OMAR LAKHDARI WINNER OF THE BPC NAMUR (€206,000)
Given the magnificent structure offered by the organisers of the Circus Casino Resort in Namur, it was fair to assume that this final table would last until the end of the night. And yet, once Omar Lakhdari's steamroller had started, everything accelerated. There were still 4 players at the dinner-break. 40 minutes later, Omar lifted the winner's trophy in front of his friends who had come to support him.
An emblematic figure in French poker, Omar is the player with the most indefinable profile. He's a real war machine when he's got the chips, capable of memorable blow-ups but above all of real genius moves, an all-round player far removed from the current GTO canons, playing hyper-efficient poker on the middle buy-in fields.
This is his 29th victory on the live circuit, and the best of them all, with a prize of €206,000, his biggest win ever, just ahead of his 6th place in a WPT last year.
Today's final table was clearly a one-way street, as Omar Lakhdari quickly found himself with a huge stack, eliminating Jérôme Balthazar, Paolo Calculli, Benoît Grobocopatel and finally Tal Ohana (who was responsible for eliminating the others). Heads-up play was a mere formality for Omar Lakhdari, who needed just fifteen hands to finish off his opponent, thanks to a superb call to prove to his opponent that he wasn't the only one capable of making big calls.
Just like at home here in Namur, as he said after his victory in an interview, Omar knew that he had " an edge on this kind of field" with his exploitative game. " I knew I had a chance of winning the tournament since I eliminated a lot of very good players yesterday ".
Moved after posing for the winner's photo with his mates, Omar told me how much he appreciated this victory: " I didn't have any spades yet, I'd already won a WPT National in Belgium. But this is a real treat. I believed in it from the TF, I thought it was going to go well. "
As for his performance at the final table, Omar was aware that it had been crystal clear. " It went straight through. I played the ICM well, there were a lot of them with players who had little performance on Hendon Mob. They had the pressure of money, I played a bit on that, as soon as there was one who raised me and there was a short-stack, I put on the maximum pressure, I played a bit on experience. "
Omnipresent on the middle buy-in tournament scene between €500 and €2,000, Omar Lakhdari's plan now is to confirm on the EPTs and achieve a fine Vegas. He was also delighted to be able to share this experience with Benoît Grobocopatel (5th in this BPC Namur):"We came together from Paris and slept in the same room. We even slept on the floor in another room because we didn't know where to sleep. I wasn't very happy about eliminating him, but all he has to do is not be short-stacked. "
Both wearing the patch of the ADJ, the Association Des Joueurs, which aims to help poker players at tournaments with everything to do with administration, buy-ins, hotels, etc. and to help them improve things, Omar and Benoît were very happy to pull out all the stops here in Namur to get the ball rolling for this non-profit organisation, which they have supported from the outset.
Omar Lakhdari's victory concludes the Main Event of the Belgian Poker Challenge in Namur, an exceptional tournament in every respect, with record attendance figures of 1,332 entries for this 2023 edition, organised in partnership with PokerStars. Not officially a FPS tournament, but considered to be part of the France Poker Series circuit.
Final table results:
- Winner Omar Lakhdari (Algeria) €206,000
- Runner Up Tal Ohana (Israel) €129,000
- Jérôme Arnaud (France) €92,100
- David Janssen (Belgium) €70,830
- Benoît Grobocopatel (France) €54,480
- Arthur Thiriart (Belgium) €42,000
- Paolo Calculli (Italy) €32,300
- Baho Hosseini (Germany) €24,770
- Jérôme Balthazar (Belgium) €19,073
