Out of the 215 entrants recorded in the 2024 Marrakech Poker Open Main Event, nine players returned on Day 3 to compete at the final table.
Four of the finalists were Spanish, dominating the top positions. Orey Canarinho emerged victorious, defeating his friend Aitor Cruz to claim the first-place prize of 348,500 MAD and the trophy. Germany’s Eduard Rau secured the third spot on the podium, earning 195,000 MAD.
2024 Marrakech Poker Open Main Event Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (MAD) | Prize (EUR) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Orey Canarinho | Spain | 348,500 MAD* | €32,759 |
| 2 | Aitor Cruz | Spain | 285,500 MAD* | €26,837 |
| 3 | Eduard Rau | Germany | 195,000 MAD | €18,330 |
| 4 | Juan Antonio | Spain | 150,000 MAD | €14,100 |
| 5 | Jesus | Spain | 115,000 MAD | €10,810 |
| 6 | Sonny Franco | France | 90,500 MAD | €8,507 |
| 7 | Abilio Silva | Portugal | 71,000 MAD | €6,674 |
| 8 | Kamal Jbirane | France | 55,000 MAD | €5,170 |
| 9 | Fabian Rolli | Switzerland | 43,000 MAD | €4,042 |
*denotes a deal
Winner’s Reaction
“The only way to be happy is by winning, so I feel very good right now. It’s perfect,” the new winner said moments after he lifted the trophy.
From the beginning to the end, Canarinho never left the top half of the classification. “I pushed a little bit during the bubble. To be honest, I was just playing calmly. I tried my best, and it worked well,” he explained, already thinking about how he could have played even better: “Even though I won, I made some mistakes. So I will keep learning and keep getting better.”
But now, Canarinho’s mind is off the table: “We will celebrate the victory, and then I’m going on vacation.” A very nice plan, especially here, under the sun of Marrakech.
Final Table Action
The 2024 Marrakech final table started with nine remaining players,with Fabian Rolli atop the counts as the chip leader. But who would have thought that the Swiss player would be the first player eliminated after 40 minutes?
It only took a few hands to send Rolli to the rail. Jesus was the first one to take chips from him, winning a massive flip to double up. Then, a few minutes later, Rolli found himself at risk with ace-ten against Canarinho’s ace-queen and was eliminated in ninth place for 43,000 MAD.
Kamal Jbirane, who was last in chips at the beginning of the day, was happy to see an early elimination. However, his joy was short-lived as he ran into Rau’s aces moments later. Down to less than a big blind, Jbirane doubled up on the next hand but was eliminated one hand later (8th – 55,000 MAD).
The pace of eliminations then slowed down until the next level, where Abilio Silva, with queens, lost against Canarinho’s ace-king to take the seventh place prize of 71,000 MAD.
With the field now down to six players, Sonny Franco tried to apply pressure on his opponents. He four-bet all-in with ace-ten against Canarinho, but the Spanish player had ace-king and halted the Frenchman’s (6th – 90,500 MAD) chase of another victory in Marrakech.
During the next two hours, very little action occurred until Jesus’ elimination (5th – 115,000 MAD) by Juan Antonio, who had doubled up a bit earlier to take the chip lead. But having the most chips didn’t seem like a good position today, as Antonio lost half of his stack an hour later when Canarinho cracked his queens with ace-queen.
Antonio’s descent continued, and he was eliminated in fourth place for 150,000 MAD. The three remaining players then played a few hands before a 60-minute dinner break.
When they came back, Rau found himself with the shortest stack against two Spanish players. He tried to come back with ace-nine, but failed to do so as Canarinho hit two pair with ace-seven.
Once a heads-up deal was made, it only took a few minutes to see the first all-in and call situation, which would mark the end of play as Canarinho was crowned champion and he added his name to the long list of winners of the Marrakech Poker Open.