Final 16 Set in WPTDeepStacks Marrakech Main Event; Damaso in the Lead, Sow, Peters Follow
On Day 2 of the WPTDeepStacks Marrakech Main Event, it took eleven 60-minute levels to whittle down a field of 147 to its last 16 hopefuls. Each of them will return on Sunday at 2 p.m. local time to Casino de Marrakech to contest for the WPTDeepStacks title and the first place prize of 1,000,000 MAD (appr. $105,000) that awaits the winner later that night.
Fabio Pinho Damaso of Portugal has firmly set his sights on the title and holds a comfy lead with 2,295,000 in chips, far more than his nearest challengers Kalidou Sow (1,400,000) and Tobias Peters (1,360,000). While Damaso hung around in the top of the counts throughout the day, an extra surge during the final level of the night made him the only player to break the 2M mark when chips were bagged and tagged.
Damaso may not have a great live poker resumé to boast yet, Sow and Peters definitely do and are two of the biggest names left in the field. With their 1M+ chip stacks, both are in prime contention for the deepest of runs in this event. Sow, who burst onto the scene with three victories in a row in substantial fields last year, started the day on top, fell back a bit later on, but bounced back right to second place in the last level of the night.
Peters, the 2017 WPTDeepStacks Europe Player of the Year, was playing Day 2 on just three-and-a-half hours of sleep. The night before, Peters won the 4,500 MAD single-day 8 Max tournament for 120,000 MAD (appr. $13,000) at six in the morning. Coming back just a few hours later to play on in Day 2 of the Main Event, Peters battled both fatigue and his opponents to claim the eventual third place on the leaderboard.
Other notables that made it through include Mathieu Papineau (800,000), Jean Montury (630,000), Day 1a chipleader Yves Rolland (550,000), David Pecheur (345,000), and Francois Tosques (315,000). With twenty players remaining, Pecheur was all but out when he was all in with pocket eights against the pocket kings of Abdullatif Attia. Attia flopped a set of kings but Pecheur made a runner-runner flush to keep his hopes alive. Jaouad Abida (1,045,000), Sebastien Boyard (945,000), and Miguel Couceiro (875,000) also had strong showings and found themselves high in the ranking after the day was wrapped up.
Day 2 at a glance
The day started with 147 players and 55 of them would go home with more money than they invested. Plenty of players failed to get a Moroccan flag, including Vincent Mansour, Henrique Pinho, Mohamed Ali Houssam, Arnaud Enselme, Danny van Zijp, [Removed:8], [Removed:44], Guy Taylor, Imad Derwiche, and Said El Yousfi. Former WPT-champion Guillaume Darcourt had the dubious honor of becoming the bubble boy after losing with pocket jacks against ace-king.
Once in the money, small cashes were made by [Removed:30] (54th - 26,000 MAD), Pierre Zerbib (49th - 26,000 MAD), Jeremy Saderne (40th - 27,000 MAD), Slimane Mameche (36th - 28,500 MAD), and Day 1b chipleader Kamel Atoui (34th - 28,500 MAD). The winner of the previous WPTDeepStacks in Vilamoura, Jimmy Livramento, finished in 21st place (35,000 MAD) after running into back to back aces.
Boubekeur Benhalima was the final bustout of the night and finished in 17th place (50,000 MAD. Benhalima shoved more than twice the size of the pot with pocket eights on a king-high board, but couldn't shake Damaso's king-ten and denied himself a spot on Day 3. The 16 remaining players are guaranteed the 50,000 MAD as well, and will be back at 2 p.m. to contest for the title.
PokerNews will be back as well from Casino de Marrakech in the five star Es Saadi Resort, so don't miss anything as the latest WPTDeepStacks champion will be crowned!
flop, Fabio Pinho Damaso checked to Boubekeur Benhalima on the button, who ripped it for 360,000, more than twice the size of the pot. Damaso had a confused look on his face, then called it off after about thirty seconds of thought.
turn and 
river. Benhalima became the final bustout of the night and collected 50,000 MAD for his 17th place finish.
to rail him in 18th. Hewitt explained after the hand he hadn't seen the raise from Benhalima.
flop and called all in for 325,000 after Fabio Pinho Damaso had shoved.
board, making him the 24th place finisher.
