On Day 2 of the Marrakech Poker Open Main Event, it took ten 60-minute levels to whittle down a field of 73 to its last 10 hopefuls. Each of them will return on Sunday at 2.30 p.m. local time to Casino de Marrakech to contest for the title and the first place prize of 770,000 MAD (€70, 200) that awaits the winner later that night.
Adrien Sanz of France has firmly set his sights on the title and holds a comfy lead with 2,080,000 in chips, and is already assured to reach his biggest score in a live tournament tomorow. Sanz had an incredible run after the dinner break and multiplied by ten his stack during the last four levels.
His nearest challenger is the winner of the 2014 WPT National Marrakech Mostafa Boukri with 1,945,000 while Portuguese Nuno Correia completes the podium with 1,040,000.
Still in the field and aiming at the trophy are also Karim Lehoussine (1,020,00), WSOP ring owner Rosalie Petit (765,00), Thierry Gogniat (420,000) and Swiss player Dinesh Alt, who recently runnerd-up the MPO High Roller.
Day 2 at a glance
The day started with the announcement of the prizepool of MAD 3,849,500 (€350,960), redistributed between 39 players. Plenty of notables failed to get a Moroccan flag, including WPT Paris champion Fabrice Bigot, Sonny Franco, Samiyel Duzgun, [Removed:482] and Henrique Pinho.
Thomas Meignan had the honor of becoming the bubble boy, immediately after the hand-for-hand began, when he lost his last big blind with pocket sixes on a four-way pot against Carsten Mawick who found a flush on the board.
Once in the money, small cashes were made by Hafid Kinany Alaoui (34th- €2,644), Christophe Pollet (32-th - €2,644), Isabel Baltazar (30th- €3,100), Mathieu Di Meglio (29th- €3,100).
The chipleaderof Day 1bc Ismail Fath-Eddine saw his run end in finished in 35th place (€2,644) while Alan Goasdoue, winner of the Paris FPS last month exited in 24th place (€3,100), followed by 888Poker pro Lucia Navarro (17th - €3,783), Cecile Ticherfatine (16th -€3,783) and Rachid El Yaacoubi (13th - €4,830) who busted in cruel fashion after he shoved preflop with pocket nines against Boukri, who called with Ace-three to find a gutshot straight on the river.
The ten players will return tomorrow at Level 23 and blinds at 10,000/25,000 with an 25,000 big blind ante. Stay tuned to PokerNews until a new champion is crowned at the beautiful Es Saadi Resort!