Guillaume Darcourt in the Lead; Max Deveson Advances to Day 2
Since the beginning of the festival, every single event of the 2025 World Series of Poker Circuit Marrakech has broken records, here at the Casino de Marrakech inside the beautiful Es Saadi Resort, with fields 30% larger than in 2024.
Similar growth was anticipated for Day 1a of the 15,000 MAD WSOPC Main Event, and the prediction proved accurate as 581 entrants were recorded for the tournament’s first flight—nearly 150 more than Day 1a last year.
Another prediction might have been seeing Guillaume Darcourt atop the chip counts. True to form, he finished the day as the chip leader with 480,000. “Business as usual,” he said to summarize his Day 1 performance. Darcourt is closely followed by Dinesh Alt (443,000) and Ryan Kelly (408,000), the only other players to surpass the 400,000 mark.
WSOPC Main Event Day 1a Top Ten
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip count | Big blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Guillaume Darcourt | France | 480,000 | 120 |
| 2 | Dinesh Alt | Switzerland | 443,000 | 111 |
| 3 | Ryan Kelly | United Kingdom | 408,000 | 102 |
| 4 | Oguz Kamacik | Turkey | 355,000 | 89 |
| 5 | Gambi | Spain | 344,000 | 86 |
| 6 | Quentin Girardet | France | 342,000 | 86 |
| 7 | Nikolaos Mastrantonas | Greece | 324,000 | 81 |
| 8 | Valentin Havasy | Switzerland | 320,000 | 80 |
| 9 | Pedro Faustino | Portugal | 316,000 | 79 |
| 10 | Volga Uyanik | France | 311,000 | 78 |
Thanks to a big pot won during the very last hand of the day, Volga Uyanik climbed into the top ten with 311,000 chips, slightly more than Rachid El Yaacoubi (308,000) and Frédéric Delval (293,000).
Jeremie Zouari also advanced to Day 2 with a stack above the average (266,000), alongside EPT champion Lucien Cohen (257,000) and Javier Tsunamy (253,000).
“A very slow day, but I’m happy to qualify on my first bullet and to have a day off tomorrow,” said Max Deveson after bagging his chips. With 223,000, the defending champion remains in contention for a back-to-back win. The same goes for Andrew Hawkins (166,000), who won a WSOPC ring in the Opener a few days ago.
In the rest of the field, seven-time WSOPC champion Sonny Franco will return for Day 2 with 160,000 chips. He’ll be joined by Sami Bechahed (138,000), WSOP bracelet winners Maxim Lykov (134,000) and Vangelis Kaimakamis (110,000), as well as IgnaPoker (105,000), Adrien Sanz (89,000), Imad Derwiche (75,000), or Blaise Bourgeois (69,000).
For those who failed to qualify, two more opportunities will arise tomorrow with Day 1b starting at 1 p.m. and Day 1c Turbo kicking off at 10 p.m.
Stay tuned to PokerNews for all the updates until a winner is crowned!