Extra Day

The €250 Spirit Festival Main Event kicked off at Spa on Saturday, October 26 with an Extra Day... Buy-in and structure were identical for an opening in the world's oldest casino, a Circus establishment that welcomed 56 competitors to kick off this Halloween tournament.

These players played 13 30-minute levels, and 10 players finally made it through... earning their ticket for Day 2 on Saturday November 2, which will be played over 40-minute levels, at the Circus Casino Resort in Namur!


Chipcount Extra Day Spirit
Norbert Jansen : 482.000
Vladyslav Bukhantsov : 448.000
Richard Pols : 432.000
Tim Verheyen : 421.000
Dominique Fassin : 377.000
Marcel Diel : 195.000
Olivier Gauthier : 104.000
Thomas Janssen: 101.000
Bert Huskens : 100.000
Pim Van Wieringen : 93.000

Still Poker in Namur

Let's go! The Spirit Festival Main Event guaranteeing a €200,000 prizepool has finally kicked off in Namur. Day 1A kicked off with around 30 players, each paying a €250 entry fee and receiving 50,000 chips...

Thirteen half-hour levels need to be played and chips bagged to join Day 2 on Saturday, November 2, starting at 2pm. Get your seat now if you expect to play on Friday during the final qualifying sessions, as Namur is always packed!

Participants in the second of seven starting days for one of the least expensive tournaments of the year in Namur have set off for 4 levels and two hours of poker. Heading for the first and traditional half-hour break.

Then back for 4 levels, followed by a 70-minute dinner break, between 8.30 and 9.45 p.m... The second part of the day is divided into three levels, followed by a short break and two levels to finish just before 1am.

Registration is open for 10 levels, until just before 11 p.m...

Not a ham

First casualty of the Spirit Main Event, after 27 minutes of play, still on blinds 100 - 200 (200) and the first of the 13 levels on the opening day's program.

The first battle was between Dave Van Ham from the Netherlands and Abbas Pahlewani from Germany.

Abbas opened 5 and 6 on the button and Dave defended King Queen of Diamonds to find a single-card all diamonds flop. The double up on 5 on the turn saw the rumble degenerate and nothing changed river, trips not good for Pahlewani who was therefore the first to reach the rail.

Dave Van Ham (photo) took the lead with 95,000 pawns. Since then, the blinds have climbed to 100 - 300 (300) with 61 entrants and 60 players in the running... 

Not Crazy

Day 1A of the €250 Spirit Festival Main Event takes place in the cash-game room... the usual main room isn't ready yet, the Crazy Horse has been there! The competing players face off on the tables usually used for the weekend, the Day 2 and Day 3 tables...

The game continues for a few more minutes at 100 - 300 (300), before the third of the day's 13 levels gets underway. The blinds will then climb to 200 - 400 (400)...

The table now shows 74 players in the running for 76 entrants and an average of 51,000 chips... the tables aren't crazy yet, everyone's got time at this early stage of the tournament.

Name Dropping

Four minutes to go on the third of 13 levels on Day 1A of the Spirit Fest Main Event, guaranteeing a €200,000 prizepool. The blinds will soon climb to 300 - 600 (600) with 79 players now in the running for 86 entrants.

The average chip count has climbed to 54,000, with many regulars in the mix. Gianluca Bucchino is here, as are Arnaud Danes and David Opdebeeck. Giuseppe Genco, Jérôme Balthazar, Patrice Blanchart, Eddy Meyfroot, Charlene Kals, Morten Faas, Daniel Domb, Stéphane Blaser, Fedele Ricotta, Patrick Resseler, Patrick Neyman, Khalid Sektani, Ali Zarrab and Jean Yip all try their luck on this first flight of the week...

Break

First break of the launch day of the Spirit Fest at 250€ admission... After two hours of poker and 4 half-hour levels, 77 of the 93 entrants go on break for half an hour.

Pierre Jacques seems to be in the lead... he limped the Kings in first to finally skip two players on this hand!

Second phase

Level 5 is underway, and play is now underway at blinds 400 - 800 (800), with 81 players in the field and 97 entrants. The average chip count is provisionally at 60,000 for this first flight to Namur, the second of seven on the program for this €200,000 prizepool tournament.

Pierre Jacques is well in the lead as this second session of 4 levels takes us into the dinner break, starting at 8.30pm. Good start also for Yacine Beztout, Harrie Snijders and David Opdebeeck... 

Chipcount
Pierre Jacques 196,000
Boris Terzic 141,000
Daniel Roserio 137,000
David Opedebeeck 124,000
Svan Van Looy 124,000
Yacine Beztout 114,000
Patrick Neyman 111,000
Dave Van Ham 105,000
Harrie Snijders 104,000
Morten Faas 80,000

Stéphane Blaser 78,000
Daniel Domb 76,000
Charlene Kals 73,000
Patrick Zuinen 61,000
Fedele Ricotta 58,000
Christos Triantaphyllou 52,000
Giuseppe Genco 45,000
Ali Zarrab 39,000
Patrick Resseler 33,000
Jerome Balthazar 7,000

Toujours du (beau) Monde

The 100-player mark has been cleared on Day 1A of the Spirit Fest Main Event... With the blinds having just climbed to 600 - 1200 (1200), the table now shows 73 players in contention for 101 entrants.

The average is 75,000 chips, with the likes of Daniel Pirlot and Yves Pirson now in the game. Markus Osinga has also arrived, as have Kevin Leite and Kevin Boel. Fabien Ayadi, winner of a €75,000 Main Event here, is also in the running. The Frenchman turned €350 into a jackpot last February at Carnival! 

Approach dinner

The eighth of 13 levels of play on Day 1A of the Spirit Fest has just begun at the Circus Casino Resort in Namur. Play is now underway for 68 players in blinds 800 - 1600 (1600), for the final half-hour level before the dinner break.

The average is 79,000 chips, with 108 entrants so far... Christos Trantaphyllou, Charlène Kals, Daniel Pirlot and Jérôme Balthazar jumped in the last few minutes, will they re-enter before the dinner-break? Mystery, these regulars could also choose to fork out for Big Tuesday, which started at 7.30pm.

The €170 Big Tuesday Event #2 counts towards the ranking, with 20-minute levels and a starting stack of 25,000 chips, attracting the likes of Salvatore Allatta, Andrea Caizzi, Julien Gramlich, Stephane Meo and Pierre Neuville... all regulars who have yet to take part in the Spirit Main Event! 

With 120,000 chips in the Main Event, Yacine Beztout (photo) isn't asking himself any questions just yet, as his aim is to pack chips into a bag in a few hours' time...

Dinner Break

Play resumed at 9:45pm on blinds 1000 - 2000 (2000) for the 9th level, with registration still open for another hour...

61 players left for the dinner break, with 115 entries and an average of 92,000 chips, and Pierre Jacques still dominating. The Belgian went set over set to climb to more than six times the starting stack... Just to his left (on the right in the photo), Christophe Lecocq is trying to keep pace.

Chipcount
Pierre Jacques 337,000
Sven van Loy 256,000
Mohamed Ishak 226,000
Christophe Lecocq 215,000
David Opdebeeck 204,000
Giuseppe Genco 200,000
Gianluca Bucchino 181,000
Rainer Emde 174,000
Daniel Rosero 172,000
Morten Faas 147 000
Pierre de Keyser 145 000
Ouidad El Hadj 123 000
Abbas Pahlewani 113 000
Jean Yip 109 000
Christianus Lovrencevic 109 000
yacine Beztout 106 000
Harrie Snijders 106 000
Jan George 100 000
Daniel Domb 84 000

Top 60

There's still a quarter of an hour to go on the 1000 - 2000 (2000) level with 60 players in the running at the Circus Casino Resort in Namur. The entry counter stands at 118 for Day 1A of the Spirit Fest, with 45 minutes left to register.

Pierre Jacques remains in the lead, while Boris Terzic and Fabien Ayadi gave up in the final minutes... Mohamed Ishak takes care of his chips... 

Late Reg

There's less than half an hour left to play on Day 1A of the Spirit Fest... blinds are 1000 - 2500 (2500) and it's level 10 with 56 players in contention for 118 entrants.

Fabien Ayadi has chosen to return, and has the starting stack, as does Jean Yip, now also in the 20-blind zone. Pierre Jacques has also lost some feathers and is now down to 170,000 at a new table where Gianluca Bucchino (photo) is the captain with 225,000 chips.

The average is 105,000 with more escaped players far ahead of the others. With 180,000 chips, David Opdebeeck stays on course... 

Fast Poker

There are 10 minutes left before the end of late registration on the first Namur opening day of the €250 Spirit Fest Main Event. With 50 players in the running, the shorts are pushing to double up now or possibly re-enter in-extremis. Salvatore Alessi has just arrived to make his first dumpling.

The official figures will be available in a few minutes.... 

126 entries to start with

After the Extra Day at Spa, which attracted 56 entrants (for 10 qualifiers for Day 2 on Saturday November 2), Day 1A of the €250 Spirit Fest attracted 126 entrants to the Circus Casino Resort in Namur.

They are still 48 in the running with 19 minutes to play on blinds 1500 - 3000 (3000). A final 15-minute break will take place at the end of this 11th level, and the survivors will play two final levels before packing up their chips for Day 2, Saturday from 2pm onwards over 40-minute lvels...

Fabrice Rambach (photo) took the lead with 305,000 chips, averaging 131,00. Things are going well for Patrick Resseler (170,000), Sven van Looy (200,000), Morten Faas (200,000) and Rainer Emde (265,000)...

Yellow Jersey

41 players emerge from the final break of Day 1A of the Spirit Fest, which brought together 126 entrants. It was David Opdebeeck who led the way following a big move just before the final break.

Playing in 55 blinds, David opened cutoff with a pair of 4's, taking out the button and a player in the blinds. On the Queen Queen 5 flop with two hearts it's Daniel Rosario who takes the initiative after two checks.

Opdebeeck checks for a duel, again paying a 25% pot bet on turn 6. Bingo river for David who hits a 4 for Full House river.

The Boss checks-raises all-in for 130,000 chips after a third 30,000-chip jack from Daniel. On the button, 90 seconds later, Daniel pays with Queen 9 to find himself crippled. Opdebeeck is up to 344,000 chips with just over an hour to go, with the tunic of provisional chipleader.

The game is played over 2000 - 4000 (4000) with an average of 153,000 chips. Jean Yip open-shoves from the cutoff to maintain his starting stack... 

Chipcount

David Opdebeeck 344 000
Pierre de Keyser 271 000
Fabrice Rambach 262 000
Rainer Emde 261 000
Pierre Jacques 260 000
Gianluca Bucchino 245 000
Christophe Lecocq 245 000
Sven van Looy 240 000
Fehmi Kesenci 240 000
Giuseppe Genco 220 000

Morten Faas 215 000
Patrick Resseler 210 000
Antoine de Jesus 205 000
Anthony Llouvet 181 000
Sebastien Proux 180 000
Albertus van Putten 171 000
Marco Barletta 163 000
Florian Waselle 161 000
Daniel Domb 152 000
Jean Yip 50 000

Resseler goes ahead

The blinds have just gone up one last time on Day 1A of the Spirit Fest, and there are now just 35 players in the running after Johnny Steijns left Patrick Resseler's table. With 350,000 chips, the latter has overtaken David Opdebeeck (320,000)...

The final level is spread over 2000 - 5000 (5000) and there are still 4 tables with an average of 180,000 chips... Rainer Emde (pictured) is still above this mark, in the leading pack of chasers. 

Four Last Hands

Giuseppe Genco drew 4 for the number of last deals and jumped in with a three of a kind against a flush... just before Antoine de Jesus found an ideal confrontation with the Kings of the hijack. His neighbor on the right opened and 4-bet shove the Queens for 160,000 chips. De Jesus climbs to 400,000 chips just before the gong. 

Christophe Lecocq checks a three of a kind river to catch a bluff from Gianluca Bucchino who tried to rush in... Christophe is in contact with de Jesus for the chiplead!

30 players remain asAnthony Llovet chatters on the final hand of Day 1A of the Spirit Fest. Anthony is all-in with ace-ten against ace-queen at Salvatore Alessi... Pan, Ten river to survive and bag up 160,000 chips. Salvatore pouts with his starting stack...

No huge smile for Morten Faas as he wraps up at the fastest-finishing table, but the Dutchman is very close to the chiplead at the end of the 6.5 hours of poker on this second day of play...

Lecocq Roi des Poulets, already 40 qualifiers for Day 2

He wanted his photo all to himself, he's going to get it... Christophe Lecocq made one last in-extremis straight to capture a few more chips and the chiplead on Day 1A of the €250 Spirit Fest Main Event. Christophe finally bagged up 485,000 chips after 13 30-minute levels, taking a contingent of 30 qualifiers to join the 10 survivors from this weekend's Extra Day at Spa. 

After two of the seven starting days of this €200,000 prizepool tournament, the Circus Casino Resort in Namur has attracted 182 entries for 40 qualifiers... resuming at 2 p.m. Saturday on 3000 - 6000 (6000) with 40-minute levels.

The first day of qualifying in Namur saw Morten Faas, Patrick Resseler, David Opdebeeck, Fabrice Rambach, Daniel Domb, Patrick Neyman, Sébastien Proux, Sven van Looy and Antoine de Jesus all validate their tickets for the rest of the tournament, which is set to explode with guarantees. Friday is already a busy day!

See you on Wednesday at 4 p.m. for Day 1B, followed by a €400 Mystery Bounty played over two days starting at 7 p.m...


Full Chipcount Day 1A Spirit Fest
Christophe Lecoq 485,000
Antoine De Jesus 451,000
Morten Faas 407,000
Patrick Resseler 344,000
Patrick Neyman 298,000
Davidinho Opdebeeck 296,000
Manuel Wasnaire 283,000
Sven van Looy 257,000
NC 250,000
Fabrice Rambach 249,000

Daniel Domb 226,000
Sebastien Proux 221,000
Pierre Jacques 208,000
Pierre de Keyser 194 000
Khalid Sektani 190 000
Gianluca Bucchino 178 000
Anthony Llovet 176 000
Marco Barletta 167 000
Rainer Emde 166 000
Jan George 160 000

Jens Delombaerde 154 000
Albertus van Putten 150 000
Roland Saifi 134 000
Mohamed Ishak 128 000
Fehmi Kesenci 123 000
Bas Simon 113 000
Florian Waselle 87 000
Jeremi Pillault 74 000
Rolf Nees 62 000
Salvatore Alessi 50 000