Mohamed Ali Houssam is the latest name to be inscribed onto the Champions Cup after he took down the World Poker Tour Marrakesh Main Event, a result that also netted him a $25,500 seat to the 2012 WPT World Championship and €199,825 in prize money.
Before play started, the eyes of the media were fixated on a trio big names who had made it to the last nine, Arnaud Mattern, Jonathan Duhamel and Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier and they were already wondering how often they could fit the words “ménage à trois” into their reports. However, matters in poker rarely run smoothly and any hopes of using any threesome related headlines were dashed after two hours of play.
Sebastien Ta had already been sent to the rail when ElkY, who had been short-stacked since he doubled up Maskims Martinov, moved all in for 235,000 chips (blinds 20,000/40,000/5,000a) from the cutoff with what turned out to be 10c9h and Toufik Ourini, from the big blind, instantly called with his AcKh. The final board ran out Ks-Kc-Js-6h-4d and with that ElkY’s wait for a second WPT title was extended.
Ten minutes later and another of the favourites, Duhamel, went to join ElkY on the rail. Martinov raised from the button and then quickly called when Duhamel moved all in for around 1,000,000 chips in the big blind. Martinov turned over pocket tens and the former World Series of Poker Main Event champion Qd10s. The Canadian failed to connect with the Ad-6c-4c-3c-8h board and the hopes of a big name winning WPT Marrakesh were pinned on Mattern.
Mattern battled for a good couple of hours before his tournament came to an abrupt end. The players had just returned from a break and with blinds of 25,000/50,000/5,000 and finding himself down to less than 900,000 chips, Mattern needed to get busy. He opened shoved the first two hands from the break and picked up the blinds and antes then on the third hand Martinov made it 200,000 then called when Mattern three-bet all in/ Martinov flipped over a pair of black sevens and Mattern As8d. The Ks-Js-Ts flop was as good as Mattern could have hoped for without spiking an ace or eight but the5d on the turn was no help. Neither was the Kd on the river and Mattern exited in fifth place, adding €52,740 to his career earnings.
The surviving three players battled it out for an hour before a hand that shows how much luck is in poker took place to send Martinov to the rail. The latter raised to 150,000 (blinds 30,000/60,000/10,000a) on the button and both of his Moroccan opponents called from the blinds. A flop reading 6s-5c-3s saw the Ourini bet 300,000, Mohamed Ali Houssam folded but Martinov moved all in for 950,000. Ourini then called with just Jh9c and found himself in a whole lot of trouble against the 6c3c of Martinov that had flopped two pair. The 5s on the turn gave Ourini a chance of an unlikely win and amazingly it appears in the form of the 9h on the river! A stunned Martinov exited whilst a jubilant Ourini got busy stacking up the Latvian’s chips, taking the tie to a heads up.
Going into heads up Ourini lead his countryman by the narrow 4,167,000 to 4,053,000 chips but Mohamed Ali Houssam chipped away at this lead and started to open up a significant lead for himself. Then, after around an hour of play, Houssam limped in from the button and Ourini checked. The Kc-8d-3s flop saw both players check but there was no such passivity when the Qd landed on the turn. Ourini lead out with a 370,000 bet, Houssam raised to 800,000 only to see Ourini moved all in! Houssam snap-called and flipped over 8s8c for a set of eight and when Ourini could only muster KsJh it was game over. The meaningless 6h on the river completed the hand and with that Mohamed Ali Houssam became the WPT Marrakesh champion.
The WPT now has a busy couple of weeks as it jets off to Prague between December 1-5 then off to Venice between December 12-18!
WPT Marrakesh Final Table Results
1st: Mohamed Ali Houssam – €199,825
2nd: Toufik Ourini – €137,657
3rd: Maksim Martinov – €81,130
4th: Arnaud Mattern – €52,740
5th: Hassan Fares – €38,540
6th: Rodney Assous – €31,232
