Pedro Ingles Leads Final 12 in WPTDS Marrakech Main Event; Defending Champion Tosques Second in Chips
Eleven hours of play whittled down a starting field of 158 to just 12 players all in with a chance of winning 1,100,000 MAD in the biggest WPTDeepStacks Marrakech Main Event ever.
With the final stages of the day playing out under the Dome in the beautiful Es Saadi Resort grounds, it was Pedro Ingles who will lead the field ahead of Day 3.
He won a stunning hand on feature with aces against kings to eliminate Marius Conan with less than 20 minutes left in the day to move to the top of the chip counts.
However, the big story is that defending champion Francois Tosques sits second in chips with 2,080,000, ahead of Daniel El Keslassy who is the only other player over two million in chips.
Bruno Fitoussi may be the second shortest in chips, but with over $3m in lifetime earnings, the Frenchman will still be a dangerous prospect at the tables when the final day's play gets underway at 2 p.m. local time on Sunday 22nd September.
Day 3 Seating Draw
| Table 1 | Name | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Orey Canarinho | 1,125,000 | 38 |
| 2 | Silma Macalou | 1,525,000 | 51 |
| 3 | |||
| 4 | Mohamed Mamouni | 485,000 | 16 |
| 5 | Pierre Antoine Quignard | 1,150,000 | 38 |
| 6 | Manuel Lopez | 763,000 | 25 |
| 7 | Pedro Ingles | 2,655,000 | 89 |
| 8 | |||
| Table 2 | Name | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
| 1 | Bruno Fitoussi | 695,000 | 23 |
| 2 | Daniel El Keslassy | 2,010,000 | 67 |
| 3 | Yohan Gonzales | 1,401,000 | 47 |
| 4 | Francois Tosques | 2,080,000 | 69 |
| 5 | Jerome Zerbib | 805,000 | 27 |
| 6 | |||
| 7 | |||
| 8 | Alejandro Roman | 1,395,000 | 47 |
Day 2 Recap
The day began with 158 of the 545 starting field still in with a shot of securing a slice of the 6,236,000 MAD prize pool. Leading the way was Day 1a chip leader Ismail Fath-Eddine with over 400,000 but several players were breathing down his neck including Day 1b chip leader Nabil Ben Azzouz and Paul Michaelis.
Several notables would burst during the first couple of levels of play, including former Premier League footballer Jimmy Kebe, along with Henrique Pinho, Kuljinder Sidhu, Arthur Conan, Serdar Demircan and Alexandre Reard.
Others were more fortunate as Fath-Eddine extended his chip lead at the top of the counts to over 500,000. However, by the first break it was Jonathan Therme who had shot up to over 700,000 to lead the WPTDS Main Event.
Can Tosques Go Back-to-Back?
Defending champion Francois Tosques soon joined the big stacks with close to 600,000 in chips just before the tournament went hand-for-hand two off the money to remedy perceived rampant stalling by tournament staff.
Outhagna Sydaphasavanh bust two off the money, before a classic race did for Salim Boukrouma as his ace-king failed to outlast the queens of a player known only as Romi. This guaranteed the remaining 71 players 24,000 MAD.
Tosques moved into the lead with 800,000 and then moved further ahead still, becoming the first player over a million in chips. In fact, the defending champion showed no signs of slowing down and would move close to 10% of the chips in play with still around 40 players remaining.
The biggest name still in the tournament at this stage was undoubtedly Bertrand Grospellier, but as he eyed a double holding pocket jacks against Sonny Franco's pocket fives, Grospellier chances were torpedoed when a five hit on the river, and blown to smithereens when another appeared on the river to give Franco quads and send Grospellier to the rail in 46th place for 29,000 MAD.
Other eliminations in the money included Isabel Baltazar (65th - 24,000 MAD), Robin Hegele (59th - 25,500 MAD), Paul Michaelis (57th - 25,500 MAD), Ismail Fath-Eddine (41st - 29,000 MAD), Anas Tadini (40th - 29,000 MAD), Erwann Pecheux (39th - 32,000 MAD), Parham Ahoor (34th - 32,000 MAD), Nabil Ben Azzouz (20th - 54,000 MAD) and Sonny Franco (15th - 72,000 MAD).
The remaining players will return on Sunday 22nd September at 14:00 local time playing down to a winner under the lights of the stunning Dome here at the Es Saadi Resort.
Stay tuned to PokerNews who will be there every step of the way as we crown the latest WPTDeepStacks champion here in Marrakech.