Life Outside Poker is a podcast for PokerNews hosted by Connor Richards that seeks to pull back the curtain on poker players and allow viewers and listeners to get to know them on a personal level.
In the 23rd episode, Connor speaks with Hollywood producer and 2006 Main Event champion Jamie Gold about growing up in New York City, learning poker from his parents and grandparents, playing poker with Doyle Brunson, Phil Ivey and Johnny Chan in the 1990s, the early days of televised poker and his memorable 2006 Main Event run.
Gold also talked about his charity poker events that have raised more than a half-billion dollars for various causes, the future of poker content and what poker players can expect from GGPoker's $500 million purchase of the World Series of Poker.
while the tournament director was stopping the clock, Abeslam Hajji opened from middle position and he was called by Volga Uyanik in the small blind. Pedro Faustino in the big blind three-bet to 37,000.
Hajji four-bet to 100,000, and Uyanik decided to go all-in for 127,000. He made Faustino fold, but made the call.
Volga Uyanik: 10♥9♠
Abeslam Hajji: 5♦5♥
Uyanik flopped top pair on 10♠Q♦A♦3♦3♣ and scooped the pot on the very last hand of the day.
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.
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!
