October starts Strong

Oktoberfest by Tripick is underway at the Circus Casino Resort in Namur. The €350 Main Event kicked off at 3pm, with 75 players already seated at the tables on Day 1A!

The main tournament of the week is a Mystery Bounty (€125 of the buy-in goes into the Mystery prize pool that comes into play at the ITM, ed. note) with a €200,000 guarantee that should be blown wide open...

The game has started with antes, the competitors have all received 50,000 chips and are competing on blinds 100 - 200 (200)... gehen wir!

Déjà du Beau Monde

It's always a busy time at Namur... and this opening Sunday was no exception, with many regulars in the field.

The first of eight opening days continues to fill up, with almost 100 entrants already in the field. The regulars are there, including Ali Bilgin, Salvatore Allata, Ionut Chiriac, Bjorn Frings, Tom Dingenen, Charlene Kals, Alain Fleurent and Lionel Hamelryck...

The boss is there too, as Pierre Neuville is in the thick of things from the outset. The WSOP Main Event finalist has already put his money where his mouth is and is on top of the starting stack. Before our very eyes, he opens UTG1 and gets paid by his neighbor on the left...

The Belgian sends 2,500 chips and then 3,000 on the flop and the turn of a 2 Queen 2 King 4 board before giving-up river. No action and Neuville returns Ace 9 sweat, insufficient against a pair of 7s from an unbeliever.

Not enough to slow Pierre down, who opens directly under the gun to make up. No time to fold in Namur! 

La Bonne Fournée

Or not, since Robin Fournez is in the rai l even though the second level is not yet complete. The board shows 113 players in contention for 117 entrants, and player 7Bello is about to go to the cashier for re-entry.

"It's open-call-call, I raise on the button with Ace 5 and get paid twice," says the young man before detailing an Ace 4 5 flop on which he hits two pair.

"I bet, it's paid once, turn Jack of hearts, there's a flush draw... I bet he raises, I shove... it's call he's got 2 and 3 of diamonds," adds the man who won't hit a double up behind. Shoo! 

The field continues to grow with the arrival of Claudio Guadagnino, Dalil Masaud, Olivier Hegy, Tino de Zutter, Kevin Boel or Yves Seghers...

Nice People

The blinds have just climbed to 200 - 400 (400) for the third level of play on Day 1A of the Oktoberfest...

The format is a little different from usual on this opening day, with the day divided into 5 half-hour levels followed by a 30-minute break.

After this break, the survivors will return for 5 new half-hour levels, heading for the dinner break. It'll be around 8:30 p.m. by the time we resume at around 9:45 p.m., registration will be closed.

Levels will then increase to 40 minutes, with 3 levels scheduled in a row... then it's off to chip packing and Day 2 around midnight for the survivors!

Back to Day 1A with the arrival of Robert Seelen (photo) or Jérôme Balthazar, Thierry Louis, Lukas Brzezinski, Farid Azarkan, Guillaume Bazoge, Morten Faas, Giuseppe Genco, Chenda Ly, Marc Hannesse or Patrick Prijot... 

Hi Vincent!

It was with great sadness that the poker community learned of the death of Vincent Verdickt a few days before the Oktoberfest, on October 4, 2024...

A passionate fan of poker, Vincent always had a smile on his face and a word for everyone around the tables, and the Circus Casino Resort de Namur would like to offer its condolences to his family. Married with a daughter and almost a grandfather, Vincent leaves a great void with his passing in his 60th year.

The native of Anderlecht was not the last man for a lively discussion and a good aperitif, and he leaves a positive memory for the many card players he crossed paths with in the poker room.

22nd on the Belgian All-Time Money List, Vincent Verdickt compiled 141 HendonMob lines and over $600,000 on Belgian and European tables. A regular at the Namur tables, he won 9 tournaments here... his passion was also exported further afield. 

Vincent Verdickt has now won 3 tournaments on the world circuit. His greatest success was conquering the Namur Classic's in 2017, against 440 opponents. Vincent triumphed over Karim Ryadi in a head's up final featuring Bayer Demirci (6th) and WSOP Circuit winner Christophe Bouziane (8th).

Vincent just missed out on the ring in 2017 at Rozvadov on a 6-Max... often placed and rarely a winner, Vincent also contested a WPT National Brussels final (2016) or reached the last three tables of the Estrellas Barcelona Main Event (2014). His best financial result was a second-place finish in France.

Vincent Verdickt finished runner-up in the FPS High-Roller and left the Normandy city with €91,000... a bit of an adventure for the man who held his cards with passion and almost always in a good mood.

These many shared memories remain vivid in our minds as we join you in mourning. Our thoughts are with your family at this tragic time...

We are sorry for your loss. 

Break

It's almost the first break and the traditional half-hour break at the Circus Casino Resort in Namur...

The game is 300 - 600 (600) with 147 players in contention for 170 entrants on the first of eight opening days of the €350 Oktoberfest!

Thomas de Kerchove is on a roll with almost 5 times the starting stack and already well over 200,000 chips. No detail, the young man is multi-tabling with a big chat with Anne Trebitsch interrupted by frequent glances at the poker magazine on his lap... 

Let's Go!

Level 6 is underway, and play has resumed with 140 players in contention for 174 entries on Day 1A of the Oktoberfest.

The blinds are now 400 - 800 (800) with an average of 62,000 chips. Thomas de Kerchove is well ahead, and the break has allowed us to catch up with other regulars such as Mihai Stinca, Yves Senterre, Viorel Merisan and Jorden Verbraeken, who also got off to a good start...

Carina Voncken has disappeared from the field, albeit temporarily! 

Chipcount
Thomas de Kerchove 245,000
Yannick de Raeve 135,000
Marco Herman 126,000
Fabius Lari 124,000
Chris Verbaeck 106,000
Jorden Verbraeken 105,000
David Olurebi 104,000
Viorel Merisan 102,000
Kok Wai Ho 101,000
Morten Faas 91,000
Yves Senterre 91,000
hImad Abouabderrahmane 83,000
Daniel Colaruccio 83,000
Alain Fleurent 81,000
Arnaud Servais 79,000
Chenda Ly 76,000
Mihai Stinca 75,000
Anne Trebitsch 72,000
Mohamed Razkou Allah 71,000
Pierre Neuville 65,000
Ohran Serbian 63,000
Rudolf de Boer 62,000
Aliosha Staes 57,000
Tonio Ruggiu 56,000
Dalil Masaud 55,000
Bjorn Frings 42,000
Tom Dingenen 35,000
Yves Seghers 27,000
Daniel Pirlot 18,000
Harrie Snijders 13,000

Les Souris Dansent

But the cat's not out of the bag yet. Winner of the WPO Bratislava for €90,000 a week ago, Aliosha Staes is on track for Day 1A of the Oktoberfest.

"I'd planned to play this one," confirms the Belgian... ALiosha hasn't changed his amateur schedule, so he's come to enjoy himself here at the Circus Casino Resort in Namur. A few days into what he describes as a "real achievement" on a tough field, Alio hasn't gone overboard and remains humble despite the greetings that come in from everywhere.

Between the players who come to congratulate him directly and the mountain of messages, Aliosha hasn't lost his cool... he's going to be a dad in December. "It's always a good time to win this kind of tournament," he confirms, before going on to talk about his wife's pregnancy. 

A little boy arrives, and ALiosha takes the opportunity to feel the cards. "I'll be there at the CPS too, that was the plan," he repeats, before going on to talk about the start of his game. "Two hours to go, I just made a little bluff," he recounts just before finally starting to move up to 75,000 chips.

Less than five minutes later, ALiosha returns to the starting point, the fault of a flip. Staes uncovered As Valet in the big blind after an open UTG1 from Eddy Meyfroot... and took his opponent all-in.

Eddy snapped for 24,000 chips with the 9s to see the coin fall the right way. A quarter of an hour remains on 500 - 1000 (1000) with 140 players in the running for 188 entrants and an average of 66,000 chips.

With the starting bankroll, Aliosha Staes has plenty of time to see what's coming... 

Already 200

The tournament is going well, with 200 entries already on Day 1A of the Oktoberfest.

Registration is open until the start of Level 11 and the end of the dinner break, at around 9.45pm, and attendance continues to climb. As night falls on Namur's Circus Casino Resort, the leaderboard now shows 138 players in the ring for 200 registered.

With 26 minutes left to play in blinds 600 - 1200 (1200) and an average of 72,000 chips, there's still plenty to play for. Fred Hebette, for example, has just arrived with 50,000 chips to start with, and he can still tell tales... 

BPOKP, the conclusion is close

And this conclusion can be experienced live on streaming from the Circus Casino Resort in Namur, with Will Lion on commentary, of course, just before 9pm.

Le grand Live du BPOKP is two days of festivities in Namur for fans of poker... a big party organized by Dominique Lamy with his partners, notably the Circus group.

The final bubble has just ended... with the exit ofErwan Le Corre who will attempt to win €345 in prize money, including €170 in live and online tournament credit. The final 9 players in the running will receive a host of prizes, including at least €300 in tournament credit at Circus. For the winner, there's even more live action, including a €4,000 Vegas package!

Runners-up will also be rewarded with €1,100 BPC tickets, FPS tickets, Florida Family stays (€695)... Dominique has done his homework with €15,711 in prize money for this Main Event featuring two days of action and a starting stack of 500 blinds. Talk about a freeroll!

Approach dinner

With 45 minutes to go before the dinner break, Level 9 is well underway. The 134 players in the field have been battling it out for a quarter of an hour on blinds 800 - 1600 (1600)!

The Circus Casino Resort in Namur has now registered 205 entries, and registration is open until 9.45pm. This level is also the penultimate tournament level to be played on half-hour blinds. At the post-dinner resumption, the survivors will battle it out over 40-minute levels... and Thomas de Kerchove has lost all his lead.

The former boss fell back into the pack with 150,000 chips, which is still twice the average, or almost, since the average is 76,000... Dalil Masaud is right on schedule at a table where Pierre Neuville has given up the ghost. Off to the cashier for re-entry!

CPS, qualify on PokerStars... now!

If you can't make it to the Circus Casino Resort in Namur to take part in one of the many satellites for the Circus Poker Series Main Event... try to qualify online at PokerStars!

Qualifying starts at €3.5 and a €215 satellite guaranteeing a €2,200 ticket kicks off at 8.30pm on the event's partner room this Sunday. The CPS main event is the most expensive main event of the year inNamur, and last year's Dutch winner walked away with almost €130,000! Who will succeed Max Wind? 

Next Time

Just before dinner, Aliosha Staes gave up the ghost. Down to 10 blinds on 1000 - 2000 (2000), Aliosha completed the small blind after a limp fromArnaud Servais.

The big blind joined the party to discover a King Ten 3 board and Aliosha check-raised after a 5,000-chip bet from Arnaud. Arnaud's King-Queen snap call, in front of the King-Suited 3 of the recent WPO Bratislava winner...

Off to the Chinois de Namur to share a meal with Anne Trebitsch for Aliosha, who will be back on Thursday or Friday... unless he can be persuaded to make another dumpling tonight.

The late recordings will be finished when the show resumes at 9.45pm. 

Dinner Break

Play resumes at 9.45pm with late registration completed for the first of eight opening days of the €350 Oktoberfest Main Event, a Mystery Bounty tournament (€125 in the prize pool per buy-in, editor's note). 

At the moment there are 105 entries for 218 entrants and an average of 99,000 chips... Viorel Merisan had a superb last hour to dine in the lead! Things are going well for Jérôme Balthazar and Anne Trebitsch who are neighbors...






Chipcount
Viorel Merisan 266,000
Thomas de Kerchove 243,000
Jean-Paul Peiffer 241,000
Mesut Akin 225,000
Marco Herman 221,000
Lionel Hamelryck 220,000
Anne Trebitsch 205,000
Kevin Boel 185,000
Clyde Tjauw Foe 182,000
Catherine Joachim 180,000
Tino de Zutter 175,000
Jan Bobbaers 174,000
Jérôme Balthazar 171,000
Yannick de Raeve 153,000
Roger Sacre 152,000
Arnaud Servais $151,000
Octavian Ripan 135,000
Morten Faas 132,000
Nicolas Iacobucci 130,000
Marc Kirchdoerfer 121,000
Harrie Snijders 121,000
Fred Hebette 113,000
Dalil Masaud 80,000
Farukh Tach 64,000
Pierre Neuville 31,000

Streaming: Le Grand Live

223 entries to start with

Level 11 is underway, with players now competing in 40-minute levels, and registration is now closed. Day 1A of the €350 Oktoberfest drew 223 entrants and now only 100 are left!

The blinds are 1000 - 2500 (2500) with 22 minutes left to play on this level... the survivors will play two levels back and the game will be stopped, heading for Day 2 on Saturday 2pm.

Among the late entrants, Aliosha Staes. The Belgian has heated up unsurprisingly and is back at it again... he's landed just to the left of Catherine Joachim, who currently leads the women's clan with almost 250,000 in chips. Aliosha still has the starting stack... 

First Blood

These players are in the busto cart, and will have to try their luck again on another flight to join the weekend's competition and qualify for the Mystery Envelopes...

The blinds have just climbed to 1500 - 3000 (3000) and it's finito for Alain Fleurent, David Kahan, Robert Seelen, Ohran Serbes, Lorenzo Furia, Mohamed Razkou Allah or even Franco Scalise, Rudolf de Boer, Sandra Chicot...

The table shows 91 players in the running for 223 entrants...

Put some oil

With 18 minutes left to play on blinds 1500 - 3000 (3000), only 82 players remain in the running, with an average of 136,000 pawns. Jorden Verbraeken has given up and will be back to try his luck on Friday, and it's all over for Guillaume Bazoge, Jean-Paul Peiffer, Chenda Ly and Thierry Louis...

Viorel Merisan is down to 185,000 chips and has been overtaken by several players. Catherine Joachim is well down in second place with 230,000 chips, in touch with Fred Hebette (230,000) and Pierre Neuville (241,000), who made a comeback in 45 minutes! Clyde Tjaw Foe (215,000) is also keeping up the pace... as is Simon Delhuille (photo), currently leading the field with 310,000 chips. The latter took advantage of a four of Aces with only one Ace in hand to take the chips that put him 6 times ahead of the starting stack. 

Tino De Zutter is right in his wheel with a less orthodox move. Eddy Meyfroot sends in 24,000 chips and boxes under the gun, Tino decides to pay and leads Octavian Ripan who also calls from the button. No action on 5 3 2 with two spades no action on the turn 4 of clubs which opens a second color draw... On the river 3 of clubs, Tino sends 17,000 chips and is snapped by Octavian who returns Ace Jack in on va split mode.

Eddy reveals his Ace 2 of hearts... two hands swept away by Tino's mismatched 6 and 8, who collects just over 70,000 chips on this inspiration. TDZ sings the chipleader song! 

The Circus Tour

With half an hour left to play on blinds 2000 - 4000 (4000), the final level of the first opening day of the Oktoberfest is underway...

There are only 70 players left in the field on Day 1A of the Main Event, and Marco Herman (below) has moved on. He just squared up with a pair of 8s in a post-flop battle... Constantin Ifrim didn't recover and couldn't find the fold with a pair of Kings! All in all, the Dutchman enters the final sprint with 530,000 chips! 

This information is only the third in order of importance at this stage of the tournament. The second is that the chipleader is none other than Pierre Neuville. Down to 31,000 at dinner-break, Pierre has been putting his money where his mouth is for the last two hours. He knocked out Jérôme Balthazar and many others under the amused eyes of those who didn't fall and who survive this table like Dalil Masaud... The WSOP Main Event finalist is down to 670,000 chips with only a few moments to go! 

The crucial news is that the bar has been given the green light by the bosses of poker to offer a round of Tripick. Who doesn't want one? Just say the word and you'll get your pint... Olivier Carosella (photo) celebrated by raising to 120,000 chips by holding with Kings against Ace-Queens preflop... his opponent had only 4 outs left on the flop as Olivir drew a Royal Flush on Ten Jacks-Queens all in clubs...

Massacre

There's a quarter of an hour left on the clock on Day 1A of the Oktoberfest... the number of last hands will be announced very soon, heading for Day 2 next Saturday from 2pm.

Only 54 players are left in the running, with a final quarter-hour that will prove fatal for more than 15 of them! Yannick de Raeve, Farukh Tach, Marc Kirchdoerfer, Arnaud Servais, Octavian Ripan (with King 6 on A6464... the opener had the Aces, editor's note), Mortan Faas, Lukas Trzcinski or Luc Boeckx thus disappeared in-extremis...

We'll be back as soon as possible to see if Pierre Neuville has continued to shave to the end! 

Pierre Neuville dominates Day 1A

After 7 hours of poker , broken down into 10 half-hour levels and three 40-minute levels, it was Pierre Neuville who came out on top. The WSOP Main Event finalist was down to 31,000 chips at the dinner break, and two hours later had bagged up 716,000 chips - well over 100 blinds - for the Saturday 2pm resumption, again on 40-minute levels.

The first of the eight starting days of the Oktoberfest Main Evenlet was a sell-out, with 223 entries accumulated by the Circus Casino Resort in Namur. The €200,000 guarantee is set to be smashed on this €350 Mystery Bounty format tournament (€125 of each buy-in goes into the Mystery prize pool)... 

While Day 1A went in the Belgian legend's favor, a number of regulars cleared the hurdle. Marco Herman (523,000) was the only other player to multiply his stack by at least ten. Tino de Zutter (370,000), Daniel Colarcucio (335,000), Fred Hebette (328,000), David Olurebi (315,000), Angelo Mancuso (314,000) were all in, as were Patrick Prijot (300,000), Roger Sacre (262,000) and Quentin Tan (262,000).

Farid Azarkan, Thomas de Kerchove, Clyde Tjaw Foe, Anne Trebitsch, Sebastien Bodson, Marc Hannesse, Dalil Masaud, Giuseppe Genco, Viorel Merisan, Olivier Carosella, Aliosha Staes, Reda Belkhou and Lionel Hamelryck are also in the money...

See you on Monday for Day 1B, which starts at 4pm and offers 13 more levels of poker...

Partial Chipcount Day 1A (complete in the document below)below)
Pierre Neuville 716 000
Marco Herman 523 000
Simon Delhuille 454 000
Maxm Brandibas 410 000
Tino de Zutter 370 000
Catherine Joachim 366 000
Moreno Barone 354 000
Daniel Colacurcio 335 000
Fred Hebette 328 000
David Olurebi 315 000
Angelo Mancuso 314 000
Patrick Prijot 300 000
Roger Sacre 262 000
Quentin Tan 262 000
Farid Azarkan 252 000
Clyde Tjauw Foe 245 000
Claudio Guadagnino 223 000
Anne Trebitsch 182 000
Sebastien Bodson 181 000
Marc Hannesse 180 000
Dalil Masaud 180 000
Danny de Vos 166 000
Kevin Boel 150 000
Giuseppe Genco 144 000
Viorel Merisan 142 000
Olivier Carosella 134 000
Fabius Lri 116 000
Aliosha Staes 77 000
Reda Belkhou 68 000
Bjorn Frings 64 000
Lionel Hamelryck 48 000