Smain Mamouni and Louis Linard Headline the Last Two Tables in Marrakech
Only 153 hopefuls out of a record field of 433 entries returned to the tables of the Casino de Marrakech for Day 2 of the 2017 PMU.fr WPT DeepStacks Marrakech MAD 13,,200 (€1,200) Main Event and it took just over 11 levels of 60 minutes each to reduce that number to the last 16 contenders for the final showdown on Sunday October 8th 2017.
The lion's share of the MAD 4,949,600 prize pool is still up for grabs and all remaining 16 players have MAD 52,000 locked up for their efforts, why all eyes are set on the trophy and first-place payout of MAD 1,000,000. On top of that, the champion also receives a package worth €2,000 (€1,500 Main Event and €500 in travel expenses) for the WPT DeepStacks Final in Berlin in January 2018, which has a guaranteed prize pool of €500,000.
Best-positioned to lift the trophy is Smain Mamouni with 2,000,000 followed by fellow Frenchman Louis Linard (1,837,000), while Anas Belatik follows in third place with 1,670,000. The only other chip millionaire is Anthony Cruz 1,189,000, and the PMU.fr qualifiers Julien Lemonnier (718,000) and Damien Lhommeau (429,000) remain in contention. Elizabeth Tedder, who made the trip to sunny Morocco all the way from Oregon, is the last woman standing with 664,000 and other notables among the finalists include Malek Grabsi (500,000), Pedro Cairat (445,000), Day 1 chip leader Ludovic Moryousef (252,000) and 2016 November Niner Fernando Pons (228,000).
Day 3 Seat Assignments
| Table | Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Cedric D | France | 617,000 | 31 |
| 1 | 2 | Daniel C | Spain | 659,000 | 33 |
| 1 | 3 | Fernando Pons | Spain | 228,000 | 11 |
| 1 | 4 | Anas Belatik | France | 1,670,000 | 84 |
| 1 | 5 | Malek Grabsi | France | 500,000 | 25 |
| 1 | 6 | Smain Mamouni | France | 2,000,000 | 100 |
| 1 | 7 | Tsunamy | Spain | 266,000 | 13 |
| 1 | 8 | Julien Lemonnier | France | 718,000 | 36 |
| 2 | 1 | Anthony Cruz | France | 1,189,000 | 59 |
| 2 | 2 | Damien Lhommeau | France | 429,000 | 21 |
| 2 | 3 | Jean-Jacques Chantalat | France | 621,000 | 31 |
| 2 | 4 | Pablo R | Spain | 949,000 | 47 |
| 2 | 5 | Ludovic Moryousef | France | 252,000 | 13 |
| 2 | 6 | Pedro Cairat | Argentina | 445,000 | 22 |
| 2 | 7 | Louis Linard | France | 1,837,000 | 92 |
| 2 | 8 | Elizabeth Tedder | United States | 664,000 | 33 |
Action will resume at 2 p.m. local time and the last two tables will be live-streamed without hole cards until the unofficial final table, then switches to a security delay of 30 minutes with hole cards displayed until a champion is crowned. There are 50 minutes left in level 23 and blinds of 10,000/20,000 with a running ante of 3,000.
Remaining Payouts
| Place | Prize (in MAD) | Prize (in Euro) | Prize (in USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,000,000 | 89,942 | 105,000 |
| 2 | 700,000 | 62,960 | 73,500 |
| 3 | 450,000 | 40,474 | 47,250 |
| 4 | 320,000 | 28,782 | 33,600 |
| 5 | 245,000 | 22,036 | 25,725 |
| 6 | 200,000 | 17,988 | 21,000 |
| 7 | 163,000 | 14,661 | 17,115 |
| 8 | 132,000 | 11,872 | 13,860 |
| 9 | 108,100 | 9,723 | 11,351 |
| 10-11 | 90,000 | 8,095 | 9,450 |
| 12-13 | 75,000 | 6,746 | 7,875 |
| 14-15 | 62,000 | 5,576 | 6,510 |
| 16 | 52,000 | 4,677 | 5,460 |
Day 2 Action
Among those that busted before the money were such notables as Said El Yousfi, Youtuber Doc Seven, Marvin Dupre, Corbin White, Fouad Zouiten, Sonny Franco, Alexandre Reard, Pierre Merlin Usman Sidique, High Roller champion Aleksandras Voisnis and Ludovic Riehl. The bubble burst when Khier Rezaik check-called all in with jack-eight suited for second pair on a king-high paired turn. AD turned over ace-three and rivered a queen to improve to a straight.
Soon after all were guaranteed at least MAD 24,000, [Removed:146] joined the rail in 53rd place. The Frenchman, who recently finished 9th in the 2017 PokerStars Championship Barcelona Main Event for €104,000, lost a flip with pocket tens against the queen-jack of Perez.
Helene Gros had to settle for 41st place and PMU.fr Team Pro and High Roller 4th place finisher John Guilbert followed right after. Guilbert defended his big blind with queen-jack and flopped top pair, turned trips and shoved the river. Pierre Barthelemy called with ace-jack with the same trips and the better kicker to send Guilbert to the rail.
Corinne Mermet (39th, for MAD 25,000), High Roller runner up [Removed:44] (33rd, for MAD 27,500), Will Davies (31st, for MAD 25,000), and Slimane Mameche (29th for MAD 25,000) missed out on the last three tables while Louis Linard scored a vital triple up when his poccket eights beat pocket queens and pocket kings in a three-way preflop all in. Linard joined the big stacks after picking up pocket kings in the big blind and facing the three-bet shove of Emile Carette in the small blind with pocket sevens. The run good of the Frenchman continued with another pocket pair in a three-way all in situation. Djamel Ouaret with ace-king and Daniel with ace-king suited failed to get there against Linard's pocket queens and suddenly the Frenchman held 1.8 million in chips.
Vincent Mansour has a bad beat story to tell after his ace-queen suited for top pair and nut flush draw on the flop were cracked by queen-ten off suit, a blank ten on the river ended his run in 21st place. Pierrick Burban lost a flip with ace-queen against the pocket deuces of Smain Mamouni when the chips went in preflop. Burban turned a straight, but his fortune ended one card later when one of the remaining two deuces in the deck gave Mamouni a full house. Mamouni claimed the lead after sending Michel Leibgorin to the rail and Aurelie Reard became the last casualty of the night to set up the final 16.
The PokerNews live reporting team will provide the written action and live stream for the showdown on Sunday, so make sure to tune back in regularly.