Four gruelling days of competition in the heart of Morocco were needed to determine a champion in the Unibet Open Marrakech Main Event, but now that all is said and done, the 853 entries into the event have been whittled down to just one.
It was certainly never easy, but Maxime Parys fought back against every kind of disaster that he faced to truly earn the title at Casino de Marrakech. Coming back from less than a handful of blinds, Parys, who was looked on by his obscenely noisy rail for the entire final day.
He’ll return home with a seven-figure pay day of 1,375,000 MAD, which included the 1,125,000 MAD from a heads-up deal, as well as 250,000 MAD which was agreed to go to the victor. This represents the second-largest cash of his live poker career, according to The Hendon Mob
Unibet Open Main Event Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Maxime Parys | France | 1,375,000 MAD* |
| 2 | Benjamin Hammann | France | 1,125,000 MAD* |
| 3 | Redwan Ferman | France | 670,000 MAD |
| 4 | Hammer | Spain | 450,000 MAD |
| 5 | Moneyhunter | Netherlands | 335,000 MAD |
| 6 | Abdullah Akbarpoor | Turkey | 265,000 MAD |
| 7 | Mounim Kaddouri | France | 215,000 MAD |
| 8 | Tunisianking | Tunisia | 180,000 MAD |
| 9 | Ryan Abed | France | 150,000 MAD |
*Denotes Deal Made
Winner’s Reaction
“We did it,” were Maxime “Dabou” Parys’ very first words upon being crowned Main Event champion. Of course, it was only Parys himself who played the cards he was dealt, but you wouldn’t have been able to tell by the noise at the Es Saadi Resort, Marrakesh upon every single pot that went Parys’ way.
It was a wild final table, with chips changing hands and stack sizes swapping rapidly, but the one constant was the sheer loudness emerging from Parys’ rail.
“I’m not here alone,” Parys noted when speaking with PokerNews in his native French. “I’m here with the whole team,” a comment which received whoops and cheers from his rail, all of whom had been watching on for the previous 11 hours.
“They were shouting for me the entire final table. How can you lose? It’s impossible.”
It certainly seemed that way, as no matter how many beats he took, Parys just kept fighting and fighting. He had his queens cracked by Hammann very early on in the day, before being left with just five bigs following a hand where he had seen his opponent’s cards exposed preflop, and had to un-commit himself from the pot.
However, that wasn’t going to put a halt to the grit shown by “Dabou,” as instead of being down and out, he described the hand as a “second life,” as he had been given another chance to carry on in the tournament. He used his second life incredibly wisely, explaining that he’d “been down to one, two big blinds in tournaments before,” and knew exactly how to keep both chipping and laddering up.
The roof nearly lifted off when he won a massive hand holding A♥10♥, rivering a flush to crack the tens of Moneyhunter. For Parys, it was at that point that he knew the victory was in his sights.
He secured the knockout to go from five players to four, as well as three to two, and not even the force that was Benjamin Hammann would’ve been able to get between him and the trophy at that point.
Despite having live cashes dating back to 2014, Parys noted that this was his first ever live tournament win, with the exception of a freeroll he took down when he was younger. Now that he has finally broken the duck, it certainly would be a risky decision to bet against the online grinder in any event. His prowess at the table certainly didn’t go unnoticed by his compatriots, nor should it by any player unfortunate enough to be drawn next to him on the felt.
Read the Full Final Table Recap Here
