today.
That does it for Day 1a coverage from the Unibet Deepstack Open Marrakech. Stay tuned to PokerNews as we follow all the action through the opening flights until a winner is crowned.