Day 1C kicks off

A huge turnout to kick off the third day of the Spirit Festival in Namur, the fourth day of this €250 Main Event.

So far, 339 entries have been counted, with 81 qualifiers for Saturday's Day 2... And this €200,000 Day 1C of the Spirit Fest is already shaping up to be the biggest day yet, with 101 players seated at the tables of the Circus Casino Resort in Namur at the start of the day at 4 p.m.

Participants have received 50,000 chips and are battling it out on blinds 100 - 200 (200), the first of 13 half-hour levels on the day's program.

Shuffle up & deal for 4 levels and two hours of poker, heading for the first break and the traditional half-hour break. Time for a Tripick and to put everything on red (or black)! 

Spirit Fest	Extra Spa	1A	1B	1C	1D	1E	1F	1G Turbo	Day 2
Qualified	10	30	41 (81)
Inputs	56	126	157 (339)

Caution

With no outs in the first 40 minutes of play, the counter shows 138 players in the running for 138 entrants on Day 1C of the €250 Spirit Fest Main Event.

Play is now 100 - 300 (300), with the average still at 50,000 chips. The 500-entry mark is not far off...

For those who can't make it this afternoon, there are two more sessions on Friday... where you're advised to register online or book as soon as possible, as big crowds are expected. Otherwise, on Thursday, Day 1D kicks off at 9:30 p.m. with 13 quarter-hour levels.

On Day 1C, registration is open until 10.45pm, when it will be possible to late reg' in-extremis with 20 blinds...

Event #6 of the €150 PLO Spirit Fest (30,000 chips - 20 minutes) starts at 7.30 p.m., with 7 late-reg levels. There's always plenty to play for at poker in Namur! 

Bust(s)

It took 42 minutes to hear the first Seat Open in the main room of the Circus Casino Resort in Namur. Simon Crowe was the first to give up the gauntlet... apparently he'd dealt all over the place, and it was Rachid El Maghroudi who finished the job to climb to 80,000 chips.

German Michael Spannbauer proved less effective than Jack and disappeared under unknown circumstances... in 44 minutes flat.

With 11 minutes left to play on level 2, blinds will then climb to 200 - 400 (400), leaving 143 players in the field for 145 entrants! 

Name Dropping

A fine line-up of regulars at the Circus Casino Resort tables in Namur on Day 1C of the €250 Spirit Fest.

Tino de Zutter, Ivo Hermans, Olivier Hegy, Adrien de raeve, Adrien Darcheville, Fabio d'Annolfo, Miguel Coussement, Marcel Berger, Servane Barrault, Maradona Abaz and Sofian El Yachou are already in action.

Carmine Giordano is there too, while Fabien Garcia is trying his luck again, as is Ekin Kandemir. Pascal Honai, Sajjad Miah, Angelo Mancuso, Romain Kowalczyk, Nicolas Iacobucci, Johan Mertens and David Olurebi are also playing for their places on Day 2 at 2pm on Saturday.

Patrick Zallum, Rachid Sekkai, Patrick Prijot, Kevin Muders, Heinz Peters, Julien Poulain, David Osumba and Giovanni Ventura are also contesting this third Namur flight, the fourth of the Spirit Fest!  

We're off to the Mystery Bounty, where the field has been whittled down to 13 players for 11 paid places... as the blinds rise to 200 -400 (400) on this main event... 

Pause en Approche

20 minutes of play remain on blinds 300 - 600 (600) with a first break at the end of this level 4... The board shows 158 players with 179 entries and an average of 56,000 chips.

First checkpoint during the break to see who's started... on the Myster BOunty there are still 13 players, there's been no outs in the last half-hour, everyone wants to get into the 11 paid places! 

Break

Resumption at 6.30 p.m. on blinds 400 - 800 (800) with the survivors of the first two hours and the new entrants... at the start of the break 166 players had left to blow away the 190 entrants!

With almost three times the starting blinds after two hours at poker, Pascal Honai seems to be the most efficient player at the start of Day 1C of the €250 Spirit Main Event...

Chipcount
Pascal Honai 146 000
Michael Spannbauer 134 000
Vivien Pudlo 129 000
Michael Devillet 123 000
James B 117 000
David Garcet 117 000
Gaetano di Salvo 113 000
Maxime Jouanne 113 000
Pierino Ciccotelli 108 000
Artan Harizaj 103 000

Rachid Sekkai 102 000
Olivier Hegy 100 000
Gert Kars 96 000
Johan Mertens 94 000
Dylan Derenddre 91 000
Ali Jabbar 82 000
Lianne Groenenboom 77 000
Jasmin Sertovic 71 000
Romain Kowalczyk 67 000
Maradona Abaz 64 000

Alain Monluc 57 000
Tino de Zutter 40 000
Sylvie Alea 28 000
Adrien Darcheville 26 000
Nicolas Iacobucci 21 000

Big One

It's Thursday and the players are here! The Circus Casino Resort in Namur is full of poker players, with 174 in the running on Day 1C of the €250 Spirit Main Event. The entry counter has now climbed to 206 as Level 6 got underway just a few minutes ago. 

Players are competing on 500 - 1000 (1000) with an average of 59 blinds, and provisional tournament attendance has exceeded 540 entrants ahead of Day 1D Turbo at 9.30pm and Thursday's two sessions, which promise to be Dantesque! 

Top 150

Only 150 players remain on Day 1C of the €250 Spirit Fest Main Event. With 17 minutes left to play on blinds 800 - 1600 (1600), the field has dropped to 150 players seated at the tables of the Circus Casino Resort in Namur.

The average is 75,000 chips with 225 entrants for this flight maousse! We meet again during the dinner-break for an update on the big stacks, with Ali Jabbar holding the rope with over 250,000 chips in front of him at the moment...

Dinner break

Resuming at 9.45pm for 5 half-hour levels... the survivors returned to 1000 - 2000 (2000) for 3 levels before the final quarter-hour break and a final hour of poker before the chips were packed away.

138 players left for the break, with 226 entries and an average of 82,000 chips. Registration for Day 1C of the Spirit Fest closes at 10.45pm, with the start of the 11th of 13 levels scheduled for Thursday...


Ali Jabbar is well ahead for the moment, rather shy, preferring to show off his card protector collection! 

Chipcount
Ali Jabbar 395 000
Vincent Touil 227 000
Jean-Baptiste Decharneux 226 000
Dylan Dereuddre 206 000
Wessel Martens 188 000
Franck Richter 168 000
Maradona Abaz 161 000
Michael Spannbauer 155 000
James B 151 000
Sofian El Yachou 148 000

Fabien Garcia 146 000
David Garcet 140 000
Pascal Honai 134 000
Bastien Lemesle 134 000
Fabio D'annolfo 132 000
Rachid El Maghroudi 132 000
Maxime Jouanne 130 000
Gianni Ferrone 127 000
Charles Duchoquet 126 000
Kolia Kentmann 122 000

Yoann Huyghe 121 000
Alain Monluc 117 000
Loic Letelier 114 000
Vivien Pudlo 109 000
Heinz Peters 105 000
Rudolf de Boer 86 000
Patrick Prijot 71 000
Lianne Groenenbroom 59 000
Mathias Moutaoukil 44 000
Tino de Zutter 38 000

First success for Fernan Dzhemal (€8,968)

There were 120 blinds left in Mystery Bounty Event #4 Spirit Fest at the time of the deal, and it took Fernan Dzhemal a mere 20 minutes to take the safe, the remainder and the photo shoot. Fernan could have closed faster, but he lost 80-20 on his first match point. The second was the winner.

With 1.7 million chips to Nengming Wang's just over 600,000, Fernan opened Ace 6 of spades on the button for 50,000. Wang 3-bet 150,000 chips before snapping the opposing shove. "He paid so fast I thought I was behind," explained Fernan, who went on to win against the opponent's King Jack at the end of a 5 6 5 4 8 board.

Fernan pocketed €3,168 for the 50-50 deal plus the remaining €400 and the three envelopes still in the safe, for a final bonus of €3,200. All in all, Fernan pocketed €8,968 for his victory! 

The tournament had brought together 81 players and there were still 25 at the start of this Final Day, contested over 30-minute levels. The final 11 players share a przepool of just over €14,000, while there are around €27,000 in prize money if you add in the Mystery bonuses. There's still a €2,500 envelope in the safe.

Event #4 Mystery Bounty (14 696€ prizepool - 81 entrants)
Champion - Fernand Dzhemal 3 568€*
Runner Up - Nengming Wang 3 168€*
3rd - Fabri Cardenia 1 910€
4th - Raphael Muller 1 470€
5th - Rudi Van Mol 1 130€ 6th - Nicolas Monet 900€ 7th - Vincent Luce 700€ 8th - Julien Vanveuren 570€ 9th - Steve Cerejo 460€ Rudi Van Mol 1 130€

6th - Nicolas Monet 900€
7th - Vincent Luce 700€
8th - Julien Vanveuren 570€

9th - Steve Cerejo 460€
10th - Benjapol Suntornvibul
11th - Yoann Huyghe 400€

*Chop-chop head's up with €400 left for the champion

Mystery Bounty Payout (prize pool €12,150)
Nengming Wang and Fernan Dzehmal took all 13 envelopes in the tournament, the duo deciding to play head's up for the final 3 envelopes and €3,200 in cash.

In the end, Fernan collected €5,400 in prize money, compared with €6,750 for his runner-up. A full house! 

Top 140

With 22 minutes remaining on blinds 1000 - 2000 (2000), it's still possible to register for Day 1C, which has just resumed... the field has just dropped to 140 players in the running for 230 registrants and an average of 82,000 chips on this 9th level. Time to digest or accelerate! 

14 minutes to register

Now that Day 1D Turbo has begun, with some 20 players competing over 13 quarter-hour levels... it's still possible to sign up for Day 1C for just 15 minutes.

120 players are competing at the end of level 10 and blinds 1000 - 2500 (2500), and the field currently stands at 240 entrants for this third Namur flight of the €250 Spirit Fest.

242 entries on Day 1C

With 20 minutes left to play in Level 11, the verdict is in. With 114 players competing over 1500 - 3000 (3000) it is no longer possible to enter or re-enter Day 1C of the €250 Spirit Fest Main Event. 

With today's 242 entries, the provisional attendance gimps up to 581 entrants for this €200,000 prizepool guaranteed tournament. With Day 1D still open until 12:30 midnight, the 600 mark is set to fall tonight, before two massive final flights on Friday!


On Day 1C, Ali Jabbar is still in the lead with 440,000 chips. Fabien Garcia (220,000), Alfredo Vega (290,000), Jean Dechardeux (300,000) and Richard van Wingerden (220,000) are on the pace, while the average has climbed to 106,000 chips. 

Spirit Fest	Extra Spa	1A	1B	1C	1D	1E	1F	1G Turbo	Day 2
Qualified	10	30	41 (81)	In progress	In progress
Inputs	56	126	157	242 (581)	26 (in progress)

Last Hour

With an hour to go, play resumes on 2000 - 4000 (4000) for the penultimate level of Day 1C of the €250 Spirit Fest Main Event. 

After a short break, 110 players return and Ali Jabbar is still in the lead. But the competition is closing in. 

Chipcount
Ali Jabbar 345,000
Richard van Wingerden 320,000
Vincent Touil 310,000
Fabio d'Annolfo 305,000
Alfredo Vega 300,000
Jean Decharneux 260,000
Dylan Dereuddre 209,000
Tanguy Petitjean 200,000
Pascal Honai 160,000
Ekin Kandemir 140,000
Rachid Sekkai 110,000
Lianne Groenenboom 65,000
Miguel Coussement 60,000
Claudio Guadagnino 55,000
Servane Barrault 51,000
Tino de Zutter 34,000

Last Level

Another 30 minutes of play to go before the end of Day 1C and the 13th level on this fourth opening day of the €250 Spirit Fest. With 87 players entering the final straight, there are plenty of victims who will have to try their luck again.

Finito on this flight for Lianne Groenenboom, Christine Konczok, Damien Di Pasquale, Bregt WInters, Carmine Giordano, Artan Harizaj, Kevin Muders, Patrick Zallum or Miguel Coussement... the latter has gone straight to Day 1D where entries are possible until midnight 25.

Who will join the 81 players already qualified for Day 2 on Saturday 2pm, a Day 2 contested on 40-minute levels...

Mohamed shaves Day D

It was Mohamed Razkou Allah who finished top of a Day D that saw 11 of the 34 entrants bag up chips. This brings the contingent of qualifiers for Saturday's 2 p.m. Day 2 to 165 players ahead of the final two sessions of what promises to be a massive Friday.

With 311,000 pawns on the restart out of 3,000 - 6,000 (6,000) on Saturday, Mohamed will be in the right money, so he won't have to come back deman for what promises to be a long day, starting at 3 p.m. for Day 1E players. 

Raphael Muller, Stephane Meo, Dimitri D'Ortona and Nengming Wang also cleared the hurdle on Day 1D, which was contested over 13 quarter-hour levels... 

Full chipcount 1D
Mohamed Razkou-Allah 311,000
Dimitri D'Ortona 253,000
Nengming Wang161,000
Raphael Muller 158,000
Levi Mulders 153,000
David Lehnen 152,000
Stephane Meo 141,000
Damien Di Pasquale 139,000
Jeffrey van Hamburg 102,000
Guy Aiden 81,000
Isaac Borghouts 80,000

Spirit Fest	Extra Spa	1A	1B	1C	1D	1E	1F	1G Turbo	Day 2
Qualified	10	30	41 (81)	73 (154)	11 (165)
Inputs	56	126	157	242 (581)	34 (615)

Already 165 qualifiers for Day 2

After 13 levels and 6 hours 30 minutes at poker, 73 players finally bagged chips on Day 1C of the Spirit Fest. This brings the total number of qualifiers for Day 2 at 2pm on Saturday to 165 players, ahead of what promises to be a massive Friday!

After 5 of the 7 starting days, attendance has climbed to 615 entries... this should double tomorrow with two flights and the start of Day 1E at 3pm. Richard Van Wingerden will be quietly at home in the Netherlands. The Dutchman confided to us that he needed to "build a big stack". "I never play tournaments but I wanted to change... after that I've got a three-hour drive so I wouldn't come back if I didn't have a big stack at the end of the day," he added, wrapping up the tournament's overall chiplead with 616,000 chips. 

With more than 12 times the starting stack, King Richard has taken the lead... he had a rather quiet day, still at the top of the leaderboard. This was enough to put him ahead of Tino de Zutter, who pulled off a huge comeback in the last 45 minutes of play. "I held out for 3 hours at 30,000 chips", confided the Belgian, who finally bagged 457,000 chips when he had 14,000 an hour before! 

If Rachid Sekkai was the last to give up, it was the turn of Ismail Demir, Ekn Kandemir, TanguyPetitjean, Arnaud Desbrosses, Fabio d'Annolfo, Fabien Garcia, Andreas Gondrom, Ivo Hermans, Servne Barrault and the day's host, Ali Jabbar...

Chipcount in full in the document below! 

Spirit Fest	Extra Spa	1A	1B	1C	1D	1E	1F	1G Turbo	Day 2
Qualified	10	30	41 (81)	73 (154)	11 (165)
Inputs	56	126	157	242 (581)	34 (615)

Partial Chipcount Day 1C
Richard van Wingerden 616,000
Tino de Zutter 457,000
Sofian El Yachou 404,000
Ismail Demir 366,000
Ali Jabbar 339,000
Frank Richter 339,000
Bogdan Petrascu 332,000
Gianni Ferrone 328,000
Fabio d'Annolfo 309,000
Pascal Honai 265,000

Romain Thomassier 248,000
Vincent Touil 245,000
Ekin Kandemir 202,000
Fabien Garcia 200,000
Tanguy Petitjean 199,000
Yoann Huyghe 192,000
Jan Kars 183,000
David Garcet 170,000
Sajjid Miah 155,000
Arnaud Desbrosses 141 000

Nathalie Zeep 138 000
Maradona Abaz 128 000
Dylan Dereuddre 126 000
Claudio Guadagnino 70 000
Ivo Hermans 60 000
Andreas Gondrom 47 000
Servane Barrault 26 000