Ballsy Atoui Claims the Lead After Day 1B in Marrakech

Kamel Atoui is the new overall chip leader in Marrakech

As expected, the second and final starting day of the WPTDeepStacks Marrakech Season 2018-2019 13,200 MAD (~1,200 EUR) Main Event saw an even stronger turnout for the flagship event of the festival at the Casino de Marrakech Es Saadi and the field size of Day 1A was surpassed half-way through the day. Eventually, once the registration had closed at the start of level 10, the screens showed a total of 270 entries and an overall field of 431 entries emerged.

The record of biggest WPTDeepStacks Main Event outside of the United States, set one year ago right here in Marrakech, was missed by a mere two entries. Since there were no online qualifiers at all compared to 2017, the continued popularity of the region’s most well-known casino was confirmed once again.

After 12 levels of 40 minutes each, a new overall chip leader emerged in Kamel Atoui, who jumped to the top of the counts in the final hands of the night. Atoui was not afraid to put the chips in the middle and clashed in a big pot with fellow big stack Krijn Broskij. His gutsy play with ace-queen suited was rewarded, as he managed to get his opponent off top two pair when check-raising a blank flop and king-high turn, then jamming the river once a possible spades flush draw got there.

Ataoui bagged up 334,000, well ahead of Spain’s”Oscar” (232,500) and the two Frenchmen Mathieu Chevalier (193,000), as well as Jean-François Bertrand (182,000) ended up in third and fourth place respectively.

Other notables that advanced to Day 2 with an above-average stack include Frederic Delval (172,500), Mehdi Hsissen (160,500), Imad Derwiche (160,000), Sofian Benaissa (123,000), Tsunamy (122,000) and 2011 WPT Marrakech Main Event champion Mohamed Ali Houssam (120,000). Henrique Pinho was among those to fire multiple bullets on Day 1B and the 20,000 MAD High Roller champion has plenty of work ahead with 47,000 chips for Day 2.

No longer in contention for the title of the popular low-stakes tournament series are such familiar names as Isabel Baltazar, Jerome Sgorrano, Anas Tadini, Houssine El Otmani, Fouad Zouiten and Rakesh Lalwani.

Only 94 players out of the 270 entries bagged up chips and will join the 53 Day 1A survivors when the action gets back underway on Saturday, September 29th 2018, as of 12 p.m. noon local time. The payouts will be announced at the start of level 13 and the level duration increases to 60 minutes each for the remainder of the tournament until the heads-up stage.

The penultimate tournament day will try and whittle down the field to the last nine hopefuls and the WPT.com team will be on the floor to provide all the action from start to finish.