The fourth annual €1,500+150 buy-in Belgium Poker Championship main event held at Casino de Namur, Belgium from November 15th to 23rd, 2008 has been won by Sijbrand Maal from the Netherlands who took down the top prize of €315,875 for topping the field of 843 players. This is the largest field ever gathered in Europe for a €1,000 plus buy-in event pipping last year’s EPT Monte Carlo by just one player.Maal, from Amsterdam, triumphed heads up when, with blinds of 30,000 and 60,000 and an ante of 5,000, Irishman Colm O'Brien pushed with A-K on a Td-8h-7d flop. Maal quickly called with Qd-8d, and managed to survived a blank 2s turn and 6c river to be crowned champion.
The chip counts going into the final table were:
Seat 1: Fabrice Vreux, Belgium -- 174,000
Seat 2: Kristof Segers, Belgium -- 153,000
Seat 3: Colm O’Brien, Ireland -- 1,571,000
Seat 4: Jolmer Meelis, Holland -- 532,000
Seat 5: Carlo Giovanni, Belgium -- 120,000
Seat 6: Alain Dubreuille, France -- 386,000
Seat 7: Michael Fontenoy, Belgium -- 584,000
Seat 8: Gaetano Di Salvo, Belgium -- 99,000
Seat 9: Sijbrand Maal, Holland -- 507,000
Seat 10: Xavier Closset, Belgium -- 120,000
In the first hour four players had hit the rail, the first of whom was Frenchman Alain Dubreuille with A-Q against Maal's pocket fives. Next to fall was Kristof Segers with A-T versus O’Brien’s A-Q all in preflop with O’Brien winning on a nine high board. Xavier Closset then busted in eighth against Giovanni with 5-5 versus A-Q on T-6-6-x-T board while Maal took his second scalp, Di Salvo finishing in seventh, with A-9 versus Q-J.
With six remaining it was Vreux who bit the dust next, his K-Q failing to out-gun O'Brien's A-J on a subsequent J-4-2-3-9 board. He was soon followed by Giovanni in fifth, the Belgium amateur pushing all in on a 6-5-5-J board with J-T, but being snap-called by Fontenoy who tabled a dominant 5-2 off-suit. No miracle jack, and we were down to four, at which point the chip counts were as follows:
Meelis -- 770,000
O'Brien -- 2,200,000
Fontenoy -- 550,000
Maal -- 650,000
The battle for fourth place saw Fontenoy go all-in on a 9-6s-5s flop with Ks-Qs after Meelis had bet around 200-250,000. Meelis thought for three minutes and finally called with A-9, and with none of his outs arriving on the raggy turn and river, Fontenoy hit the rail.
After Fontenoy's departure, play continued for four hours three-handed without an exits with the chips simply circulating around the table. However, the blinds eventually caught up, at which point we witnessed the demise of Jolmer. All in preflop with K-7, Jolmer was looked up by O'Brien's pocket queens which held up on a blank board to leaves us heads up with just Maal and O'Brien remaining.
The final table payouts were:
1st Maal Sijbrand (Holland) – €315,875
2nd Colm O’Brien (Ireland) -- €202,980
3rd Jolmer Meelis (Holland) -- €101,980
4th Michel Fontenoy (Belgium) -- €75,980
5th Carlo Giovanni (Belgium) -- €55,980
6th Fabrice Vreux (Belgium) -- €40,980
7th Gaetano Di Salvo (Belgium) -- €30,480
8th Xavier Closset (Belgium) -- €20,480
9th Kristof Segers (Belgium) --€15,380
10th Alain Dubreuille (France) --€12,280
Ninety places were paid at the main event. Last year the €1 million guaranteed tournament was won by Jamel Maistriaux from Belgium who took home €300,092 for his victory over a field of 800 which included Lex Veldhuis, Mickey Finn, Michiel Brummelhuis, and Haim Kakoun.