Something new on the cards this month as the World Poker Tour made its first foray out to Africa with the WPT Marrakech. Ben Wilson dusted off his Lonely Planet and made the trip.
With events now spanning three continents the World Poker Tour is certainly living up to its name. Following up European legs in Venice and Cyprus with an African adventure, WPT’s first foray onto African soil saw some of the world’s best poker players soaking up the sights and sounds of Morocco at the WPT Marrakech.
In addition to the local Berber dialect, French is the popular language of choice, although it is possible to get by in the traditional manner of the British abroad – waving your hands and speaking loudly and slowly in English. The language however, is no obstacle at the felt as poker is a universal game that attracts people from across the globe.
CHILI HOT
Held in conjunction with Malta-based poker room Chilipoker at the plush 5-star Es Saadi Resort & Casino De Marrakech, WPT Marrakech attracted over 400 players from 32 different countries, all stumping up the ?4,500 (£4,100) buy-in to create a prizepool of 18,720,000 Moroccan dirham – that’s over £1.4million. With the winner taking home MD 4,305,600 (around £341,000) competition was fierce and a star-studded field turned up to compete for the WPT’s first African title, including Antonio ‘the Magician’ Esfandiari, Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier, Chilipoker’s own Liz Lieu, Tony G, 1996 WSOP Champion Huck Seed, 2007 WSOPE Champion Annette Obrestad, Sorrel ‘Imperium’ Mizzi and WPT Poker’s own John Tabatabai.
Also flying the flag for the Brits were Full Tilt’s Andrew Feldman, Dave ‘El Blondie’ Colclough (for whom Marrakech is a home from home), and the Hendon Mob’s Joe Beevers and Boatman brothers Barny and Ross. Both would go on to do rather well in the High Rollers Event, Barny finishing a respectable 4th, cashing for €41,017 (£37,727), and Ross bagging top spot for €135,535 (£124,665).
Day 1
Morocco has experienced centuries of French rule and the trend certainly continued here with some of the best Gallic talent strutting their stuff at the felt.
However, just one hand after tournament director Matt Savage uttered “Shuffle up and deal!” France’s Anthony Lellouche found himself in a spot of bother, running trip 2s into trip 9s on a 9c 2d 10c board. Despite ironing out around 14,000 of his 20,000 starting stack, the dual EPT finalist did well not to bust, although the arrival of a 3rd club on the river was probably what saved the remainder of his chips.
Two fellow Frenchmen were not so lucky however, both Pascal Perrault and “ElkY” unceremoniously ousted in the same hand, Perrault’s trip kings and “Elky”’s 5-high flush falling victim to the mighty 10s 7s on a Ks-3d-6s-5h-As board.
The 75-minute clock and slow structure didn’t stop some fast and furious action and when the dust settled at the end of Day 1 only 152 of the original 416 entrants remained. Several big names had hit the rail, including the Hendon Mob’s Joe Beevers and Ross Boatman, who seemed unable to repeat his success in the High Rollers event. Also vanished was Antonio Esfandiari and while his nickname may be ‘The Magician’ he was unable to pull any tricks out of the bag to avoid elimination when he ran A-Q into Barny Boatman’s pocket kings.
John Tabatabai faired little better, running two pair into a rivered gutshot leaving him free to go sightseeing. He wouldn’t be soaking up the sights alone though, with teammate Sorrel Mizzi soon accompanying him although Annette Obrestad elected to continue onto Day 2. Showing some G-force, Tony G managed a double up with pocket queens on the day’s final hand to bring him back into contention, with Andrew Feldman, Liz Lieu and Eoghan O’Dea also making the cut.
Day 2
Day 2 saw continued French dominance, with Ludovic Lacay climbing steadily up the ranks, fighting off challenges from the Irish in the form of John O’Shea and Rory Rees-Brennan as well chip leader De La Gorce. Lacay made a particularly good call against Bennis Najib, picking off the Moroccan’s total bluff with bottom pair on a 4c-2c-7d-8d-7c board.
The trend of speedy eliminations carried over from Day 1 with both Andrew Feldman and Annette Obrestad exiting on the first level of the day, Feldman’s Ah Kc losing a race in heartbreaking style to Russia’s Yuri Kerzhapkin’s pocket 10s when the flop ran out Kh-10h-6h. Two blanks later and Feldman was out, quickly followed by Obrestad whose all-in with pocket 9s found an opponent waiting with kings.
Another member of poker royalty who couldn’t recreate a WSOPE cash in Morocco was Liz Lieu who had to settle for a 76th place finish – 22 places off the money. She did however take the title of last woman standing, exiting gracefully when her A-Q lost a race to pocket 4s.
MUCKING AROUND
While some players are graceful in defeat, others are not so magnanimous in victory as Frenchman Erik Haik was keen to demonstrate with a controversial slowroll. Haik called all-in for his tournament life on a 2d-Ad-3h-Ac board, placing his cards face down in front of his chips to the incredulous stare of his opponent who promptly flipped over pocket jacks. With no move from Haik to uncover his hand the dealer turned it over for him revealing Ah Jh. After a meaningless 6d hit the river his opponent voiced his displeasure, campaigning strongly that Haik’s hand was dead, as he had placed his cards face down in the muck. Debate raged for a good five minutes before TD Matt Savage stepped into the thick of the action asserting that: “Once you're heads-up and all-in, the cards must be exposed. They cannot be mucked." Good news for Haik, bad news for sportsmanship.
As Day 2 drew to a close Barny Boatman busted just before the bubble running jacks into kings. Tony G would make the money but not the final, as would WSOP November Niner Antoine Saout; both cashed for ?9,887. One-time chip leader De La Gorce had fallen from grace, his stack dwindling away until he shoved for his last 80,000 with 5s 6s only to lose to Yury Kerzhapkin’s K-Q to finish 18th for €13,136 (£12,089).
Day 3
Reflecting the WPT Marrakech’s international feel the remaining 17 players represented 10 different nations, though there was a strong Gallic influence with 50% of the remaining field hailing from France. They didn’t have it all their own way though and the top 10 spots boasted players from Russia, Germany, Romania, Tunisia, Ireland and Hungary. After some stellar play France’s Ludovic Lacay powered into the number one spot coming into Day 3 with a chip lead nearly double that of his nearest rival Yury Kerzhapkin. Irish hopes rested on Eoghan O’Dea, son of WSOP bracelet winner and poker legend, Donnacha, who is a fearsomely good player in his own right, while UK hopes rested on adopted Scandinavian Stefan Hansen who currently resides in London.
Tragically Hansen failed to make the final cut, busting out 12th for €16,420 (£15,039) after his K-Q lost a race to Julien Arneodo’s pocket 10s. Unlike the other WPT legs which play six-handed at the final table, the WPT Marrakech would run nine-handed and once France’s Benjamin Pollak and Tristan Clemencon were shown the door in 11th and 10th place respectively, play relocated to the final table area – a plush private room adjacent to the casino’s Epicurean Bar.
The Final Countdown
Ludovic Lacay would start the final as chip leader with 2.1 million in chips with fellow countryman Christophe Savary in second on 1.35 million. Irishman Eoghan O’Dea was just behind with 1.26 million followed by Frenchman Julien Arneodo on 978,000, Romanian Adrian Marin on 890,000, Tunisia’s Hichem Ben Halima on 767,000, Germany’s Benny Spindler on 591,000, France’s Patrick Meurisse on 217,000 and Hungary’s Balazs Botond bringing up the rear with 195,000.
With blinds starting at 12,000/24,000/A4,000 the action begin in earnest. First to fall was Ben Halima who was ousted in a massive pot against Eoghan O’Dea; Halima’s A-K trailing to the Irishman’s pocket kings which stayed ahead on the 10c-4s-7d-4c-Qs board to see the Tunisian hit the rail in 9th for €27,959 (£25 609). Balazs Botond was next – unable to overcome his chip deficit the Hungarian was forced to call off his remaining chips after committing himself pre-flop with the speculative Q-7. Romania’s Adrian Marin put him all-in on the 8d-4s-Ah flop holding just king-high and with no Q or 7 forthcoming Botond busted for a €34,517 (£31,615) payday.
O’Dea took his second scalp of the final table, felting Patrick Meurisse who shoved from early position with Kh 8c only to find O’Dea waiting with Ac Qc. The Qs-7d-Ad flop left Meurisse needing a miraculous runner, runner draw which failed to materialise, sending him to the rail to collect his €42,741 (£39,148) for 7th.
An active O’Dea was kind enough to show Benny Spindler the sights of value town after rivering the nut straight in a pot that left the German crippled. The coup-de-gras was however administered by Ladovic Lacay who called Spindler’s all-in from the small blind with A-8. Spindler’s K-4 took the lead briefly when he spiked a king on the turn, but an ace on the river awarded Lacay the pot and dashed Benny’s dreams of a comeback.
SAVARY BITES
After an hour of manoeuvring and Lacay and O’Dea instigating the final table’s action, it was Christophe Savary who decided the 5th place finisher. Adrian Marin squeezed for his remaining chips with Ah 5d and Savary elected to call with pocket 7s. The 10h-10d-6c-Ks-6s board may have provided Marin with two pair but Savary’s 7s and 10s was enough to send the Romanian on his way with €72,240 (£66,168) for his troubles.
Once Ludovic Lacay had shown Julien Arneodo the door – his A-5 cruelly rivering Arneodo’s A-6 – it was the turn of the one-time chip leader to taste the bitterness of defeat. After losing a monster pot to Christophe Savary, Lacay had dropped to 1.4 million in chips, which all went into the middle with K-J. However, Lacay’s diamonds didn’t look so good once Savary showed Ad 10d and turned the nuts, sending Lacay to the rail to collect his €164,182 (£150,014).
IRISH EYES MISS PRIZE
While O’Dea had the best of Savary in the majority of hands played on the final table, with the elimination of Lacay it was Savary who had the momentum behind him when play reached heads-up. Despite winning the first hand after three-betting all-in the young Irishman couldn’t seem to get anything going after that, his stack dwindling as Savary increased his betting frequency to take pot after pot. Things came to a head after the umpteenth Savary button raise, with O’Dea re-raising from the small blind in an attempt to turn the tide of relentless French aggression. Savary elected to make the call, putting O’Dea to the test and re-raising all-in after the Irishman continuation bet the 9s-Ad-6d flop. After a moment’s pause O’Dea made the call, his Ac 3c leading Savary’s 7c 8c though the Frenchman was drawing very live. The 10c completed Savary’s open-ended straight on the turn and left O’Dea drawing dead, his dreams of a WPT title in ashes, and with that it was all over.
A final table deal saw O’Dea pocket 3.3 million Moroccan dirham (?289,182 or around £262,507) and a complimentary bottle of Chivas Regal whisky to drown his 2nd place sorrows, while Savary’s magic carpet ride netted him a tasty 4 million dirham (?350,524/£318,191) and a US $25k seat in the 2010 WPT World Championships at the Bellagio.
The World Poker Tour has become just that, a world tour and with Chilipoker and WPT signing a three-year contract we can expect to see more African legs, certainly in Marrakech, with a possibility of future legs in other Moroccan cities. Don’t forget to bring your fez…
Final Table Payouts
1st Christophe Savary €379,014
2nd Eoghan O'Dea €263,662
3rd Ludovic Lacay €164,789
4th Julien Arneodo €105,465
5th Adrian Marin €72,507
6th Benjamin Spindler €56,028 |
