Shuffle up & deal on Day 1E

Play has just begun on blinds 100 - 200 (200) at the Circus Casino Resort in Namur. The fifth of eight starting days gets underway with almost 70 players seated at the tables.

124 players have already validated their ticket for the rest of the competition, and will have to pass 10 levels of 30 minutes chained together with 3 levels of 40 minutes to join them at the end of this new session!

Registration is open for 10 levels, i.e. until 10.45 p.m. and the first deal of level 11. Participants have received 50,000 tokens and will play 5 half-hour levels before a first break... after this break there will be four 30-minute levels, leading to a 75-minute dinner break.

For those who don't make it over this hurdle, see you on Friday for the last two qualifying sessions... or there's also Day 1F Turbo, this Thursday from 9 p.m. with 10 quarter-hour levels and three 20-minute levels (late reg around midnight 30, editor's note)

Let's go!

Toujours du Monde...

A quarter of an hour of play on the first of the 13 levels on the program for the fifth starting day of the Oktoberfest at €350 entry and the entry counter has already climbed to 87.

Giovanni Ventura, Mischa Wieten, Salvatore Allatta, Angelo Aliberto, Taner Ayhan are already here, as is Anthony Bui Ngoc, who is celebrating his birthday by playing at poker. Ruben Tack, Alain Theisen, Patrick Resseler, Ruben Steenhuis, Stéphane Meo, Nicolas Destercq and Patrice Libert are also in the game, as are Julien Lauer, Theo Erkamps, Ekin Kandemir and Tom Dingenen. 

113

Level 2 began a short while ago, with 113 entrants and 111 players still in the running, while the blinds are now 100 - 300 (300). Romain Dussart, Roger Edain, Manuel Casas, Emile Custinne and Heidi Crooneborghs have all arrived, as has BPC winner Rayane Moktavarium...

The tournament's attendance climbs to 672 entries... Lé lé la!

Head for the Circus Knockout, where it's all bubbly... 

Big Day

Thursday is a crazy day, and Day 1E of Oktoberfest is on its way up. With ten minutes left to play on Level 3, the 150-entry mark has been reached on this 5th opening day. Is the attendance record of 223 entrants on Sunday's Day 1A in jeopardy?

There are still 140 players at the tables of the Circus Casino Resort in Namur as play continues in blinds 200 - 400 (400) with an average of 54,000 chips... 700 entries cleared for Oktoberfest 2024... 

They arrive

With a quarter of an hour to go before the first break of Day 1E, the players present at the start have already been playing for just over two hours...

Registrations continue to climb, with the counter now showing 146 players in the running for 180 entries. The numbers are set to rise further, as late registration closes at the end of level 10, at 10.45 p.m.!

There are currently 739 entries in the tournament since Sunday, and the prize pool has climbed to €221,552- the guarantee has jumped! Audrey Petitjean, Stéphane Monaco, Marc Hansens and Bryan de Riddere are all here to take their share... 

Break

The first break of Day 1E ended a few minutes ago. Play resumes at blinds 400 - 800 (800) with an average of 65,000 chips.

156 players are starting the 6th level, and the counter passed the 200 mark during the break, boosting the Mystery prize pool to €95,000! 

Chipcount
Ilyasse El Bouziani 317 000
Owen Dahmer 191 000
Julien Lauer 185 000
Heinz Baer 172 000
Bryan de Riddere 155 000
David De Graeve 152 000
Robert Smille 149 000
Cristian Bogdan 141 000
Guillaume Hertogs 137 000
Franck Landousli 131 000
Ayhan Taner 130 000
Kay Boeren 110 000
Patrick Resseler 107 000
Sebastien Lalance 105 000
Frank Oudolf 103 000
Ruben Steenhuis 94 000
Henk Pol 92 000
Kasper Thijs 85 000
Marc Hansens 83 000
Anthony Bui Ngoc 77 000
Emile Custinne 70 000
Audrey Petitjean 68 000
Rayane Moktavarium 57 000
Younes Akbal 53 000
Nicolas Destercq 50 000
Dario Sorrenti 50 000
Cyril Fabre 47 000
Heidi Croone 46 000
Andreas Gondrom 37 000

The Biggest

Day 1E of the Oktoberfest has just overtaken Sunday's Day 1A in terms of size. With 224 entries and 8 minutes left to play on level 7, it's set to get even bigger!

The blinds are now 500 - 1000 (1000), with 153 players competing at the same time at the Circus Casino Resort tables in Namur. 

Take-off

With two minutes to go before the blinds go up to 800 - 1600 (1600), a trio has just launched their tournament.Finally Bryan de Riddere had already grinded well... but he's just made the gap.

"A player who wants to go home just doubled up, opened UTG and his neighbor paid. I'm UTG 1 with Ace King and raise to 11,000 chips," begins the POker One player, who is therefore only paid by the opener. Bryan sends in 9,000 chips on Roi 9 3 with two clubs and it's paid again. No action on the King turn and Bryan goes all-in when Vilain sends 18,000 with 25,000 behind. It's snapped by a pair of 8s... heading for 240,000 chips for Bryan! 

For BPC 2024 winner Rayane Moktavarium, who entered the tournament late, there was no miracle. Rayane grinded out a few small moves to get up to 60,000 before finding a two-King versus two-Queen confrontation to double up. A few lost shots later, it was a 3-barrels bluff where his opponent dropped river that allowed him to climb back up to 110,000 chips, a nice stack with an average of 83,000 chips.

Finally, Cyril Fabre found Ace Ten after a limp under the gun paid twice. The UTG player called a mismatched Ace 9 for his tournament... allowing the Toulousan to flop a royal flush draw reducing his opponent to two outs which never fell. And the young Frenchman was almost back to his starting stack... 

Aperitif

It's time for a Tripick, with fifteen minutes to go before the 70-minute dinner break...

The game is played on 800 - 1600 (1600) with 137 players competing for 240 registrations. When play resumes at 10.15 p.m., there will still be 30 minutes of late registration! 

Dinner break

The dinner break is underway on Day 1E of the €350 Oktoberfest. Play will resume at 10:15pm on blinds 1000 - 2000 (2000) with currently 124 players and 244 entrants.

When registration resumes, it will be open for 30 minutes and then it will be time to face 2 hours of poker and three 40-minute levels at the end of the late registration period... enough time for Stéphane Monaco (photo, right) to get back in the game. This Frenchman shone in Cannes three weeks ago, winning two tournaments in a row... Leading the tournament by almost 6 times, his compatriot Julien Lauer is looking ahead! 

Chipcount (average 98,000)

Julien Lauer 286 000
David de Graeve 252 000
Robert Calvet 245 000
Florian Pierson 227 000
Franck Oudolf 216 000
Albertus van Putten 212 000
Fouad Serrar 211 000
Dario Sorrenti 210 000
Heinz Baer 200 000
Eleftherios Korexenidis 205 000

Maik Retter 194 000
Ilyasse El Bouziani 192 000
Bryan de Riddere 185 000
Javey Timmer 182 000
Robert Smith 175 000
Igor Gonzalez 175 000
Cristian Bogdan 165 000
Salvatore Alessi 155 000
William Vanderveck 155 000
Tom Dingenen 142 000

Anthony Bui Ngoc 140 000
Olga Stiou 132 000
Ingo Paulus 131 000
Stefan Burger 131 000
Rui Da Costa 130 000
Konstantin Faerber 125 00
Theo Erkamps 121 000
Ahyan Taner 120 000
Ugur Cegen 117 000
Ismail Demir 105 000

Rayane Moktavarium 83 000
Raian Motte 75 000
Anthony Dasbourg 64 000
Giovanni Ventura 59 000
Nicolas Destercq 50 000
Mihaita Georgita 47 000
Andreas Gondrom 46 000
Audrey Petitjean 25 000
Cyril Fabre 23 000

Reprise

Another 15 minutes to re-enter or register late for Day 5 of the eight-day event... blinds are at 1000 - 2000 (2000) and Nicolas Destercq has just left the play area. Sandro Pitzanti and Andreas Gondrom will also have to pot again if they want to qualify for Day 2. On this Day 1E or perhaps on Day 1F Turbo, which started at 9 p.m. and is still level 6?

123 players are just over two hours away from poker on Day 2 of this Day 1E... the entry counter shows 246 entries, taking the tournament above the 800 mark ahead of a big qualifying Thursday. 

251 entries on Day 1E

Registration is closed for the fifth starting day of the Oktoberfest. 251 entries on Day E is the record for this tournament ahead of Friday's explosive Day 1G at 3pm.

With 109 players still in the running on Day 2, there's still two hours and three 40-minute levels to go... play is now 1000 - 2500 (2500) with chipleaders around 300,000.

Leading the way at dinner, Julien Lauer is probably still in the lead with 320,000 chips. Bryan de Riddere has the same number of chips. Salvatore Allatta is in touch at 300,000, as is Robert Calvet.

Anthony Bui Ngoc has disappeared, as have Leonardo Armino and Tony Kiorpes... 

It's time

The first 40-minute level is almost over, with 88 minutes left to play on Day 1E of the Oktoberfest. 90 players remain on track as we approach blinds 1500 - 3000 (3000), and Noah Alem has just joined the club of players who will have a 100-blind block on the penultimate level of the day.

A little incredulous, Julien Lauer comes over to tell me about the delivery that keeps him in the lead with 370,000 chips. "He opens, I raise Ace-King in position and he pays before going all-in directly on Ace-Queen-5 all in clubs. I don't have a club, he turns over Ten 2 of diamonds... he had just over 20 blinds at the start of the move", recounts the provisional boss of the fifth of the eight starting days of this €350 entry Mystery Bounty.

Marius Nistor, Claude Frisque, Cristian Bogdan, Audrey Petitjean, Mihaita Georgita, Raian Motte and Cyril Fabre all gave up the fight... 

60 Minutes

20 minutes of play on 1500 - 3000 (3000) before the final blind increase and the 2000 - 4000 (4000) level... Day 1E is drawing to a close.

There are still 78 players in the running for an average of 161,000 chips, and a few regulars have given up their illusions. Finito for Guillaume Hertogs, Ugur Cegen, Nathan Pinchart and Michael Medioni. 

Ryan de Riddere is still on schedule with 250,000... BPT titleholder Rayane Moktavarium continues to struggle, but well below the average of over 50 blinds. 

35 entries on Day 1F

Unable to participate in the Main Event, the day's two flights were closed to late registrations. Day 1F Turbo finally drew 35 entrants, bringing the provisional attendance to 834 ahead of a suitably massive Friday.

There are now 20 players in the running, with 50 minutes left to play and just under three levels to go before the chips start rolling...

Two qualifying sessions remain, with Day 1G starting at 3pm on Friday, featuring ten 30-minute levels and three 40-minute levels. Day 1H Turbo starts at 9pm on Friday, with ten 15-minute levels and three 20-minute levels...

Almost There

Another half-hour of play on blinds 2000 - 4000 (4000) and the survivors of Day 1E will be packing their chips into a bag, heading for Day 2 at 2pm on Saturday. 72 players see the finish line of the fifth of eight days of the €350 Oktoberfest...

The average is 44 blinds, but there's no hope left for Frank Vangeel, Robert Smith, Kay Boeren, Igor Pliner, Gael Frey and Big Tuesday winner Orhan Serbes. See you tomorrow! 

13 qualifiers on 1F

"There were a few deliveries, two to be precise" confirmed Florian Moreno at the end of the 3 hours 30 minutes of play on Day 1F. The player from Amnéville successfully completed the 10 quarter-hour levels and the 3 20-minute levels to turn 50,000 chips into 452,000 counters.

This is the best total of the 13 survivors in a field of 35 entrants to this Thursday night Turbo... See you on Friday for the last two flights of this €350 Oktoberfest! 

Full Chipcout Day 1F
Florian Moreno 452,000
NC 215,000
Claus Spieckermann 138,000
Olivier Guenard 136,000
Kamel Djemai 118,000
Jordy Sanchez 114,000
Heidi Croonenborghs 108 000
Marco Schweis 107 000
Gokhan Pinar 102 000
Sandro Pitzanti 101 000
Petrus de Vries 75 000
Hendrick Hellingman 56 000
Godefridus van Veghel 28 000

Konstantin Kaiser on Day 1E

The fifth of the eight starting days of the €350 Oktoberfest is currently the busiest day of the tournament. With 251 entrants on Day 1E, the guarantee has already been exceeded and there are now over 830 entrants in the event... ahead of a Friday with two traditionally massive flights. 197 players have already booked their tickets for the rest of the competition.

In fact, 60 players have qualified for Saturday's Day 2 after completing the 13 levels on the opening day's program. Play lasted 7 hours 30 minutes at poker on Thursday, with Konstantin Faerber slowly but surely building up a stack.

Discreet but effective, the German made 3rd place in the final BPC with a very good poker throughout, Faerber bagged 410,000 chips and the chiplead of this very compact flight in terms of stacks. Many players finished with a stack of at least 200,000 chips, or around 40 blinds for the rest of the tournament...

 

Faerber was quietly able to witness a crazy end to the day at his table. Ralph Pijls first went all-in on the turn, nutted against Rayane Moktavarium. The Frenchman was playing 150,000 chips at the time... the Dutchman was only afraid of a 9 for a split, and there were only three left in the stack. His "no 9" was directly rewarded by the appearance of a 9 for the split!

Two hands later, Rayane Moktavarium opened from the hijack, Noah Alem called from the button and Pijls squeezed 35,000 in the big blind. Click to 75,000 from the BPC champion which scares Noah away... but Ralph sends 275,000 chips and all-in. Snap with queens for Rayane, who discovers the 2 heads-up and doubles up to 350,000 chips!

As Roger Edain blurts out "he's a factor", he's not out of the woods yet. Ever heard of the butterfly effect? This improbable 9 river clearly made Pijls sit up and take notice, as he 3-bet shove 100,000 chips from the button two hands later, after a cutoff open fromAlain Theisen.

In the small blind Olga Stitou took the spot and 4-bet shove... with Ace King Alain Theisen wasted no time in sending his stack lightly covered by the player. Ralph Pijls reveals Ace 7, but it's Olga who's going to strike after an Ace on the flop, the appearance of a 3 of spades opening the flush draw on the turn and then a 5 giving her the river straight! Double KO, heading for the top of the leaderboard for Olga.

Partial Chipcount Day 1E (full ranking in the document below)below)
Konstantin Faerber 410 000
Ferreol Motte 398 000
Olga Stitou 366 000
Rayane Moktavarium 352 000
Raphael Muller 345 000
Julien Lauer 342 000
Ingo Paulus 280 000
Ismail 273 000
Camillo Sims 224 000
Salvatore Sablone 223 000

Roger Edain 216 000
Giuseppe Farruggio 209 000
Stefan Burger 202 000
Rui Da Costa 196 000
Salvatore Allatta 192 000
Robert Calvet 191 000
Giovanni Ventura 180 000
Noah Alem 172 000
Anthony Dasbourg 170 000
Salvatore Alessi 170,000

Stéphane Monaco 155,000
Bryan de Riddere 140,000
Angelo Aliberto 133,000
Dario Sorrenti 122,000
Rudi Mulders 109,000
Ayhan Taner 55,000 (photo)