Max Deveson Wins the 2024 WSOPC Marrakech Main Event (2,150,000 MAD)
The final duel felt like a roller coaster! After a two-and-a-half-hour-long heads-up battle where both players had opportunities to win, Max Deveson was the one who was finally crowned the champion of the 2024 WSOP Circuit Marrakech Main Event, here at the Casino de Marrakech inside the Es Saadi Resort.
Deveson is now the proud owner of a WSOP Circuit ring and takes home 2,150,000 MAD (approximately €200,000). Obviously exhausted and disappointed, Antoine Delorme finishes in second place out of a field of 1,163 entrants, going back home with 1,550,000 MAD (€143,000).
2024 WSOP Circuit Marrakech Main Event Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (in MAD) | Prize (in EUR) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Max Deveson | United Kingdom | 2,150,000 | €200,000 |
| 2 | Antoine Delorme | France | 1,550,000 | €143,000 |
| 3 | Sandro Jose Alves | Portugal | 1,100,000 | €101,000 |
| 4 | Nicola Pezzullo | Italy | 800,000 | €74,000 |
| 5 | Jean-Claude Ruche | Belgium | 610,000 | €56,000 |
| 6 | "Victor" | Spain | 490,000 | €45,000 |
| 7 | Guillaume Garcia | France | 405,000 | €37,000 |
| 8 | Yuzhou Yin | China | 335,000 | €31,000 |
| 9 | Igor Picone | Belgium | 275,000 | €25,000 |
Winner's Reaction
The British player, now established in South Africa, began the festival on a high note, finishing fourth in the Opener for 162,000 MAD. "I was kind of sad but very fortunate," he said, remembering this tournament.
However, any lingering sadness completely disappeared from his range of emotions after winning the big one—the Main Event. "I'm very tired. But getting through 1,163 players and having two deep runs in big fields in one week is kind of crazy. Hopefully, it will happen again!"
Yet, winning the tournament wasn't an easy feat for this cash game player who transitioned to tournaments. "I didn’t really think about that win until four or five people left. Then, once I started to build a stack and got to the chip lead, I was confident I was gonna get to the final two," he explained.
However, once in heads-up, his confidence was tested with multiple turnarounds against Delorme. "To be honest, when I had a big chip lead, it felt like I was winning every hand. Then I lost the all-ins, and as soon as he won those, he built confidence. It was a bit deflecting. It felt like it was his tournament. But I was fortunate with the king-three against king-jack. And from there, I cruised control, had good hands, played as well as I could, and I was fortunate I came out on top".
Final Day's Action
Out of a total field of 1,163 entrants, 21 players returned on Day 3, all with dreams of winning the prestigious WSOP Circuit golden ring. However, for Filippo Lazzaretto, who started the final day with the shortest stack, the dream seemed a bit far. And he became the first player eliminated of the day, finishing 21st for 73,000 MAD.
Lazzaretto was followed to the cashier by Day 1a chip leader Jean-Pierre Grand-Moursel (20th, 88,000 MAD), Jawad Bengourane (19th, 88,000 MAD), Mostafa Essanhaji (18th, 88,000 MAD), and Endravuz Lahdo. Unlike his brother Samiyel Duzgun, the winner of the Main Event in 2020, Lahdo was eliminated in 17th place (110,000 MAD). However, this was for the best, as he immediately jumped into a Turbo event and won his first WSOP ring.
Following Lahdo's elimination, the remaining 16 players gathered at the last two tables, but Wim Verhaegen (110,000 MAD) quickly abandoned them. The same fate befell Roger Tondeur (14th, 140,000 MAD), Manuel Machado (who struggled for a long moment with a very short stack), and Adrien Sanz (13th, 180,000 MAD).
The chip leader at the beginning of the day, Mohamed Hakim maintained his lead during the first hours, but failed to reach the final table as he was eliminated by Nicola Pezzullo's kings. Pezzullo began the final table with the biggest stack thanks to this pot.
From this point onward, Pezzullo dominated the final table, becoming the first player with over 10,000,000 chips and sending both gor Picone (9th, 275,000 MAD) and "Victor" (6th, 490,000 MAD) to the rail. Between these eliminations, Yuzhou Yin with jacks ran into Jean-Claude Ruche's queens, finishing in eighth place for 335,000 MAD, and Guillaume Garcia (7th, 405,000 MAD) saw Delorme hit his king on the river.
After Sandro Jose Alves doubled up through him, Jean-Claude Ruche fell to less than a blind. Thanks to a pot won and a split, he managed to reach the next break but was eliminated by the future winner, Deveson, at the restart. At the same time, Pezzullo progressively lost his chip lead and handed it over to Delorme. He was eventually eliminated with king-nine against Sandro Jose Alves’ ace-king (4th, 800,000 MAD).
The same Alves found himself at risk not long after with queens. However, Deveson was lucky enough to hit a runner-runner flush to send Alves to the rail (3rd Place, 1,100,000 MAD) and start the heads-up play with almost twice Delorme’s stack.
The beginning of the final duel was one-sided, with Deveson quickly extending his lead to 80% of the chips in play. However, the situation took a turn when Delorme doubled up twice, allowing him to have a first opportunity to win the tournament. Holding king-jack, he had the best hand preflop, but Deveson hit a pair with king-three to double up. Deveson doubled up again a few hands later, reclaiming the first-place position.
Finally, after a split in another all-in and call situation, the cards went on their backs one last time, with a seven of hearts completing Deveson’s flush on the river to secure the WSOPC Marrakech Main Event victory.
That concludes the PokerNews coverage of the 2024 WSOPC Marrakech Main Event. Stay tuned for more updates from tournaments around the world.
