A grand total of 155 entries took to the felt in the beautiful Casino de Marrakech during Day 1a of the WSOP International Circuit Main Event. 48 of them have found their path to Day 2 and are still in the running for the gold WSOP Circuit Ring. Claiming the chip lead for Day 1a is Drisse Maouchi (photo) with a massive 310,000 in chips.
It was a slow start of the day with 28 players that were registered at the start of the day.
Bracelet winner Barny Boatman, and French poker stars Gaelle Baumann and Ben Bensimhon were there from the start but all three of them, unfortunately, didn’t make it till the end of the day.
Other players that failed to bag chips include Mateusz Moolhuizen, Fabian Gumz, Michiel Brosky, Hannes Neurauter, Claude Mamalepot, Thierry Delpui and Antonio Alves Mendes.
As is custom with play in the Maroccon casino, many poker players solely go by their nicknames. Some of the players with big stacks include HCC (284,000), Fernandez (253,000), and Norbi (216,200), who all managed to bag more than 200,000 chips each.
All remaining players will return on Saturday for Day 2 of the Main Event. At 1 pm local time tomorrow Day 1b will commence, which will again feature twelve levels of 45 minutes and a starting stack of 30,000. Check PokerNews throughout the day for updates of the continuation of the WSOPC Main Event.
"Watch this! The next hand is going to be a big one!" Ben Bensimhon announced to the PokerNews team when a dealer change was taking place at his table.
After the new dealer dealt his first hand to the table, action folded to Bensimhon in the cutoff who raised to 700. Ahmed Boukaddeda, sitting on the button, also called. Laurent [Removed:250], in the big blind, raised to 3,000.
"Look! You have made him mad now..." Boukaddeda said jokingly to Bensimhon.
Bensimhon smiled and then cut out some chips to make the call. Boukaddeda also called after a slight hesitation.
The flop came , [Removed:250] bet 5,500 in an instant. Bensimhon checked the board again, grabbed calling chips but then decided to fold. Boukaddeda also folded quickly.
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Welcome to Day 1a of the World Series of Poker International Circuit 15,000 MAD (€1,350) Main Event here in Marrakech! This is the fourth time that the amazing Casino de Marrakech is hosting this tournament for the WSOP and it looks like it will be another great event. Last year Arron Fletcher bested the other 510 players and won 1,400,000 MAD (€130,755) for first place.
Ricardo Manquant reached the final table last year in hopes to win the tournament again but was sent to the rail in ninth place. The last Frenchman,Mohamed El Bakkouri, was looking to secure another win for France but he finished in seventh place. The French players will be heavily represented again this year to take the title and a WSOP Circuit Ring back home.
Former Champions
Year
Entries
Champion
Country
Prize
2017
511
Arron Fletcher
United Kingdom
€130,755
2016
446
Mathieu Selides
France
€95,479
2015
484
Ricardo Manquant
France
€122,330
Earlier this week Reda Benjelloun won the 4,000 MAD (€365) WSOP Circuit Opener and Matiss Celmins took down the 3,000 MAD (€275) WSOP Circuit Turbo tournament so they’ll definitely be looking to add another win to their resume. The WSOP Circuit Deepstack event had a record breaking 404 entries with the final players finishing the tournament today as they unexpectedly needed an extra day. More players expected to enter the main event include Jerome Sgorrano, Barny Boatman, Alexandre Reard, Fabian Gumz, Mateusz Moolhuizen, Pierre Calamusa, Cheng-Wei Yin, Michael Lech, Gaelle Baumann, Romain Lewis, and Ben Bensimhon (WSOP International Circuit Rotterdam Main Event Winner).
This four-day event features two starting days. Day 1a will be starting at 1 p.m. local time today. Players will start with 30,000 in chips and levels will be 45 minutes throughout the day. Late registration and unlimited reentries will be allowed up until the end of level 9 with a total of 12 levels that are being played today. A 15-minute break will take place after Level 3 & 6 with a one-hour dinner break after Level 9.
The PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be here to provide you with all the updates of this WSOP International Circuit Main Event.
, [Removed:250] bet 5,500 in an instant. Bensimhon checked the board again, grabbed calling chips but then decided to fold. Boukaddeda also folded quickly.
