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François Tosques wins 2018 WPTDeepStacks Marrakech Main Event

“I never expected to win this, this is very crazy,” was the disbelieving statement by François Tosques who claimed the win in the 2018 WPTDeepStacks Marrakech Main Event in Casino de Marrakech.

It was an unexpected victory for the poker pro from France who rode a smallish stack through most of the tournament, “It’s crazy because I was short-stacked most of the tournament.”  This was the fifth year that the WPT held its tour in the Casino de Marrakech and the second time under the WPTDeepStacks Europe brand. There was heartbreak for local fans as Tosques beat out hometown hero Jaouad Abida in heads-up to collect the first place prize of 1 Million Moroccan Dirhams (~INR 77.37 Lakhs).

Tosques is flying the French flag high in this particular event as last year’s edition too was won by France’s Smain Mamouni. The high levels of French participation in Casino de Marrakech is big and not suprisingly so as Morocco is only a short flight away from France. It also helps that French, as a language, is quite commonly spoken in this nation.

A delighted Tosques pumped his fists after the final card was dealt and celebrated what is his second largest career cash. It also ended a dry spell for the Frenchman as he last won a live tournament since February 2017. From the 431 players who started off the tournament only 16 returned to play out to a final winner. Fabio Pinho Damaso was the star-of-day chipleader and he was followed by WPTDeepStacks Vilamoura High Roller winner Kalidou Sow who held the next biggest stack. Rounding off the top 3 counts was Tobias Peters who came into the final 16 having already won a title earlier in the week in this series. Unfortunately a dream double title week was not to be as Peters a few big pots in quick succession to eventually get knocked out in 11th place.

As mentioned earlier Tosques had quite an uphill battle starting the day as one of the shortest stacks but he gained some ground early on when he a crucial pot against then chipleader Damaso. That got Tosques some fighting chips and he was able to sustain himself. Runner-up Jaouad Abida was flying under the radar but once he got to the final table he went on a tear and knocked out four players in quick succession.

In heads-up against Adiba, Tosques dispatched the local by first taking a substantial lead with a rivered flush, then winning his final few blinds with king-eight against ace-ten.

2018 WPTDeepStacks Marrakech Main Event Final Result:

1    François Tosques – MAD 1,000,000 ($106,095)
2    Jaouad Abida – MAD 700,000 ($74,267)
3    Fabio Pinho Damaso – MAD 440,000 ($46,682)
4    Ramon Sol – MAD 315,000 ($33,420)
5    Kalidou Sow – MAD 240,000 ($25,463)
6    Mathieu Papineau – MAD 195,000 ($20,689)
7    Jean Montury – MAD 156,000 ($16,551)
8    Sebastien Boyard – MAD 130,000 ($13,792)
9    David Pecheur – MAD 108,100 ($11,469)

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