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After a grueling weekend of a fast paced play, Mohamed Ali Houssam emerged victorious from a field of 246 talented poker professionals to win the grand prize of $267k in the World Poker Tour Marrakech Main Event. In addition to the prize money and the title, Houssam won his seat in the WPT World Championship. That event, which features a $25k buy-in, will undoubtedly attract the biggest talent in poker when it goes down in May at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.

With a buy-in of 3,000 Euro, the stakes at WPT Marrakech were just a bit lower. Houssam, a native of Morocco, began the final day of action with the largest chip stack. He still faced a challenging battle, however, as the final table was stacked with experienced pros including Sebastian Ta, Maksim Martinov, Toufik Ourini, Hassan Fares, Rodney Assous and Team PokerStars Pros Arnaud Mattern, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier and Jonathan Duhamel.

The first player eliminated was Sebastian Ta ($28k), followed quickly by Grospellier ($31k, eight place) and Jonathan Duhamel ($34k, seventh place). Mattern lasted longer than his teammates, eventually hitting the rail in fourth place for $70k after a showdown with Maksim Martinov. Martinov’s pocket sevens held strong through the board to dominate Mattern’s A-8 offsuit.

Rodney Assous and Hassan Fares were eliminated just prior to Mattern, earning $41k and $51k, respectively. Three-handed play didn’t last long, as Martinov ($107k) was victimized by a bad beat at the hands of Toufik Ourini. Ourini and Houssam entered heads-up play with matching chip stacks, ensuring a fair and decisive battle. On the final hands, Houssam scored trip 8s on the flop. Ourini drew to top pair, but it wasn’t enough. He received $166k for his impressive runner-up performance.