Poker Player Leads Final Table Wire-to-Wire to Win Tournament
Yussuke came to the Marrakech Poker Open Main Event final table as the chip leader and finished as the newly crowned champion. He topped a field of 279 entries at the Es Saadi Resort to take home 620,000 MAD (≈$66,402) from the 3,557,000 MAD (≈$380,955) prize pool.
It wasn't always smooth sailing for Yussuke and the competition was tough at times. Second place EV played and ran like gold to take the chip lead early on and eventual third place finisher Truquens was crushing it when play reached three-handed.
The last three players, all Spanish, made an ICM deal, leaving aside 160,000 MAD (≈$17,136) for the winner. As the chip leader at the time, Truquens took the most from the deal, but it was Yussuke who went on to claim first place, the top prize, and the trophy.
"It was tough, there were very good players," said Yussuke, speaking on his victory via a translation app. "I played as the chip lead and everything was close and, well, to win you have to run good. You can't win if you don't run good."
2026 Marrakech Poker Open Main Event Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (MAD) | Prize (≈USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yussuke | Spain | 620,000 MAD* | $66,402 |
| 2 | EV | Spain | 465,000 MAD* | $49,802 |
| 3 | Truquens | Spain | 505,000 MAD* | $54,086 |
| 4 | Ivan Govorov | Russian Federation | 270,000 MAD | $28,917 |
| 5 | Jonathan Stoeber | United States | 200,000 MAD | $21,420 |
| 6 | Alain Dery | France | 149,000 MAD | $15,958 |
| 7 | Richi | Spain | 115,000 MAD | $12,317 |
| 8 | Patrick Bornicke | Germany | 93,000 MAD | $9,960 |
| 9 | Jean-Pierre Grand-Moursel | France | 75,000 MAD | $8,033 |
Denotes three-way deal
EV Takes the Chip Lead
Second place EV also started the final table in the same position that he finished. He steamrolled ahead early on, winning pretty much every significant pot during the first full level of the day, extracting value from Jean-pierre Grand-Moursel with a set, then successfully slow-playing kings to take the chip lead.
Flurry of Bust-Outs
The final table action started slow, with only Grand-Moursel dropping before the first break. When action resumed though, a flurry of bust-outs saw Patrick Bornicke, Richi, and Alain Dery eliminated within ten minutes of each other to take the play five-handed.
It was a welcome sight for Jonathan Stoeber, who started the day at the bottom of the pack with less than 20 big blinds, and who managed to ladder up all the way to fifth place.
Ivan Govorov, who at one point himself took the chip lead, shoved from the small blind and found himself dominated against Truquens' ace-queen to bustout in fourth.
Three Spanish Players Reach Deal
That left just three players in contention, all of them Spanish, and all of them sporting nicknames. A deal was proposed and play stopped. Truquens had the chip lead at the time and took 505,000 MAD from the ICM chop. EV settled for 465,000 MAD, while Yussuke had the shortest stack and took 460,000 MAD, with 160,000 MAD set aside for the winner.
It's a deal that Truquens will be glad he made, because, despite having a huge chip lead as three-handed commenced, his stack steadily took hits as Yussuke gained momentum, making an excellent call down against EV with bottom pair and then taking out Truquens in third place when his king seven held against a ten big blind shove.
Rapid Heads-up
Yussuke had a 3:1 chip advantage as the tournament went heads-up, but EV soon doubled and even momentarily took the chip lead. Yussuke wrestled it back with a river bluff and EV was down to a shoving stack when he moved all in with queen-ten. Yussuke looked down at king-queen and called. EV was dominated and Yussuke flopped the nut straight.
The heads-up was over in a flash. The Spanish rail shouted and clapped. The media gathered round and Yussuke got his photos and interviews done with. "This tournament means a lot to me since it's the biggest prize of my career to date," said Yussuke before heading over to celebrate with his friends.
