Belgian Poker Championship

From November 15 to 23, the casino of Namur was host to the fourth edition of the Belgian Poker Championship - the pinnacle of poker for Belgian poker fans. This year 843 players signed up for one of the biggest poker tournaments in Europe with a prize pool of over €1.1 million. Many of those players didn't actually pay the €1,700 entry fee but qualified in over 100 satellites which took place in the casinos of Spa and Namur over the course of 2008. This meant the field was loaded with amateur players. Such a relatively weak field will logically attract some pros, as was the case when British poker legend Surinder Sunar, Belgian World Series of Poker bracelet winner Davidi Kitai, and former winner Marcus Naalden showed up to play in the event.

So, how does a relatively unknown casino get to host one of the biggest poker tournaments on the European mainland? After a lot of lobbying between the Belgian casinos and government, the Belgian gaming law finally allowed the casinos one poker tournament to be organised each year. Fortunately for the casinos, the law didn't stipulate what exactly a poker tournament was.

After a trial run in 2005, the casinos of Namur and Spa saw the poker potential. Multiple qualifiers were set up to answer the increasing demand for poker in Belgium, and to stretch the period offering the game to players for almost a whole year. At that time cash games were still illegal.

The 2006 Belgian Poker Championship was a huge success with 253 players attending the two-day event, and Marc Naalden winning the €1,100 freezeout, taking home €59,670. In 2007, even more qualifiers were added and the buy-in was increased to €1,650. That year, Jamel Maistriaux won €300,092 in a tournament with 800 players which lasted a whole week. In the meantime, the Casino Namur became the number one place to play poker in Belgium and expanded its card room to 16 tables.

The tournament itself has gained international fame - more foreign players registered this year than any other. Jean Christophe Choffray, poker manager of the casino said that even players from the U.S., Venezuela, the Ukraine, Canada, Great Britain, and the Netherlands came to play.

A nice structure allowed the players to check-raise, float, and three-bet liberally without putting their whole stack on the line during the first day of the tournament. On Wednesday the remaining players of day 1a and 1b played together, and the same happened on Thursday when both day 1c and 1d survivors merged. Finally, on Friday the remaining 120 players were able to play together. Their first objective would be to make the money bubble which was set at 91st place.

Belgian poker wonder-boy, Davidi Kitai made it to the money but was knocked out soon after. By the end of the day the chip leader was a name well-known in the Belgian poker world - Marc Naalden. Surinder Sunar, fresh from his Amsterdam Master Classics pot-limit Omaha victory was also still in but had been short-stacked all day and was waiting for a rush to catapult him to the top spots.

A carpet of snow greeted the players outside on the Saturday. Most of them however stayed in hotels close to the casino so everything started right on time. Unfortunately for Surinder Sunar, he couldn't find the rush he was waiting for and left the tournament in 25th place earning €5,080 in the process.

Marc Naalden who had lost his chip lead hit the rail soon after with 21 players remaining, Naalden clashed in a big pot with Colm O'Brien. All the money went in before the flop and both players showed hands which reflected the weather conditions. Naalden held two eights, (snowmen), and O'Brien held A-K, (big slick). The flop immediately brought an ace for O'Brien which gave him the lead. The turn and river refused to give Naalden one of the remaining snowmen in the deck, and he was left out in the cold. The €5,080 for his efforts would probably help to ease the pain a little.

With only two tables left, play tightened up considerably, and more than an hour went by without one elimination - it was clear that reaching the final table was on everyone's mind. Suddenly, news broke that one of the Belgian favourites to win, Simon Van De Sompel, was out. He called a preflop raise holding As-Qs. When the flop came 10-9-8 with 2 spades, Sompel check-raised his opponent, who immediately went all in. Sompel was committed and called. His opponent showed two kings. Sompel needed to hit a jack for a straight, a spade for the nut flush, or an ace, but it wasn't to be and disappointment reigned. Play slowly continued until almost 4 a.m. until the 11th player, Viet Nguyen, finally hit the rail. He pushed all his chips in the middle with K-10 of hearts and got called by Alain Dubruille who was holding A-8 of spades. Dubruille made a flush, and with it, the final table.

Final Table

In comparison to Saturday evening the action was fast and furious in the early hours of final table play. Dubruille's stint was short-lived as he busted out within the first hour. Kristof Segers, who was among the chip leaders on day 4, was soon to follow. Meanwhile Colm O'Brien had almost half the chips in play and did his part of the dirty work crippling and eliminating a few players early. Only the two Dutch players - Jolmer Meelis and Sijbrand Maal - had sizable stacks to threaten the chip leader.

After two hours of play it looked like everyone would be home before midnight as half the players on the final table were already eliminated. Carlo Giovanni was the next one to leave. He completed from the small blind, and the big blind, Michel Fontenoy, checked. The flop brought 6-5-5 and both players checked to the turn. When a jack hit the board, Giovanni pushed all in and was quickly called by Fontenoy who had slow played a 5. Giovanni needed one of the two remaining jacks but the dealer burned and turned a 10. Giovanni left the table smiling, knowing he was to be awarded a cheque of €55,980.
With only one Belgian player left in the remaining four, it was clear who the crowd's favourite would be. Fontenoy certainly had the moves to win this tournament but sadly for him he didn't have the cards. He pushed his last chips in the pot on the flop holding a flush draw, but Dutchman Meelis called him with top pair, and it held up.

With three tough players left, it looked like there would be a heads up before the dinner break, but five hours later, such predictions were reviewed. Maal, Meelis, and O'Brien didn't give anything away, and there was a time when all players had equal amounts of chips. A deal was suggested, and as the players were coming to an understanding, one of the commissioners from the Belgian Gaming Commission interrupted the negotiations to tell the players they couldn't make a deal, and that the prize money would be paid out as foreseen. However, the players decided to make a deal on the side and continued to play out the tournament until the end. Meelis, who was part of a merry bunch of poker players - all with a piece of each other, left the tournament in third place earning a nice six figure cash for the first time in his career, making some of his friends very happy in the process.

The heads-up battle would be settled between an experienced Dutch player, Sijbrand Maal, and an Irishman living in Belgium, Colm O'Brien. After some small pots Maal limped in from the small blind and O'Brien raised three times the big blind. Maal called and the flop came 10d8h7d. Maal checked and O'Brien moved all in holding just A-K. Maal snap-called the all in with middle pair. The turn was the 2s, and the river, the 6c. Sijbrand Maal became champion and after the deal took home €275,875.

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