The WPT Marrakech ME has a $4 Million 1st Prize payout. Balazs Botond fron Hungary Qualified on Chilipoker and is now sitting at the final table in 9th position with 195,000 worth of chips. He will have to make a move if wants to catch up. As soon as the players were seated Matt Savage introduced all the players and gave an official chip count:
Tristan Clemencon $0
He then asked all the players to remove their head phones for the final table.
First action was from Patrick Meurisse who doubled up with a pair of
vs 
Julien Arneodo then wins a hand with a preflop raise, next Spindler takes the pot on a the flop with a large raise, and play continues.
Lacay gets into a pot with Spindler on a 
board, both check the river and Lacey takes down the pot with two pair aces and kings.
Balazs Botond makes a move all in under the gun, Benny Spindler tanks then folds and Balazs takes the blinds. Lacay raised the next hand up to 45K and finds one caller and a raiser (Julien Arneodo) up to 144K every one folds and Julien takes down the pot. We see more and more pre-flop action as players try to steal the 12k/24k blinds and 4k antes.
Lacay and Hichem raise the next to hands but fail to find callers. Next Spindler raises it up to 55k and O’Dea reraises, and Splinder moves all in.
Splinder has 
O’Dea has 
Splinder wins a huge pot. Nice hand.
More Pre-flop action then… Lacay raises to 60k and Hichem re-raises to 160k…. Hichem Takes it down. Back to the pre-flop action.
Next big hand, Splinder Raises up to 60k, O’Dea calls, Hichem Ben Halima reraises re-raise up to 260K, Splinder folds, O’Dea calls and shows:
vs
Showdown 
O’Dea doubles up.
Christophe Savary raises the next two pots and finds no action. All of sudden a showdown between Hichem Ben Halima and Splinder.
Splinder has a 
and Hichem Ben Halima shows a 
Board 
and Splinder wins another huge pot and Hichem Ben Halima busts out. We are down to 8.
Oh No! Balazs Botond Raises it up to 150k with 
and Adrien Marin calls both players go all in on the flop:
Balazs Botond the Chilipoker qualifier is out in 8th place and we are down to 7.
Splinder takes down a three handed pot and we are off for a break before the next level. Stay Tuned.
We are back for some more ME final table action, Liz Lieu and many poker players pack the room for the next hand.
Patrick Meurisse goes all in with a dominated 
O’Dea calls with his
Flop, Turn and River..
O’Dea from Irelands wins, Patrick Meurisse busts out and we are down to 6.
Splinder and Ludovic Lacay get into an unraised pot. Flop:
both players check the flop Lacay throws 120k, Splinder calls and the river is a 
Lacay checks, Splinder bets out 250k. Lacay folds.
Chip Count
Ludovic Lacay (FR) 1,670,000
Christophe Savary 1,580,000
Eoghan O’Dea 1,500,000
Benny Spindler 1,340,000
Adrian Marin 970,000
Julien Arneodo 845,000
Eoghan “PaddyTilt” O’Dea and Ludovic Lacay win the next few pots with out a showdown.
Next pot is between Spindler and Adrian Marin, Splinder raises to 60k Marin Calls Flop
Splinder Bets 90k, Marin shoves, Splinder folds.
Blinds are currently 15k/30k with 5000 antes. Three handed pot between Splinder, Adrian Marin, and Ludovic Lacey. Board is..
All three players check the flop and turn, Splinder bets 80k on the turn Lacey calls, Adrian Marin reraises to 260k, Splinder folds, Lacey folds, Adrian Marin shoes a and takes down the pot with only a pair of fours.
Next Huge hand is between Splinder and the Irishman O’Dea. Preflop raise from Splinder 60k. O’Dea calls and the flop is a…
both players check the turn. Turn is a…
Splinder bets 170k, O’Dea calls again. River…
O’Dea bets 280K and Splinder tanks for several minutes before making the call. O’Dea turns over the nut straight.
Splinder only shakes his head without saying much. Crippled from before the break, Benny Spindler pushed all-in for his last 280,000. Ludovic Lacay thought for a moment and called in the small blind, Christophe Savary folded behind him.
Splinder:
Lacay:
An “Ooooh” from the crowd as Lacay took the pot on the river knocking out Spindler. Lacay now has 2.6 million in chips.
Next hand is between Lacey and O’Dea for approx 200k and wins with an ace high on a 
board.
O’Dea controlling the table and battling it out with Adrian Marin. Board shows , while O’Dea is betting 100k on the flop, 100k on the turn, and 270k on the river. Only to see Adrian Marin fold on the river.
With only 5 players left blinds are 20k/40k with 5k antes, Adrian Marin seems to be the shortest stack at the table as O’Dea raises pots to steal the blinds, rather successfully.
Adrian Marin pushes once and nobody calls. Adrian Marin pushes a second time and again no callers.
Julien Arneodo stays in the game and doubles up against the French man Lacey for 700k with vs Lacay’s
Showdown
Christophe Savary wins the next pot against O’Dea with a 170k bet on the flop.
Adrian Marin moves all in one more time with a…
Christophe Savary calls with a pair of red..
Showdown
Adrian Marin is knocked out in 5th place and we are down to 4 players at this years WPT Marrakech Main Event.
Next hand is interesting, heads up pot between Julien Arneodo and Ludovic Lacay, small pre flop raise from Lacay and a call from Arneodo. Flop…
Lacay bets 170k, Julien reraises 400k, Lacey moves all in, Julien folds.
With the board reading Eoghan O’Dea bet 340k on the river into Ludovic Lacay.
Christophe Savary raised up a hand pre flop, Lacey calls flop…
Christophe Savary makes a bet of 170k, Lacay moves all in Christophe folds then for some reason shows his pocket
Lacay made the call but could only smile and muck when O’Dea turned over for the nut straight.
O’Dea looks to be the slight chip leader at almost 3 million, Lacay has just a little less.
On the button and the short stack, Julien Arneodo shoved in for 430,000. Small blind Eoghan O’Dea quickly made the call as Lacay ducked out from the small blind. Arneodo tabled , and he was racing for his tournament life against the baby pair
One card at time, the dramatic dealer ran out a flop of
Half of the room erupted with, “Jack! Jack!” as their man had taken a big lead and was looking good to double up. The other half of the room was yelling for a four, but their cries would not be answered. The turn and river were blanks for O’Dea, and he’s sent a double up over to Arneodo.
Ludovic Lacay raised to 110,000 from the button, Christophe Savary called in the small blind.
The flop was and Savary check-called a bet of 125,000. Both players checked the turn before Savary led for 450,000 on the river.
Lacay moved all-in and Savary instantly called with as Lacay could only show for a backdoor flush. Savary is the new chip leader.
Right before the break Lacay won a few hands and is climbing up in chips, but still has a long way to go.
Who will be the player that wins 4th place?
We will see right after the break.
Blinds go up to 30k/60K with 5K antes.
Next hand is an interesting hand between the two chip leaders. Eoghan O’Dea Raises to 140 from the button and gets called by Christophe Savary sitting in the big blind. Flop comes down
Christophe Savary bets 260k, O’Dea raises 550k, Savary pushes all in and increases his lead when O’Dea folds.
Next hand is rather similar without a showdown when Savery raises pre flop to 140K, Lacay calls flop…
Both players check and the turn is a
Savary checks Lacay bets 150K and Savery folds.
Julien Arneodo makes a few pre flop raises but finds no callers, but just a few hands later both Julien Arneodo and Lacay go in pre flop.
Julien Arneodo shows a
Lacay shows a
Don’t blink, take a look at the showdown.
Julien is out in 3rd position for a nice €105,259 and the Frenchman Lacay is still in there but trailing in 3rd place.
WOW! What a brilliant hand. Catch this one between Eoghan O’Dea and Christophe Savary. O’Dea on the button raises 160k, Christophe Savary raises it up to 330k, O’Dea calls. FLOP!
O’Dea thinks for a minute then goes all in. Christophe Savary quickly calls and shows a..
O’Dea turns over a
The turn signaled the Irishman’s double up. The river meaning nothing. O’Dea and Savary both have about 3.1 million, Lacay with about 1.9 million.
Christophe Savary made a raise to 160,000 from the button, and Julien Arneodo quickly folded his small blind. In the big, though, Ludovic Lacay peeked at his cards and slid all ~1.4 million of his chips across the betting line. It didn’t take Savary long to make the call, putting Lacay at risk for what was possibly the first time in this tournament. As a crowd of spectators craned their necks over the rail, the cards were turned up.
Showdown
Savary:
Lacay:
The flop was not very good at all for Lacay as it fell . A rustle of multilingual banter trickled through the audience, now shoulder-to-shoulder, three-deep around the entire perimeter of the table.
Turn:
That’s all she wrote for Lacay, now drawing stone dead to Savary’s nut flush. The river completed the board. Lacay cringed a bit, shook hands with the two men who’ve outlasted him, and headed off to become a spectator himself.
Lacay put on a fine show here this week, crushing the field for more than a full day. In the end though, his bid for his first WPT title has fallen two spots shy. His third-place showing is good for €164,182. That’s not too bad, but Lacay is clearly disappointed by that result.
Next up… WPT MARRAKECH HEADS UP
As the final two players battle it out, we are anxiously awaiting the final hand of the WPT Marrakech 2009, definitely the most successful WPT event outside of the United States. Each day we have seen the many of the best poker players from around the world pack the Casino De Marrakech for some world class poker.
O’Dea wins the first battle, Eoghan O’Dea raised to 210,000 from the button and Christophe Savary rereaised to 580,000 total. O’Dea, son of the famous Donnacha, thought for two minutes before announcing he was all-in.
The play shifted back across to Savary and he shifted a little, uncomfortable in his chair. It wasn’t so much the glare of the lights, but the size of the push which forced Savary to give up the pot.
Savary: 4.75 million
O’Dea: 3.57 million
Christophe Savary made it 160,000 from the button and Eoghan O’Dea reraised to 420,000 from the big blind. Savary made the call and the two saw a flop of .
O’Dea led out for 400,000 and Savary reraised all-in. O’Dea thought for a minute and called, was this it?
O’Dea:
Savary: 
The turn was the making the nut straight for Savary leaving O’Dea drawing dead, the river was little more than an afterthought. Irishman O’Dea goes home in second place with €262,446 to comfort him after he falls just short of taking the title as well.
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