The Day 1b of the 55e edition of the Marrakech Poker Open has wrapped up after 10 hours of play inside the luxurious Es Saadi Resort. The Moroccan Ismail Fath-Eddine had a reason to celebrate at the end of the day as he bagged best and will return to the felt with a 380,000 chip stack.
This second of three starting flights has wrapped up with 43 out of 177 entrants surviving the first day, surpassing the number of 70 entries from yesterday.
In the wake of Fath-Eddine, players like Mostafa Boukri (275,(00), Isabel Baltazar (265 000) , Karim Lehoussine (250,000), recent FPS Main Event paris winner Alan Goasdoue (211,000) and MPO High-Roller Dinesh Alt (199,000) are also in the top 10 at the end of the day.
Notables such as Rachid El Yaacoubi (175,500), WPT Paris winner Fabrice Bigot (140,500), German player Carsten Mawick (116,000), Sonny Franco (103,000) and Amine Seif (61,500) also punched their tickets to the second day.
The regular of Marrakech events and colourful player Anas Tadini ended up busting in the last 30-minute of play after he shoved with two pair on the flop against Thierry Gogniat, who hit a gutshot straight on the river.
A total of 295 entries has been reached through the three flights, as Day 1c turbo saw 48 contestants join the party. 73 will be back on Day 2, which means over half the field has already been shed. Hopefuls such as Cecile Ticherfatine, Paul Tedeschi, Guillaume Darcourt, Jerome Zerbib and Omar Lakhdari fell along the way.
The survivors return on Saturday at 1 p.m local time, at blinds 1,000/ 2,500 with a 2,500 ante, to play on as the money stages will be reached quickly and the plan is to play until the final table is reached.
PokerNews covers this event start to finish until a winner has been crowned on Sunday night, so make sure to check back regularly who will lift the MPO trophy in Casino de Marrakech.
and Alaoui bet 30,000, which was enough to get a fold from Gogniat and the two remaining players tabled their cards: 
turn and 
river to be eliminated from the event while the big pot was sent to Alaoui.
bricked on the turn but a 
and found himself snap-called by Alt with a better hand, 
on the turn giving Moundir more hope. The 
hit the turn and this time both players checked. 
appeared on the river, Navarro chose to check and Dirlewanger thought about his move before firing 52,000 into the pot. Navarro went deep into the tank and eventually called, but quickly mucked her hand when Dirlewanger showed 
to give him a pair of kings and double his stack before going to the dinner break.
in a pot with more than 10,000 in the middle. Henri Dupont bet 5,800 and faced a raise worth 17,200 from Isabel Baltazar, with only one 5,000-chip left behind. Dupont raised and Baltazar called with her last chip:
when Linda Hamdi called a bet worth 5,500 from Roger Tondeur while the third player let it go. 
