Stand-Up Artist “AZ” Leads Day 1b of Record-Breaking WSOP Circuit Marrakech Main Event
With 645 entries on Day 1a, 776 registrations on today’s Day 1b and 273 more on the final starting flight, the 2026 edition of the World Series of Poker Circuit Marrakech Main Event broke a new record with a total of 1,694 entries. That is more than 100 entries higher than last year’s total of 1,523 entrants and pushed the prize pool to a total of 23,039,000 MAD (€2,140,000).
At the Es Saadi Marrakech Resort, it took some time for the 117 remaining Day 1b players to burst the bubble and qualify for Day 2. During the final levels, a trio held stacks of more than one million chips, but by the end of the night, only Azedine Bendjilali managed to retain a seven-figure stack, finishing as the official chip leader with 1,360,000. “Frankly, it was a lot of grinding. I hero-called once with queen-ten for 150,000, and I won a few flips I didn’t win on my first bullets,” explained Bendjilali the French comedian.
Claude Mamalepot (1,099,000) was also in contention for the chip lead, along with Hugo Semedo (997,000) and Sofian Bounaya (847,000), who lost a few chips in the final minutes of the day.
Eric Masini looked delighted after building a big stack of 938,000 following an almost double-up while bursting the bubble. He finished the day just a few blinds ahead of last year’s EPT Malta winner Tomasz Brzezinski (874,000).
Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Azedine Bendjilali | France | 1,360,000 | 91 |
| 2 | Claude Mamalepot | France | 1,099,000 | 73 |
| 3 | Hugo Semedo | Portugal | 997,000 | 66 |
| 4 | Vaquero | France | 970,000 | 65 |
| 5 | Eric Masini | France | 938,000 | 63 |
| 6 | Tomasz Brzezinski | Poland | 874,000 | 58 |
| 7 | Jose Aguilera | Spain | 848,000 | 57 |
| 8 | Sofian Bounaya | Morocco | 847,000 | 56 |
| 9 | Henri Kasper | Estonia | 730,000 | 49 |
| 10 | Ramon | Spain | 717,000 | 48 |
Will this new record-breaking edition belong to Justin Tsui once again? The defending champion made it through to Day 2 and could go back-to-back despite carrying a short stack of 66,000. The 2024 winner Max Deveson is in a much better position with 300,000, just behind players such as Daniel Tordjman (438,000), Samiyel Duzgun (381,000) and Michel Leibgorin (357,000).
WSOP bracelet winner Romain Le Dantec (261,000) advanced to Day 2 alongside Azeddine Chamma (298,000), Imad Derwiche (270,000), Ugo Faggioli (270,000), Adrien Amorella (265,000) and Miroslav Alilovic (260,000).
Regular Marrakech players such as Rachid El Yaacoubi (232,000), Antoine Goutard (227,000), Fabian Rolli (213,000), Javier Tsunamy (201,000) and Isabel Baltazar (126,000) also made it through to Day 2, along with Mini Main Event winner Aitor Cruz (106,000), who was saved by a split earlier in the day.
Despite a strong start, Tahar Said (93,000) did not finish the day as well as he had hoped. It was even worse for Mickael Erbil (67,000), who ran into Henri Kasper’s aces on the bubble. With 23,000 and 15,000 respectively, Mathieu Choffardet and Houssem Meftahi close the Day 1b chip counts with the shortest stacks.
Meanwhile, Day 1c Turbo ended with 41 players remaining. Behind chip leader Kilian Kramer (1,256,000), a five-star cast follows with Guillaume Darcourt (973,000), Kalidou Sow, Paul Tedeschi (712,000), Jeremy Saderne (680,000) and Mehdi Chaoui (672,000).
Jeremie Zouari (263,000), Ange Besnainou (238,000), Romain Lewis (142,000) and Paul Amsellem (114,000) also had to go through this final flight to qualify.
A total of 255 players are expected this Saturday, January 24 at 1 p.m. local time for Day 2 of the Main Event. Play will resume with blinds of 6,000/12,000 and a 12,000 big blind ante, and levels will now increase to 60 minutes.
All remaining players are now in the money and are guaranteed a minimum payout of 32,000 MAD. The detailled payouts will be revealed at the restart.
As always, stay tuned to PokerNews for all the updates until a winner is crowned!