Starting Soon

We'll be back in a few minutes to launch our live coverage of Oktoberfest!

Three of the eight starting sessions have already taken place, and 113 players have booked a ticket for Day 2 on Saturday, September 7... with 397 entrants already, we're expecting another huge turnout at the Circus Casino Resort.

Always a big crowd in Namur! 

Shuffle Up & Deal

The fourth starting session of the Oktoberfest has kicked off... Some forty participants have received 50,000 chips and are battling it out on blinds 100 - 200 for the only level of the no-ante tournament. 

The game starts with 30-minute levels... after 9 half-hour levels, the day ends with three 40-minute levels. Four levels and two hours of poker are on the agenda from the start, heading for the traditional first half-hour break. 

The dinner break will take place at the end of the 8th level, for 75 minutes from 8.30pm...

They're coming

Just under 20 minutes into Day 1D of the €330 Oktoberfest, a tournament played in the Progressive KO format... every time you take out a player you collect half of their bonus and the other half is now on your head.

If you take out a player who hasn't eliminated anyone, your bonus increases to €150 and you pocket €50. If you take out a second player who hasn't eliminated anyone, you now have €200 on your head, and you collect €50 again... As time goes by, the bonuses will be worth a pretty penny!

With 10 minutes left on the first level, 56 players are in the running for 56 entries!

Jérôme Balthazar, Theo Gerritsen, Marc Thumelaire, David Opdebeeck, Heni Mokini and Tom DIngenen are already seated at the table...

100%

The second level starts with 62 players for 62 entrants - everyone lasted 30 minutes! 

For Oktoberfest, the Circus Casino Resort in Namur is offering you a refreshing drink... let yourself be tempted by a Tripick, on the house!

He didn't last*

Louison Dury can enjoy his Tripick on the Circus Casino Resort benches, as he's the first out of the gate on Day 1D after a preflop all-in confrontation.

Louison opened at 900 from the blinds 100 - 300 (300) and Eric Vancraywinkel 3-bet to the button at 2,400 chips. Louison replies with a 4-bet to 7,000 and commits his 40,000 chips when Eric pushes him all-in.

Eric turns over the kings and stays ahead of Louison's queens one board later. Louison heads for the exit, Eric for the provisional chiplead...



* Title by Mich'. 

New Level

Already 70 minutes of play and 73 players in the running for 74 entrants on Day 1D of the €330 Oktoberfest.

The blinds are now 200 - 400 (400)... 

Big Fold

Sometimes you have to wait all day to find a big fold, but on Day 1D you didn't even have to wait an hour. 

End of level 2, I see Dennis Grishaver pushing his stack and I approach... We're on an Ace 6 2 9 8 board with two hearts on the flop and a third on the turn, and there's a big blind versus cutoff showdown. 

In the big blind, Christophe Goeman pouted, having bet 3,600 chips in a pot of 7,700, and it wouldn't take him more than 15 seconds to resolve to fold. "I thought you were confident," he tells Dennis in English, revealing 7 and 4 of hearts for the flush draw. 

Grishaver leaves (a little) doubt by showing only the ace of hearts before pocketing the chips... 

Pause en Approche

The 4th level of Day 1D of this €330 PKO Oktoberfest started a few minutes ago, with 78 of the 82 entrants competing in blinds 200 - 500 (500)... there will be a first break at the end of this level. 

Half an hour to test the Tripick with the drink token offered to all participants in this Main Event, move your car on the Citadelle road before the police arrive or try your luck by putting everything on red! 

Break

The first break of Day 1D is underway. After two hours of poker, 84 players went on break for half an hour, the board then showed 93 entrants...

Resumed at 6:32 p.m. on blinds 300 - 600 (600) with an average of 56,000 chips...

At the first break it was Eric Vancraywinkel who took the lead with two players eliminated and 155,000 chips...

Chips
Eric Vancraywinkel 155,000
Jacques Bailly 154,000
Tom DIngenen 147,000
Parkas Somer 121,000
Jérôme Balthazar 109,000
Daniel Domb 107,000
Jeroen de Lor 100,000
Daniel Wuyts 88,000
Martjin Straet 75,000
Renaud Hennes 70 000
Dove Monaco 67 000
Laurent van Severen 59 000
Jeremy Berthani 52 000
Roberto Spagnuolo 45 000
Philippe Riminucci 44 000
Noah Alem 40 000
Charly Mouline 34 000
Chris Goeman 26 000
Nikolas Wicquart 20 000

10 minutes of play on the level and the 100-entry mark is reached. 88 players remain on Day 1D Oktoberfest, with an average of 57,000 chips.

Play continues on blinds 300 - 600 (600)... Adrien di Grande, Christophe de Meulder, Claudio Guadagnino, Ismael Joly and Jean Yip are all in... 

In & Out

Laurent van Severen has just doubled up. The young man is sending 10,600 chips and all-in on blinds 400 - 800 (800) after an open UTG1... 

Opener smells a bonus and calls with pair of 4s, it's a flip as Laurent reveals Ace Ten. An Ace on the flop leaves him alive with a slightly more maneuverable stack.

No time for nonsense at this table as it goes all-in on the next move. A dark encounter of premiums... and it's Noah Alem who's on the right side with the kings. 

Jérôme Funfrock is holding the checkers and almost his entire starting stack is about to go. After a successful return from the break and this victim, Noah now has more than three times the starting stack... enough to put the pressure on and go hunting for bonuses. 

50 Nuances de Blindes

Latecomers like Gaetano Moreci arrive with 50 blinds as the blinds are now 500 - 1000 (1000). 

With 88 players for 117 entrants, Day 1D was in line with the average for Wednesday opening days at Circus Casino Resort de Namur... 

Photos

Three minutes to go before the start of the 8th level of Day 1D. There are still 81 in the running for 119 entrants with half an hour to go before the dinner break...

Ciao Christophe

The end of the road for Christophe de Meulder. Ten minutes before the dinner break, the Belgian player cold 4-bet from the big blind into the Aces. 

Open on the button, 3-bet from Bobby P in the small blind, no FE with 17 blinds, Christophe discovers Ace King and sends in the big blind. The opener gets out of the way, but not Bobby, who turns over Texas' best hand to stay ahead and climb to 110,000 chips one board later. 

Christophe may come back after the dinner break, even if he seemed reluctant to return with 50,000 out of 1,000 - 1,500 (1,500)... 

Noah's Ark

Another bounty for Noah Alem, who pocketed €75 on this occasion since Philippe Riminucci had busted a player before being eliminated... 

Noah opens to 2,500 two minutes before the dinner break and is paid three, including Philippe on the button. On the Ace 9 7 flop with two spades, Noah sends in his continuation bet and is paid twice. 

Philippe then sends in his stack for 8,000 chips, but no one passes and the raise is blocked. On turn 7, Noah sends a second banderilla for 18,000 chips, and only Gaetano Moreci calls. 

The river 2 of spades completes the flush and Noah checks... before calling Gaetano's 25,000 bet with 5s and 7s... Gaetano can't do better than 1s 4 and Alem raises to 165,000 just before the dinner break... 

Dinner break


The game is paused until 9:50pm... Resumption on blinds 1000 - 1500 (1500) with at least 71 players in contention for 122 entrants. 

The average is 86,000 and some are already well ahead. Gerlando Rosa has 205,000 in chips and he had a stroke of luck just before the break. 

An open, he calls with the 9s and leads a player into the blinds. The opener checks King 9 2 and Gerlando bets his three of a kind... only to be check-raised after the blinds fold. 

Rosa sends a praline, it's all-in for Heni Mokni... there are two kings in front! The river 9 claims a victim and propels Gerlando to the top of the leaderboard... thanks to the in-extremis four of a kind!

Chips
Jerome Balthazar 290,000
Igor Hartmans 279,000
Gerlando Rosa 205,000
Eric Vancraywinkel 182,000
Tom DIngenen 170,000
Roberto Spagnuolo 166,000
Noah Alem 165,000
Abdel Benamara 165,000
Jacques Bailly 153,000
Gwendal Mazzara 140,000
Dove Monaco 132,000
Aldo Maas 127,000
David Gaillard $125,000
Bobby P 117,000
Antoine Markarian 108,000
Daniel Domb 105,000
Nikolas Wicquart 63,000
Stefal Allard 60,000

Late Reg'

There are 15 minutes left to play in level 9, the last level to register.

The game resumed 15 minutes ago and the board now shows 74 players for 127 entrants...

132 making 528

Level 10 has begun, and players will play three 40-minute levels before the survivors pack up their chips...

The game continues on 1000 - 2000 (2000) with 69 players in the running for an average of 95,000 chips. The table therefore shows 131 entrants, although today's figure has not been officially confirmed...

Runner Runner

No I didn't witness a space move where one player stuck a 0.2% to another when everything went to the middle on the flop! 

Runner Runner is the title of the book written by the likeable Stefal. Stephane Allard blogs about his passions, starting with poker... then moving on to running. 

From his runaissance, he has drawn a book that smells of Belgium... don't hesitate to order Stéphane's praise for sport and surpassing oneself, as he tells you about the life of a long-distance runner... of the peloton!

On the poker side, things are going smoothly, with Stefal at 40 blinds, nothing done but nothing compromised, and 10 minutes left to play in blinds 1000 - 2000 (2000), with 63 of the 131 participants still in the ring...

This Pair of 9s...

... is out front! If you didn't start following poker last week and the pseudo Justice (10th in the Partouche Poker Tour Season 5 for €75,000, editor's note) rings a bell, you'll know that a raise on the button with a pair of 9s is automatic. Why? Because that pair of 9s is in front!

Anyway, Igor Hartmans has the chips to put the pressure on, so when Dove Monaco opened on the button with 16 blinds behind, he 3-bet. Dove mucks in response, Igor snaps to discover Ace 2 of spades in front.

Dove goes heads-up on an Ace 7 flop, the turn changes nothing but the 9 river gives Igor the win. With 315,000 counters, Igor is probably in the lead as level 10 draws to a close...

At the premium level, he's clearly ahead and his head is now worth €375, an amount that will attract the sharks at the slightest failure!

Top 55

There are 70 minutes left to play on Day 1D and the field has just dropped to 55 players. The clock shows 30 minutes to play on 1000 - 2500 (2500) with an average of 119,000 chips.

Jérôme Balthazar is keeping pace and working well, having just scalped Wiljan van Woerkum to cash in a few euros. Jérôme has probably taken the lead of the tournament, as he's now over 330,000 in chips...

Christophe de Meulder had discreetly re-entered at the dinner break, but the second attempt was unsuccessful and David Gaillard pocketed €50 and put another €50 on his head a few minutes ago...

Pressure

Nikolas Wicquart gets to use his Tripick chip. Jerry van der Vloedt went all-in in the small blind and Nikolas paid for 35,000 chips (14 blinds) with Ace 9 of spades.

Jerry turned over a pair of 4s to find a 4 in doorcard... but a spade on the flop and another on the turn gave Nikolas hope, and he'll be able to wait for the 5th spade at the bar.

Nikolas will be back to try his luck, probably on Friday... 52 players remain for an average of 126,000 chips with 15 minutes left to play in this penultimate level of Day 1D...

"On Retourne à Tournai" (Back to Tournai)

The roofer: "Did you take a bounty?"

Stéphane Allard: "No, the door and some fun"

An answer that brings a smile to the face of a recreational player who has just jumped. Stefal got his kicks, participated and ended up jumping... like 85% of the field.

With 25 blinds to start the move, he opened under the gun with King-Queen and couldn't resist putting it all in on a King-Queen-8 flop all in spades. Johan Wisselo had defended in the big blind with two spades, was happy to go all-in and held. No Full House to save Stefal, heading home to Tournai.

The final level has begun, with 36 minutes left to play on Day 1D. 47 players are competing on 1500 - 3000 (3000) with an average of 139,000 pawns. 

A cruel end

Gwendal Mazzara is having a ball... He's just passed ace-queen against preflop all-in aces... enough to pick up another bonus and build a big stack. Gwendal has 285,000 chips with a few minutes to go, while Christian van der Haegen is in the rail.  

Day 2 is just around the corner, and as the dealer unwraps a King Jack 3 Ten 7 board, the timer is paused. 

The 41 players in contention will play the last 5 hands before packing their chips into a bag, heading for Day 2 on Saturday 2pm, which will start on 2000 - 4000 (4000)... 

Day 1D average is 160,000 or 53 blinds to finish... 

Jérôme Balthazar dominates Day 1D

The fourth of 8 sessions of the €330 PKO Oktoberfest attracted 131 additional entrants, bringing the total to 528.

113 players had already qualified since Sunday, with a further 40 players bagging chips at the end of each day's 12-level program.

Resumption on Saturday at 2 p.m. on blinds 2000 - 4000 (4000)!

After 9 30-minute levels and 3 40-minute levels, it was Jérôme Balthazar who bagged up the most chips. With 451,000 chips - 9 times the starting stack - Jérôme played the Magician Kings to pile up chips steadily and end up with a few bounties in his pocket. Enough to come back with over 100 blinds for Day 2, almost as a freeroll... 



Just behind, Dawod Boutros bagged 435,000 chips, but fewer bonuses. "It was at the end that I started to cash in", he confided... he'll have plenty to put the pressure on at the start of Day 2 to go for bonuses. 

Noah Alem, Tom Dingenen, Charly Mouline and Jacques Bailly took a few bounties along the way... Soiled on the last hand, Laurent van Sevren fell to 1,000 chips. If he gives up his stack, the bounty on this dumpling will be returned to the prizepool...

Partial Chipcount Day 1D
Jérôme Balthazar 451,000
Dawod Boutros 435,000
Gwendal Mazzara 311,000
David Gaillard 277,000
Noah Alem 266,000
James van Loon 238,000
Bobby P. 224,000
Jacques Bailly 221,000
Charly Mouline 209,000
Maarten de Brouwer 202,000
Roel Bieshaar 185,000
Eric Vancraywinkel 177,000
Alberto Lorenzo 162,000 
Gerlando Rosa 148,000
Igor Hartmans 145,000
Marc Thumelaire 133,000
David Opdebeeck 120,000
Antoine Mankarian 111,000
Daniel Domb 99,000
Tom Dingenen 64,000
Laurent van Sevren 1000

The complete chipcount in the document below