Fabrice Casano was the initial preflop raiser and found a customer in Mohamed Sekkat, who three-bet from two seats over to see a flop of ??. The action reached to Sekkat and he pushed all in for Casano to snap-call with the ?. Sekkat had ? and couldn't get there, as the turn and the river completed the board.
Antoine Rahal opened from the button to 40,000 and both players in the blinds, Mohamed Sekkat as well as Robert Giordano ,called. On the ? flop, Giordano shoved for 138,000 and was only called by Rahal with the ?. Giordano had the ? and held up after the turn and river bricked.
Just when the players were about to be moved to the last two tables, Inigo Montoya had pushed all in over on table 4. It was for 248,000 from the button and Miroslav Alilovic tank-called in the big blind with ?. Montoya only had the ? and failed to improve on a board of ????.
Short stack Thierry Gogniat open-shoved for less than four big blinds with ? and was looked up by Ramona Gallardo with ?. The Frenchman was slightly ahead but his kicker didn't hold up on a board of ????.
Shortly after doubling up, Ahmed Boukaddeda three-bet shoved again and was called by Fahd Kaabat with ?. The player at risk held ? and this time the board ran out ???? to bust Boukaddeda in 20th place.
Ahmed Boukaddeda three-bet shoved for 149,000 with ? and initial raiser Ondrej Milabersky called with ?. The board ran out ???? and Matas Cimbolas said "good game buddy" to Boukaddeda to leave some opponents as well as the dealer confused. Then everyone realized that the short stack had in fact doubled up, Cimbolas couldn't stop laughing.
After two tournament days and 23 levels of play, a field of 484 entries has been reduced to the last 20? hopefuls still in contention for the 1,300,000 Dirhams first-place payout. With the action resuming at 2 p.m. local time and blinds at 10,000-20,000 and a running ante of 3,000, many of the shorter stacks are under immediate pressure.
The first two levels last 60 minutes whereas all remaining levels after that increase to 75 minutes each. Leading the field of the 20 survivors is Manuel Makiadi with 1,700,000 chips followed by Ahmed Boukaddeda (1,512,000), Ricardo Manquant (1,497,000) and Mohamed Sekkat (1,420,000). World Poker Tour National Brussels finalist Miroslav Alilovic (1,380,000) as well as Matas Cimbolas (1,135,000) are nicely placed for yet another deep run whereas Martial Blangenwitsch (400,000) is among the short stacks with 20 big blinds.
Once the final table of the last nine is reached, a short break takes place to move all remaining players into a separate room. The PokerNews team will be there to bring you all the crucial hands until a winner is crowned, so make sure to tune back in often!