Beating the Best in Belgium

Namur. To the outsider, the words which come to mind on arrival are quaint, quiet, and old fashioned — a nook in the south of Belgium which appears at first impression to have stood still in time. Those who arrive by plane, a couple of trains, and a taxi, (that is those who are not in direct rail distance of a few hours) will soon find out that Namur is the capital of Wallonia, and Wallonia is the predominantly French-speaking region of Belgium. You don’t have to spend long there to realise that although Wallonia borders France, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Germany, it is far from a bustling, multicultural, metropolitan city.

Players from the Netherlands and the Flemish regions of Belgium arrived to Casino de Namur and instantly began to speak French, fitting right into place, but those from elsewhere took that bit longer to adjust, motioning betting actions and speaking extra loud in English in an attempt to be understood. In the end, and not to be clichéd, the universal language of poker won out and the felt became a meeting ground of international intellect, enjoyment, and competition.

En route to the casino, quiet residential streets play as a warm-up act to a sweeping lake bordered with tall (largely glass) houses and apartments, each one different to the next, seated at the foot of dramatically jagged rocky mountains. A small turn off down a narrow street, and boom — Casino de Namur. The only visible marker to suggest that this boutique-like property is the place where hundreds of hopes and dreams are housed is the blue “Casino” sign to one side of the roof. The building, to which PokerStars added marquees to for workshops and other events, looks like it has aged with the game, exuding the charm of another era.

Super Value
Between November 21 and 29, the outer edges of the city was home to a hub of activity with 817 players attending the €1,500 + €200 buy-in main event, and many others who made the trip for the side action which included hold’em freezeout tournaments with various buy-ins, and multiple cash game tables. There may not have been a lot of action outside the confines of the casino, but the same could not have been said for what was going on inside.

With a prize pool of €1,138,877 for the taking, numerous well-known players reserved their seats in the main event, mouths watering at the sight of a field largely made up of native unknowns. However the likes of Surinder Sunar, Davidi Kitai, Michel Abecassis, Marc Naalden, Paul Jackson, and PokerStars Team Pro members such as Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Arnaud Mattern, Johnny Lodden, Noah Boeken, Joep Van Den Bijgaart, Marcel Luske, Pieter De Korver, Thierry Van Den Berg, and J.P. Kelly proved no match for the Belgians, as the final table consisted of five locals, four of them making it to the top four places.

Even though most players qualified their way to the main event via various online and live satellites, there were 75 more direct buy-ins this year than last year. The tournament was played out over nine days including four starting days, and was streamed live on the Internet and filmed for broadcast. The structure had a very positive reaction from many of the players. Each sat down to 10,000 starting chips (an increase from last year’s 5,000), and hourly blinds began at 20-40.

Getting Down to Business
One of the more familiar poker faces to reach the higher end of the payouts belonged to British pro Paul Jackson. He took home €8,200 for 15th place. Maurits Blom of the Netherlands was the unfortunate final-table bubble and joined the 71 players on the other side of the rail who had so far cashed.

The nine players and their chip counts going into the final table were:

Seat 1 Antonio Guida 819,000
Seat 2 Dalil Massaud 525,000
Seat 3 Xavier Charlier 940,000
Seat 4 Fabian Gantile 1,286,000
Seat 5 Laurent Gauthier 330,000
Seat 6 Marc Inizan 1,045,000
Seat 7 Barbara Martinez 1,151,000
Seat 8 Joris Springael 1,419,000
Seat 9 Stefan Aerts 1,004,000

With blinds soaring to 14,000-28,000 plus a 4,000 ante, Marc Inizan pushed all in for 250,000 from the small blind with Q 8 and Barbara Martinez called from the big blind with K 6. The board fell J 9 6 6 K and Frenchman Inizan made his exit in ninth place for €13,325.

Laurent Gauthier left soon after in eighth place with €18,450 after shoving his remaining 300,000 in chips in from the cut-off with J 10. Although a jack came on the flop, Antonio Guida was miles ahead with J J and finished Gauthier off with a full house on a board showing J 5 4 4 2.

Guida went on to knock the next player out when the blinds were at 20,000-40,000 with a 5,000 ante. Stefan Aerts moved all in from the small blind and Guida made the 420,000 chip call from the big blind. It was A 7 versus A Q and Guida paired his queen on the flop, putting Aerts out in seventh place for €25,397.

During the same level, Barbara Martinez opened from the button with a bet of 85,000 and Joris Springael raised to 290,000. Martinez made the call and the flop came down 10 9 5. Both players checked and the turn was the 8d. Springael bet 475,000 and Martinez pushed all in for 1,500,000. Springael made the call and the two turned over their cards. Springael held 7 6 for the turned straight while Martinez revealed A J for the nut flush draw. The river was the 10 and Martinez exited in sixth place, €36,444 richer. This was more than she had bargained for however as she initially attended the Championships with sponsorship from PokerStars to play the €100 + 10 buy-in ladies event. She decided to come early however and won her main event ticket in a live satellite.

Next to hit the rail was Xavier Charlier. Springael opened for 115,000 and Charlier pushed all in for 605,000 from the small blind. Springael called and turned over K J while Charlier tabled A 10. The board was dealt K 10 7 4 Q and it was all over for Charlier who exited in fifth place with €51,250 for his efforts.

With blinds moving on up to 35,000-70,000 and a 5,000 ante, Dalil Massaud became the next casualty after pushing all in from the small blind for 650,000 in chips with K 5 and receiving a call from Fabian Gantile with A J. The flop brought something for everyone with both a king and a jack, but an ace on the river sealed the deal and Massaud hit the rail with €76,875 for fourth place.

Deal or No Deal
Three-handed play with blinds of 40,000-80,000 plus a 10,000 ante saw Gantile raise 220,000 from the button and Springael shove all in for 1,700,000. Gantile called and was dominating Springael with pocket queens versus pocket fives respectively. The board fell J 4 3 3 4 and Springael hit the rail in third place for € 125,278 but, in accordance with a deal made threehanded, received a good deal more, €167,089.

The final hand came during the same level. Guida opened from the button and Gantile called. The flop was K 10 7. Gantile checked, Guida moved all in and Gantile called. Guida showed 6 2 for the flush draw while Gantile flipped over K J for top pair. The turn kept Gantile safe with the 4, but it was meant to be for Guida as the river brought a diamond in the form of a ten.

The 47-year-old from Liege in Belgium was crowned the champion of the event and was originally due to receive €302,946 but was still delighted to take the €256,082 which he agreed in the three-way deal. Gantile received €190,122 for his runner-up finish — slightly more than the original prize of €185,070, also due to the deal.

After the event, Kenny Hallaert, Poker Manager of Casinos de Namur and Spa, said, “We expected to have about 650-700 players and in the end we had 817, so it was definitely a success. The final two days were really exciting, with only 36 players left we still had three women left, and players from France, Germany, Netherlands, Ukraine, and England… People were also very pleased with the structure, a five-day tournament structure where it took almost 45 hours of play to honour the winner. Something you never see, especially for a tournament with a buy-in of only €1,700.”

Action at Every Turn
The other big news during the week was the €10,000 Heads-Up Team event which took place on November 25. This saw six teams of four battle each other in heads-up matches and featured players such as Jamel Maistriaux, Pascal Perrault, and Davidi Kitai. The PokerStars team floored all its competition, winning most of its matches and taking the first place prize of €45,000. The team consisted of Arnaud Mattern, Bertrand Grospellier, Johnny Lodden, and Julien Brecard. The runner-up Netherlands team who got the €15,000 second prize was made up of Jasper Wetemans, Bert Van Doesburg, Jorn Walthaus, and the 2006 BOPC main event champion, Marc Naalden.

The ladies event proved very popular this year also, and introduced many newcomers to the live felt mixed in among seasoned professionals. All-in-all the entire festival was a great success, with the organisers, and indeed PokerStars, pulling out all the stops to both promote poker in Belgium and increase participation from all nations and walks of life. Namur can settle down once again until it is struck by a tidal wave of poker fever next year when the word is sure to spread even further across the globe.