After almost 10 hours of poker at the Es Saadi Resort, the 2019 WSOP International Circuit 50th Anniversary Marrakech 15,000 MAD (€1,350) Main Event field of 359 entries has been reduced down to 16 survivors.
The moroccan prizepool was set at 4,685,000 MAD ($492,979), with the last man standing set to win with 1 million of dirhams ($105,225). French amateur David Vergnes will lead the way on Day 3 with a stack of 61 Blinds.
Principally a cash-game player, David is living in Albi and he felt lucky to be chipleader. His deep-run could have ended before the money was reached as he doubled-up against an overpair after three hours of play, saturday. "We'll See tomorrow. I'm happy to be in that position but I remain calm", said Vergnes while bagging in a place he visits since a decade.
André Marques (Portugal - 55 blinds), Javier Tsunamy (Spain - 52 Blinds) and Souhayl "Joël" Fjer (France - 50 blinds) are the only players who reached a 7 figures stack. They will be Vergnes' nearest challengers when the action resumes at 1 p.m local time.
After a gruelling day, the decision to stop the play was made when the ante-penultiem redraw was reached rather than going on to the planned end of the Level 22..
David Vergnes
Day 2 Action
When the Day 2 action got underway at 1 p.m, saturday, there were 105 hopefuls looming to make the money. The pace of play was fast and furious with 10 eliminations in the first 15 minutes and 46 bustos before the first break. Nicolas Noguera, Pierre Quignard, Bernard Guigon, Sebastien Compte, Omar Lakhdari, Jerome Sgorrano and local hero Abdel Kondah departed before reaching the money.
Hand-for-hand action began after 280 minutes of play, with two places from the money. A change of plan because the staff originally wanted to do it one place away from the money... but a spanish player was stalling every streets for too long. Finally, the bubble burst after 1 hour of Hand For Hand, and there was only three all-in & call during that span.
WSOP Europe Giovanni Rosadoni was covered against André Marques but the Portugueses was Drawing Dead. The French player rose just after the bubble to secure a seat to the Final Day (21 blinds). Funny Fact, the other player who went all-in and was call during the hand for hand is still alive for the Day 3. Anthony Marchetti doubled-up against Sammy Berrehail with Kings, this duo will be in contention, sunday with respectively 28 and 41 Blinds.
Three times the charm... or not. Fernando The Staller didn't survive when he 3-bet shove minutes later... Kamal Sefrioui had just smooth called the original raiser with Kings and was happy to burst the bubble player.
Fadhil Farag, WSOPC winner Rakesh Lalwani, the Last Woman Standing Sarah Herzali, WPT Finalist Noureddine Ait Aleb all found a place in the money before they were eliminated. None of them reached the dinner break which arrived after 6 hours of play.
André Marques, who was the first player to reach the 1 million mark, and Javier Tsunamy were dominating the Tournament at the restart. The next 90 minutes saw the field go down to three tables and 24 survivors, on average at this point a player had busted every 5 minutes since the start of the day.
The last two hours of the Day 2 were filled with 8 eliminations and a heated exchange between two players resulting in an orbit penality. After the calm was back in the Dome, the Casino De Marrakech's extension situated in the garden of the Resort, Said El Yousfi ended the day by open shoving 18 blinds at the wrong moment. The WSOP bracelet winner elimination prompted the staff to end play for Saturday.
That's a wrap, join us back at PokerNews for the coverage until the completion of the Main Event on Sunday, June 23 as a winner is crowned in Marrakech.
