Moises Parrilla-Ramos Wins Marrakech Poker Open Main Event
After outlasting 183 players, three days and two deals there was only one champion in the Marrakech Poker Open Main Event and his name was Moises Parilla-Ramos.
After coming into the final table with the chip lead, he relinquished it to French player [Removed:432] who at one point held a 2:1 chip lead over the rest of the field combined.
The final table was full of colourful characters, including home interest in Moroccans Abdellah El Ghrari, who lead after day one. Tahiri Hassani, lead going into the day, but in the end, Moises Parrilla-Ramos held a slight edge when it came to deal negotiations first at three-handed, and then heads-up. He eventually took home the lion's share of the prize pool heads up as well as the title and trophy.
| Place | Name | Country | Prize (EUR) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Moises Parrilla-Ramos | Spain | €23,678* |
| 2 | [Removed:432] | France | €21,818* |
| 3 | Jerome Zerbib | France | €18,562* |
| 4 | Idir Haiche | France | €12,531 |
| 5 | Erik Ostergaard | Denmark | €10,396 |
| 6 | Valeryi Chupin | Russia | €8,633 |
| 7 | Francisco Vargas | Spain | €7,240 |
| 8 | Abdellah El Ghrari | Morocco | €5,940 |
| 9 | Tahiri Hassani | Morocco | €4,826 |
*denotes deals agreed three-handed & heads-up
Eleven players started the day, lead by Hassani. He was one of two Moroccans left in the field at the start of the day, the other being Abdellah El Ghrari. El Ghrari eliminated the first player of the day, Tsunamy, when his opponent's sevens were cracked by the Moroccan's ace-king. The final table was secured after Andrei-Salustin Luncan lost his remaining chips to Idir Haiche.
The final table started out as a nervous affair. It took more than a level and a half to lose our first player, chip leader at the start of the day, Tahiri Hassani, and then a further two hours until the madness started.
First, the final Moroccan in the field three-bet all in over [Removed:432] holding queen-ten against his opponent's pocket eights. [Removed:433] flopped a set, bringing the field down to eight.
The very next hand, it was down to seven when again [Removed:433] held pocket eights and flopped a set, this time against the pocket aces of Francisco Vargas. To round out the madness, [Removed:432] rivered a single pair of fives against Valeryi Chupin to make it three knockouts in three hands, and get the action down to six players.
There were a number of short stacks, and there were soon doubles for Jerome Zerbib which Erik Ostergaard crippled. A double for Moises Parrilla-Ramos through [Removed:432] cut the Frenchman's lead at the top of proceedings.
Ostergaard departed next, closely followed by Haiche whose ace-king was cracked by the ace-jack of Parrilla-Ramos.
Then the deal discussions started in earnest. Parrilla-Ramos, thanks to his timely double through [Removed:433] and elimination of Haiche in fourth held the majority of the chips and therefore locked up the most money.
After the deal was agreed, Zerbib was eliminated in third (€18,562) and the remaining two players started up the deal talk again.
And so it came to pass that Moises Parrilla-Ramos secured the Main Event title, the €23,678 in winnings and the trophy to cap of what has been a hugely enjoyable Marrakech Poker Open.