Mohamed El Bakkouri opened with a raise on the button. Julio Sanchez folded his small blind, but Arron Fletcher in the big blind had a different plan. He slid a tower of T-100,000 chips forward, enough to cover El Bakkouri. The Frenchman snap-called the remainder of his stack off.
Arron Fletcher:
Mohamed El Bakkouri:
The best hand stayed ahead from start to finish: . El Bakkouri doubled up to 1,500,000.
Short-stack ninja Matthias Widmann, who laddered himself up quite nicely today, shoved all in with his last 195,000. Behind him, Fernandez made the call and the other players folded.
Matthias Widmann:
Fernandez:
No escape for Widmann on , making him the eighth place finisher.
Ricardo Manquant shoved his stack of 240,000, just six big blinds, in the middle and Julio Sanchez called. Behind Sanchez, Arron Fletcher three-bet to 850,000 and Sanchez instantly let it go.
Ricardo Manquant:
Arron Fletcher:
Manquant had decent equity to score the triple-up, but it wasn't meant to be. After a board, the winner of the inaugural WSOP Circuit Main Event in Marrakech two years ago saw his bid at a second ring come to an end.
Receiving a thundrous ovation from the rail, the Frenchman headed to the payout desk to collect his winnings of 153,000 MAD (€14,290).
The final table is being held in a special part of the luxurious Es Saadi resort. It's a fantastic atmosphere to play in, and all the players appear to want to settle first before getting involved in any big hands.