In 2024, Max Deveson performed till the early hours of the morning to win the World Collection of Poker Circuit Marrakech Fundamental Occasion. This yr, Justin Tsui didn’t even wait till midnight to be topped the 2025 winner.
Out of a record-breaking area of 1,523 entries, which generated a complete prize pool of 19,421,500 MAD (roughly €1,877,955), Tsui navigated his strategy to the highest, claiming his first WSOPC ring and a career-best money prize of two,700,000 MAD.
Spanish gamers Gandalf and Aitor Cruz secured second and third place, respectively. In the meantime, Paul Tedeschi and French content material creator Mathieu Choffardet fell in need of bringing the ring again to France, ending in fourth and fifth place.
2025 WSOPC Marrakech Fundamental Occasion Outcomes
Winner’s Response
Tsui’s relationship with Marrakech started when he visited as a vacationer a decade in the past. Since then, he hadn’t returned to Morocco—till this week: “I’ve pals who come to Marrakech yearly, so this time, I advised myself I might be part of them. I made a decision on Tuesday that I used to be going to return and play the match. I landed on Thursday morning, busted my first bullet, and reentered on Friday,” Tsui shared.
After navigating a “very clean Day 2,” Tsui superior to Day 3 with a technique influenced by ICM dynamics.“From 15 gamers, there have been so many brief stacks whereas I used to be third in chips that I simply needed to preserve folding due to ICM. Then, as soon as we had been three-handed after which heads-up, I began taking part in extra aggressively to attempt to win the match,” he defined.
This calculated strategy paid off, incomes him the title that provides to an already spectacular run in 2024. “The final 6-7 months have been loopy with a few large ultimate tables, so it feels good to take the ring and the trophy,” he stated moments after his win. “I’ve been taking part in poker for greater than ten years, so it’s at all times been a dream to win an enormous match. And there have been superb gamers right here, so I really feel very lucky to win this one.”
Along with the prize cash, Tsui’s victory secured his entry into the subsequent WSOP Match of Champions. “I didn’t find out about that, however I used to be going to the US anyway,” he laughed. For now, he plans to return to Hong Kong in March after which “most likely to the Irish Open in April”, to see if he can replicate his success in Marrakech in Eire.
Remaining Day Motion
Simply 29 hopefuls remained heading into the ultimate day, with Anthony Apicella main the pack. Nevertheless, a nasty run of playing cards, compounded with an ace-queen vs. ace-king encounter, noticed the sequence’ Excessive Curler winner depart in thirteenth place.
Alone Zagury (tenth – 230,000 MAD) in the end bubbled the ultimate desk, which started with 4 out of 9 gamers holding below ten large blinds. Volga Uyanik was the primary to fall in ninth place (280,000 MAD) towards Choffardet’s kings. Cruz then seized management of the desk, taking part in almost each hand. Though he doubled up a couple of opponents, Cruz additionally eradicated Mike McManaman (eighth – 345,000 MAD), Dinesh Alt (seventh – 425,000 MAD), and Ina (sixth – 545,000 MAD) earlier than the dinner break.
Play resumed with a setup between Choffardet’s ace-king and Justin Tsui’s queens. The coin flip landed in Tsui’s favor, giving him the chip lead. Paul Tedeschi and Gandalf tried comebacks, however Tsui ended Tedeschi’s run in 4th place (965,000 MAD) by calling the Frenchman’s shove with pocket sevens.
Aitor Cruz (third – 1,300,000 MAD) was subsequent to fall to Tsui, and the heads-up play between Tsui and Gandalf was short-lived, as Tsui wanted only some palms to assert victory and be topped the WSOPC Marrakech Fundamental Occasion champion.
