The action was caught on a board with around 7,000 in the middle. Linda Hamdi had bet 3,000 and was facing an all-in raise from El Mostafa Belkhayate worth 11,400. After some consideration, Hamdi announced the call and the cards were tabled:
El Mostafa Belkhayate:
Linda Hamdi:
Belkhayate had already hit a straight and the bricked on the river, giving him the pot and the early double up.
Nicolas Dieu started the action by raising to 300 and his opponent in the hijack three-bet to 700. The big blind player made the call and Dieu announced a four-bet to 3,300. The hijack five-bet to 5,700 and after some thinking, Dieu called after the big blind folded.
The flop gave and Dieu quickly check-folded this time when his opponent continued for 3,500.
The 55th Marrakech Poker Open continues to fill up, with Day 1a of the Main Event starting today and where many well-known faces are expected. After "Juan Antonio" and Mohamed Houssam Ali, winners of the Opener and Warm-Up respectively, it's the turn of French player Guillaume Darcourt to lift a trophy by winning the Deepstack for 230,000 MAD (€21,000).
The 5,000 MAD buy-in event brought together 234 entrants to create a prize pool of 1,017,900 MAD (€92,500) . After dominating the final table, the former PMU player then defeated Endravuz Lahdro in heads-up play to add this new victory to his record.
'The Boa' has now reached the $1.5 million mark in live tournament earnings according to Hendon Mob, and signs a second performance on Moroccan soil this year after reaching the Mini Main Event final of the WSOP Circuit in January for around €27,000 and the Opener final just a few days ago.
As for Lahdro, he was able to console himself with 153,000 MAD (€14,000) for his performance, his second runner-up finish on this festival after having already finished second in the Opener for 98,000 MAD. Also noteworthy is the beautiful 5th place of Linda Hamidi (6 000 MAD -€5500), 8th for Laurent Azoulay (27 000 MAD - €2500) and 9th for Isabel Baltazar (21 000 MAD - €1905).
In a three-way raised pot, the dealer showed a flop when the players in the blinds checked to Guillaume Darcout who bet 1,000. Both the small blind and El Mostafa Belkhayate in the big blind called.
The turn revealed a and this time Belkhayate bet 4,000 after it was checked to him. Only Darcourt called.
A completed the board on the river and Belkhayate fired 10,000. Darcourt took a minute and eventually made the call. Belkhayate tabled for a missed flush draw and the French player, who won the Deepstack event last night for MAD 230 000, took down the big pot with for two pairs.
The cards are now in the air for Day 1A of the 55th Marrakech Poker Open Main Event from the Es Saadi Casino. There are 17 players to begin the day, and players will be playing twelve 45-minute levels before tagging for Day 2.
There are currently five players registered for the tournament and due to the late registration still open for the High Roller, the tournament director is discussing the structure of the day.
The start of the tournament has been delayed to approximately 2:00 p.m.