Leading the tournament nearly wire-to-wire, Germany’s Sebastian Homann emerged as the champion of the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) stop at the Casino de Marrakech in Morocco.
WPT Marrakech, which was co-sponsored by the online poker room Chili Poker, drew a solid field of 221 runners. Each player paid €5,000 to participate and the prize pool nearly reached €1 million.
The all-time money leader on the WPT, former World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champion Carlos Mortensen, led a field of pros looking to take down the latest WPT title. Mortensen was joined by fellow industry staples like Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier, Team PokerStars pro Alexandre Gomes, WPT champion Surinder Sunar, and 2009 WSOP November Niner Antoine Saout. French poker pros Nicolas Levi and Roger Hairabedian made deep runs and just missed the final table.
When the final table began on Tuesday, Homann held the edge as the chip leader over fellow countryman Dominik Nitsche. Homann had been at the helm of the leaderboard since Day 1, but, with Nitsche approximately 50,000 chips behind him, certainly felt the heat. The German duo vastly outpaced the third stack at the table, France’s Guillaume Cescut, when the cards hit the air.
Homann wasted little time in establishing himself as the table captain, using the power of his stack to chop approximately 100,000 in chips from Johan Williamsson. He continued to push his tablemates around and, by the first break, had built his chip stack to over three million. Nitsche had faltered by the first break, giving up the second rung on the leaderboard to Williamsson.
After the break, Homann and Williamson unexpectedly butted heads in a clash featuring the two largest stacks at the table. With the blinds at 12,000/24,000 and a 4,000 ante, Homann opened the action with a bet of 50,000. When the action reached Williamsson, he re-raised to 135,000, which was called – after a moment’s hesitation – by Homann.
The duo saw a 4-3-8 flop with two diamonds, at which point the fireworks between the chip leaders were ignited. Homann checked his option and, after a bet from Williamsson of 165,000, announced that he was all-in. Williamsson immediately called all-in and tabled A-K of diamonds for the nut flush draw. Homann turned up a pocket pair of sixes, good for the lead, but he had to fade 14 outs twice to win the hand. Homann did so and Williamsson was eliminated in seventh place.
Homann continued to steamroll the table as he reached heads-up play with Cescut. For his part, Cescut slowed down Homann and, at one point, wrestled the chip lead away. It seemed to be the German’s day, however, as Homann crippled Cescut the next hand after losing the lead.
Cescut continued to fight, doubling up on three consecutive hands, but he eventually succumbed to Homann. On the final hand, Cescut raised to 125,000 and Homann called. On a J-4-3 flop (two spades), the twosome entered into a betting war, with Cescut’s remaining chips entering the pot. When the cards were shown, Homann held the lead with J-9 against Cescut’s A-4. None of Cescut’s five outs came on the turn or the river, crowning Homann the champion of the WPT Marrakech:
1. Sebastian Homann (Germany) – €244,508
2. Guillaume Cescut (France) – €135,831
3. Sebastien Compte (France) – €90,554
4. Felix Oberauer (Austria) – €72,439
5. Guillaume de la Gorce (France) – €54,334
6. Dominik Nitsche (Germany) – €36,220
7. Johan Williamsson (Sweden) – €28,977
8. Julien Lousier (France) – €25,356
9. Patrick Muleta (France) – €19,920
Although he admitted he was a recreational player, Homann was looking forward to playing in the WPT Championship in April. “I definitely intend to play more live tournaments now and am thrilled to have earned my entry into the $25,000 WPT World Championship – this takes everything to a whole new level. I will have to play more to prepare for the standard of opposition I am going to get there.”
With Marrakech in the books, the WPT now focuses on the Five Diamond World Poker Classic, which starts tomorrow at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.
