Namur 727 takes off

Day 1 E of the €250 Summer Festival started on time with 57 entrants, boosting the provisional attendance for the €250,000 prizepool Main Event to 727. Participants in the fifth of eight starting days received 50,000 chips to play for over 14 30-minute levels... heading for Day 2 at 2pm on Friday, where 131 qualifiers from previous sessions already await them. 

Registration is open until the first hand of level 10 and the end of the dinner break, at around 10.15pm. Belgium's Euro 2024 match will of course be shown on a giant screen in the poker room, with the game kicking off at the start of the first traditional 30-minute break... at 6 p.m. after four half-hour levels on Day 1E. 

End of the day around one o'clock in the morning... with the possibility of taking part in the Day 1F Turbo from 9 p.m.This flight is played out over 14 quarter-hour levels, and finishes a little later than the afternoon session. 

Double Penalty

Fathi Khalfaoui was first out of the gate on Day 1E of the €250 Summer Main Event. 25 minutes of play on 100 - 200 (200) and Fathi finds himself on a Queen 6 3 flop in a three-way. The action remains reasonable but on turn 5 where he hits two pair, Fathi bets... and pays the 17,500-chip raise from the button. With 6s in hand, Wesley Peinen is happy to get paid for a duel on river Ten. Here, Wesley will bet 17,500 chips in the on position and call the chek-raise for a little more from his opponent, who can only return 5 and 3 for two insufficient pairs...

Wesley climbs to 115,000 chips, leading the tournament at a table featuring Yves Seghers, Harrie Snijders and Roberto Spagnuolo. The table shows 78 players in the running, with 79 entrants, making a total of 749 entries for the event...

Name Dropping

Stefano Ghisu, Tony Kiorpes, David Olurebi, David Ethuin, Ralf Becker, Denis Charlier, Heni Mokni, Christel Muniente, Noah Alem, Mohamed Daher, Corentin Barbosa, Nicolas Destercq, Heinz Peters, Patrick Prijot, Mischa Wieten as well as Xavier Servais and Ruben Steenhuis are in the game as Level 2 draws to a close...

The blinds climb to 200 - 400 (400) and the 100-entry mark is passed on Day 1E... 

Red Zone

Fifteen minutes remain in the third level of the 5th starting session of the Summer Main Event. The board shows 116 players for 121 entrants and Mohamed Daher has just dropped to 5,000 chips. In the Big Tuesday deal, Mohamed finds himself in a trifecta on a King Ten 5 (with two spades) 3 board. There's 3,000 in the middle, Daher has checked the flop like everyone else and he checks again.

Bet from the foreign player who wishes to remain anonymous, fold from the third player and check-raise to 10,500 from Mohamed who snap when CS goes all-in. Mohamed turns over Ace-King and discovers a set of threes in front of him! Daher falls to 5,000 chips while his opponent climbs to 70,000 following this magical turn...

Sandro Gangi also had a few difficulties in the final minutes... not enough to sink him after a very good start. Majid Riouch (below) opens the action in early position, dragging Sandro out of the bounton as well as a player in the blinds. Majid bets 1,500 on the 4 2 8 flop with two hearts and Sandro raises to 4,000 chips, enough to scare off the blind and make Majid think again, who calls to discover a 6 of clubs turn opening a second flush draw.

This time Sandro checks and pays after a few seconds on Majid's 5,500-chip bet. On river 6, there are 22,000 in the middle and Majid takes some time before sending in 16,000. It takes Sandro almost two minutes to call-muck when he discovers the queens. Gangi falls back to 70,000 chips, while Riouch climbs to 60,000 at a table where Charlene Kals and Anthony Bui Ngoc are off to a good start...

800+

The 800-entry mark for the Main Event has been passed, with the Circus Casino Resort de Namur reporting 803 entries with 20 minutes left to play on level 4 of Day 1E.

Blinds are 300 - 600 (600) on the fifth of eight Main Event starting sessions, and the first break of the day will take place at the end of this level with the kick-off of the Belgium match. Maxime Servais will be asking himself if he's watching the match in peace... after shaking on his last hand.

Down to 4600 chips, Maxime sends with King Ten mismatched to the hijack and sees Tawfik Samih call from the button. Tawfik turned over the Aces but was shaken as the dealer unpacked an 8 Ten 6 King 6 board! WSOP Circuit winner, Tawfik climbs to 125,000 chips with this scalp...

Mohamed Daher has also disappeared, in unknown circumstances...

There are still 120 players in the running on 1E with 133 entrants so far, and an average of 55,000 chips. Carlos Lopes, Robert Jansson, Rachid Sekkai and Ewan Pirotais have also entered the fray...

Additional time

Just before the break and the start of Belgium's Euro 2024 match, there was a bit of action on Day 1E. Anthony Bui Ngoc chatted with a small-blind 3-bet. The opener 4-bet to 14,500 chips and snap with Kings when Anthony put it all in covering him.

With Ace King of hearts, Anthony hardly shook as the dealer unrolled a 3 Jack 9 tablau with two hearts then a 9 of clubs and a 5 of hearts river. Color daddy and 145,000 chips in the final minutes before the break.

Another fine finish for Sam Hilge. The Luxembourger had sat down two minutes earlier and found Ace King from the big blind after a button open paid by the small blind. Sam raises the stakes to 8,500 chips and pays the shove from the small blind, who can only return Ace Jack. This brings the total to 65,000 just before the traditional half-hour break...

Break

Play resumes at 6:30 p.m. in blinds 400 - 800 (800), with 117 players currently in the running for 141 entries... players have less time than on Monday and Tuesday! This should continue until the early evening, as some players will prefer to watch Belgium at Euro 2024. The match is shown on the screen in the poker room, and there's Tripick for those who hesitate!

The average has already risen to 60,000 chips, and some have already passed the 100,000 mark. 

Chipcount
Mengshi Tian 168,000
Anthony Bui Ngoc 147,000
Vincent Guirles 126,000
Andres Laane 114,000
Alexander Martinsson 114,000
Eric Colinet 108,000
Tawfik Samih 106,000
Stephane Blaser 103,000
Sandro Luciano 87,000
Eddy Sebastianutti 83,000
David Olurebi 79,000
Gael Peres 79,000
Jordy Sanchez 74,000
Sam Hilge 64,000
Pel Nieuwenhuis 51,000
Charlene Kals 50,000
Majid Riouch 49,000
Carlos Lopes 24,000

Equilibrium

Two draws, all teams on 4 points, Belgium heading for France, but one goal can change everything... from first to last place. In short, many players have their eyes fixed on soccer... as the 6th level of Day 1E of the Summer Main Event gets underway. 

Play is 500 - 1000 (1000) with an average of 66,000 chips and now 830 entrants to the tournament... Winner of Big Tuesday, Yves Senterre tries his luck again in this main event, and succeeds. At the button in a duel on a 7 Aces 6 4 Tens board, and with 8 9 in his hand, he sees Mioscha Wieten bet 23,000 chips - the pot! Senterre calls all-in for 48,000 chips and Wieten doesn't find the fold after thinking about it with Ace Ten... Yves Senterre rises to 120,000 chips, in the right pack on this Day 1E where many players have already doubled their starting stack of 50,000 chips...

Red Devils

Level 7 is underway, with 118 players on track for 166 entrants... and Belgium still in the doldrums over Euro2024. Here at the Circus Casino Resort in Namur, the average is 70,000 chips in blinds 600 - 1200 (1200), with a rovisory attendance of 837 entrants.

Late registration is open until the start of level 10 at around 10.15pm, with the dinner break starting in just over an hour... Yassine Romain, Matthieu Rigolot, Tim Lerouge and Dave Kroon have all entered the tournament. 

Mengshi Tian in the lead at the dinner break

Day 1E of the Summer Main Event resumes at 10:10 p.m. in blinds 1,000 - 2,500 (2,500), with currently 94 players and 181 entrants. Entries will close at the restart... latecomers will have 20 blinds... they can also run on Day 1F Turbo which started at 9pm and will be played on 15-minute levels.

The in-form players continued on their upward trajectory with a very good start for Moh Daher and Yves Senterre, already with almost 6 times the starting stack. At the head of the table, Mengshi Tian, a Chinese player who's putting on a show. 

After a cannon start - he already had 200,000 an hour ago - he found a dream confrontation when he opened the Aces at the beginning of the floor. A player in the cutoff raises to 10,000 and the small blind calls... Mengshi clicks a 5-bet to 48,000 chips. If the cutoff goes away, the small blind pays before checking-raise all-in on Jack 5 7 with a flush draw. 

Tian has bet 35,000 chips on the flop and pays, covering his German advser who is still playing more than three times the starting stack. The sb flips kings and hits the rail two bricks later... Tian flies away. He then moved up chips to pass half a million or so at the break. "He'd have 500,000 chips if he hadn't lost a flip," Sam Hilge tells me at his table just before leaving for his dinner break...





Chipcount
Mengshi Tian 431,000
Melvin Maas 321,000
Mohamed Daher 300,000
Yves Senterre 271,000
Conor S. 210,000
Mohamed Bakkal 210,000
Alexander Martinsson 210,000
Ippolito Rocchetti 170,000
David Olurebi 165,000
Guillaume Fontaine $160,000
Denis Charlier 155,000
Sebastien Hebette 152,000
Rens Buijs 148,000
Tony Joan 143,000
Rachid Sekkai 140,000
Thomas Denie 135,000
Erwan Pirotais 121,000
Nicolas Destercq 117,000
Anthony Bui Ngoc 110,000
Sam Hilge 105,000
Noah Alem 93,000
Claus Spieckermann 81,000

182 entries on Day 1E

Level 11 has just begun, with 77 players competing in blinds 1500 - 3000 (3000), averaging 39 blinds. Registration is now closed for the fifth starting day of the Summer Main Event, with 182 entries counted on this flight.

While Day 1F Turbo accepts entries until 11:30 p.m., Thursday will offer two final qualifying opportunities starting at 3 p.m. (14 levels of 30 minutes) and 9 p.m. (rounds of 15 minutes)... 

Summer Main 2024	1A	1B	1C	1D	1E	Turbo 1F	1G	Turbo 1H	Day 2
Incoming	223	227	98	118	182 (848)
Qualified	47	41 (88)	19 (107)	24 (131)	77 (in progress)

Senterre at the helm

Level 12 has just begun, with 67 players competing on 2000 - 4000 (4000) for half an hour before the final break of Day 1E. After this break, the survivors will play two levels and a final hour of poker...

The current average is 136,000 chips and David Ethuin has just given up the ghost. David went to war with Wesley Peinen on 6 7 9 with two clubs and a heart, but didn't hit with Queen 8 of hearts. His Aces held, and Wesley took advantage to climb to 250,000 chips.

It's also over for Gael Peres, Jordy Sanchez, Theo Erkamps, Yassine Romain, Greg Demaret and Ralf Becker, who will have to try their luck again on another flight to contest Day 2, starting Friday at 2pm. 

Mengshi Tian has slipped back into the pack, and it's Yves Senterre who seems to be in the driver's seat on this fifth starting day. The Big Tuesday winner is up to 380,000 chips... WSOPC winner in Cannes in April, London-based Chinese Longmao Fan has late reg and now stands at 105,000 chips...

Chipcount
Yves Senterre 380,000
Mohamed Daher 300,000
Eddy Sebastianutti 280,00
Sam Hilge 270,000
Wesley Peinen 250,000
Marc Kirchdoerfer 240,000
Erwan Pirotais 235,000
Tawfik Samih 220,000
Noah Alem 180,000
Anthony Bui Ngoc 180,000
Conor S. 180 000
Pen Nieuwhuis 170 000
David olurebi 160 000
Mengshi Tian160 000
Harrie Snijders 130 000
Longmao Fan 105 000
Rens Buijs 80 000

The Last Hour

Play has just resumed on blinds 2000 - 5000 (5000) for the final two levels of the day on Day 1E. There were 182 players in the field on this fifth starting day, down to 54 for the final effort.

Rachid Sekkai (below), Harrie Snijders, Sebastien Hebette and Claudio Guadagnino jumped out shortly before the final break, while Mengshi Tian continues to yo-yo. The Chinese player is up to 403,000 on the restart! 

With 430,000 chips, Yves Senterre is still in a strong position. The average is 35 blinds for this last battle...

Chipcount
Yves Senterre 430,000
Mengshi Tian 403,000
Mohamed Daher 355,000
Tony Joan 350,000
Alexander Martinsson 325,000
Eddy Sebastianutti 310,000
Stein Karlsson 310 000
Erwan Pirotais 300 000
Noah Alem 270 000
Marc Kirchdoerfer 265 000
Sam Hilger 255 000
Rens Buijs 243 000
Wesley Peinen 220 000
Majid Riouch 220 000
Melvin Maas 205 000
Tim Lerouge 195 000
Jordan Pelon 188 000
Gilles van Hoot 180 000
Tawfik Samih 175 000
Pel Nieuwhuis 170 000
Longmao Fan 165 000
Vincent Guirles 163 000
Christel Muniete 160 000
Denis Charlier 150 000
David Olurebi 150 000
Anthony Bui Ngoc 143 000
Thibault Fournier 125 000
Nicolas Destercq 116 000
Johannes Boeren 105 000

Last Level

Half an hour to play on the fifth of the Summer's eight starting days... and it will be without Pel Nieuwenhuis, winner of the Winter 2024 for €90,000. The Dutchman jumped a few seconds before the final blinds went up. Like Sabre Youbi, Heinz Peters and Ismael Abdallah, he'll have to try his luck again on Thursday on one of the last two starting days...

Level 14 is being played in blinds 3000 - 6000 (6000), with 47 players still in contention and an average of 190,000 chips, or just over 31 blinds. From the start of Day 2 on Friday, the game will be played over 40-minute levels...

Rocard in the lead in the first round

Jocelin Rocard finished in command of Day 1F Turbo, contested over 14 quarter-hour levels, on Wednesday at Circus Casino Resort. On the sixth of eight starting days for the Summer Main Event, 10 players validated their ticket for Friday's 2pm Day 2. 35 entries were counted on this turbo flight...

See you on Thursday afternoon for Day 1G, with a final Turbo H flight starting at 9pm...

Full chipcount Day 1F (10 players out of 35 entries)
Jocelin Rocard 429,000
Mickael Svensson 236,000
Kevin Reider 177,000
Carlos Lopes 171,000
Behaio Wang 154,000
Fabrizio Quatrocchi 145,000
Gunther van Driessche 133,000
Michael Kwaspen 119,000
David Botty 115,000
Nils Martisovs 73,000

Summer Main 2024	1A	1B	1C	1D	1E	Turbo 1F	1G	Turbo 1H	Day 2
Incoming	223	227	98	118	182 (848)	35 (883)
Qualified	47	41 (88)	19 (107)	24 (131)	39 (170)	10 (180)

Nicolas Destercq's remontada

Madness in the last 20 minutes of play, with an incredible comeback for the regular at Circus Casino Resort in Namur, Belgium's Nicolas Destercq. Dropping to 13,000 chips on the last of 14 nivals on each Day 1, Nicolas finished chipleader with 474,000 chips! Destercq doubled up twice, then made a strike, followed up with a straight before eliminating one last opponent on the final hand with a flip.

The coin fell on the right side at the end of the day for Nicolas... 49 players finally made it through the opening day on Wednesday. On Day 1E, which brought together 182 entrants, Nicolas Destercq bagged up almost 10 times the starting stack and beat 38 players. 10 players went through to Turbo 1F to bring the number of qualifiers for Friday's 2 p.m. Day 2 to 180. There are still two opportunities to qualify on Thursday, starting at 3 p.m. on 1G and from 9 p.m. on Turbo 1H...

In addition to Nicolas Destercq, a number of regulars chipped in on Day 1E. Yves Senterre, Mohamed Daher, David Olurebi, Tawfik Samih, Denis Charlier and Noah Alem will all be putting on the pressure, while Rens Buijs and Patrick Prijot will be there with a little less room to maneuver. Two aggressive Chinese players, WSOPC winner Longmao Fan and Mengshi Tian, who led the field for a long time, will also be in action. Eddy Sebastianutti and Thibault Fournier also booked their ticket after a fine day... 

Partial Chipcount Day 1E
Nicolas Destercq 474,000
Cedric Medziora 453,000
Jens Mueller 416,000
Mengshi Tian 400,000
Denis Charlier 371,000
Noah Alem 360,000
Eddy Sebastinautti 352,000
Bregt Winters 349,000
Alexander Martinsson 337,000
Thibault Fournier 329,000

Yves Senterre 321 000
Mohamed Daher 314 000
David Olurebi 306 000
Marc Kirchdoerfer 300 000
tawfik Samih 292 000
Erwan Pirotais 270 000
Wesley Peinen 222 000
Patrick Prijot 181 000
Vincent Guirles 153 000
Majid Riouch 143 000

Melvin Maas 112,000
Guillaume Fontaine 106,000
Lucky Luciano 103,000
Rens Buijs 103,000
Sam Hilge 47,000