Ben Azzouz Bags Day 1b Chip Lead in Record-Breaking WPTDeepStacks Marrakech Main Event
Day 1b is in the books at the record-breaking WPTDeepStacks Marrakech, with the largest Main Event in the tournament's history. A total of 332 players entered today, and with the 213 from Day 1a they combined to create a field of 545, dwarfing the previous record of 433 from 2017.
Just 101 players survived, and they will join the 57 from Day 1a in the Day 2 field.
The stunning setting of the Es Saadi Resort and the Casino de Marrakech was practically buzzing with players throughout the day as they sought to become the latest in a long line of champions here at one of the hottest poker destinations on the continent.
With the High Roller heading to another day, and scheduled to resume at the end of Day 1b, players hopped in the Main Event hoping to run up a stack ahead of Day 2. They had the 428,500 of Ismail Fath-Eddine in their sights but no player topped 400,000 on Day 1b.
The nearest appeared to be Nabil Ben Azzouz (349,000), with former EPT Prague champion Paul Michaelis (308,000) not far behind him.
Other big stacks included Mohamed Mamouni (222,000) and Sairi Azzelarab (217,000) with anything over 200,000 good enough for around 100 big blinds when play resumes on Saturday at midday.
The day started with a bang with two eliminations in the first level, both at the hands of Bruno Caron. He flopped top set against bottom set and pocket aces and held to move up to 90,000 barely 30 minutes into the day.
He stuck around and eventually bagged 83,500, but he wasn't the only Frenchman to bag as a string of familiar faces including Alexandre Reard (27,000), Bernard Guigon (99,000), Pierre Antoine Quignard (46,000), Erwann Pecheux (67,000), Arthur Conan (120,000) and former Premier League footballer Jimmy Kebe (29,500) all bagged ahead of Day 2.
Other players who jumped into the tournament but were less lucky included Roger Tondeur, Said El Yousfi, and former WSOPC Marrakech champion Phillip Huxley.
Tomorrow there will be eleven levels, with blinds increasing to 60 minutes in length. The bubble is expected to burst and every player will be focused on making it through to the final day's play on Sunday.
Stay tuned to PokerNews for continued coverage of this massive WPTDeepStacks Main Event until we crown a winner!
