PokerGuru 3-Bet: Meulder Wins 2018 Unibet Poker Belgian Championship Main Event, Somerville Returns to Poker Streaming & 888poker Live London Festival Coming to Aspers

While the European Poker Tour (EPT) Barcelona kept the excitement rolling the past two weeks, out in Belgium, it’s the 2018 Unibet Poker Belgian Championship that is drawing a lot of crowd at Casino Blankenberge. Navigating through a field of 438 entrants, Christophe De Meulder won the €550 Main Event, pocketing €42,020.

In the online circuit, poker player Jason Somerville made a return to live streaming after a hiatus of more than a year. Though Somerville kept it low key, without prior announcements, his clumsy mistakes have garnered quite a bit of attention and reactions from the twitterati.

Meanwhile 888poker has announced the dates for its London festival. With many poker pros like Michael Mizrachi and Joe Cada expected to participate, the 888poker Live London festival will kick off at Aspers casino on November 22 and continue till December 3.

Christophe De Meulder Wins Main Event at 2018 Unibet Poker Belgian Championship

The 2018 Unibet Poker Belgian Championship €550 Main Event held at Casino Blankenberge attracted 438 entries and outlasting the enormous filed was Belgium’s Christophe De Meulder, who claimed the trophy and top prize of €42,020. This latest win has swelled De Meulder’s live tournament earnings beyond $400,000 which is accompanied by almost $1.5 million in online cashes.

Final Table Recap

The first to depart from the nine-handed final table was Fabrice Halleux. Dominique Potenza raised to 150,000 from the button and received a call from Werner Schroons in the small blind. The short-stacked Fabrice Halleux looked at his cards and shoved all-in from big blind. Potenza asked for a count and called as Schroons folded his hand.

Fabrice Halleux

Dominique Potenza

The board brought and Potenza picked up a higher pair of kings to end Halleux’s run in ninth place.

Werner Schroons‘ run ended in eighth place when he shoved from the cutoff and Samir Akhoullou called from the small blind.

Werner Schroons

Samir Akhoullou

The community cards fanned out and Akhoullou’s ace high held resulting in Schroons`s exit.

After the players returned from the break, Peter Dupont shoved from the hijack. Christophe De Meulder 3-bet to 825,000. Dupont called and turned over , while De Meulder tabled . The flop brought and both players flopped top pairs, with De Meulder holding the higher pair. The turn card was the and Dupont only had the king as an out. The on the river completed the board but wasn’t enough to prevent Dupont’s seventh-place elimination.

Soon thereafter, Tom Hermans raised the pot to 375,000 from the cutoff and was met by a shove from Potenza in the small blind. Hermans took a look at his cards and called with the smaller stack. He tabled against Potenza’s pocket nines. The board revealed , not improving Hermans hand and he bounced off in sixth place.

Next to go was Jonas Van Baelen. When Akhoullou raised 300,000 from the button and Van Baelen shoved all-in from small blind, De Meulder asked for a count and then moved all-in with the bigger stack. Akhoullou looked down at his cards and decided to fold.

Jonas Van Baelen

Christophe De Meulder

The runout missed both players but De Meulder’s high cards were good enough to eliminate Van Baelen in fifth place.

Finishing in fourth place was Koen Lauwereys, who shoved the last of his chips from small blind with and was called Akhoullou from the big blind holding . The board ran and Akhoullou rivered three-of-a-kind sixes busting Lauwereys in the process.

Down to three-handed play, Dominique Potenza shoved all in from the button. Akhoullou folded his small blind and De Meulder asked for a count and before calling.

Dominique Potenza

Christophe De Meulder

The community cards ran and both players flopped a pair of queens but De Meulder’s ace-kicker kicked out Potenza from the competition in third place.

The heads-up was then set up between Samir Akhoullou (13,250,000) and Christophe De Meulder (8,650,000). On the final hand of the event, De Meulder moved all-in for 600,000 from the button with pocket fives and Akhoullou called with . The flop brought two-seven-five which gave De Meulder a set of fives, while Akhoullou had outs with a gutshot straight draw. Six fell on the turn and Akhoullou hit the straight and was looking to double up, but the on the river gave De Meulder quad fives relagating Akhoullou to a runner-up finish. De Meulder took home the trophy and the first-place prize money of €42,020.

Final Table Results (EURO)

1. Christophe De Meulder – €42,020

2. Samir Akhoullou – €26,270

3. Dominique Potenza – €18,120

4. Koen Lauwereys – €13,420

5. Jonas van Baelen – €10,320

6. Tom Hermans – €7,940

7. Peter Dupont – €6,350

8. Schroons Werner – €5,080

9. Fabrice Halleux – €4,070

Jason Somerville Returns To Live Poker Streaming

Poker player Jason Somerville has had a busy year, and grabbed the spotlight this summer for launching his Run It Up studio in Last Vegas in partnership with PokerStars to grow poker on Twitch. A regular live streamer himself, Somerville was hardly seen in front of the cameras over the past year, apart from the occasional commentating roles at live events. It seems, however, that he’s now back, with his live streaming sessions where he talks poker strategy.

Also known by his moniker ‘JCarver’, Someville who won a World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet in 2011 had started live streaming for his missive to“grow the game of poker by reaching more fans, more regularly, and with superior poker programming.” He didn`t do a very good job at poker streaming, this time though.

Somerville, who has now relocated to Vancouver, decided to return to live streaming without making a big announcement and when asked why, he said he didn’t want to promise he’d be back on the digital airwaves, only to let them down if his streaming setup suffered technical difficulties. He also admits that he’s more than a bit rusty.

When he launched the stream after the hiatus, he showed the wrong table for a good five minutes, while commenting on the action that was not visible to viewers.

Somerville then corrected his mistake, only to repeat the same a few hours later. Twitch viewers came up with a mixed response. While one viewer commented, “Why are we watching this withered old rusty streamer?” another said, “I’m enjoying this more than actually seeing the table.”

Somerville did have a successful week on the felts. He final tabled a $215 tournament last week and finished fifth for $1,500. He even finished runner-up in another $215 event to earn $8,537. Clearly, the poker pro who will also be seen in action at the just-started PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) has to brush up his live streaming skills to get back in the groove.

888poker Live London Festival Coming to Aspers Casino in November

The 888poker Live London festival is coming to Aspers casino on November 22. Partnering with Aspers, 888poker will run the festival till December 3, and many big names are expected to be in attendance.

The festival will feature 10 events that will kick off with the £220 buy-in Opening Event that will offer four starting flights and a £100,000 guarantee. The event will play down to a champion on November 25.

The highlight of the festival will be the £1,100 buy-in, £400K GTD Main Event that will feature five opening flights. The Main Event winner will also take home an 888poker live package for a future festival of his choice.

Four-time WSOP bracelet winner Michael ‘The Grinder’ Mizrachi has already confirmed that he will be attending the festival and so have 2017 WSOP Main Event champion Scott Blumstein, 2009 WSOP champion Joe Cada and 2018 WSOP Main Event runner-up Tony Miles.

For the first time, all events of the festival will feature an action clock in front of every player, to keep the action fast paced. The Main Event, High Roller and Super High Roller tournaments will implement the Big Blind Ante format.

Mizrachi announced his participation at the event on Twitter, and talked about his excitement about the action clock.

Excited to go to 888poker LIVE London in November, all tournaments has action clocks!
#nostallingfornothing#888poker @888poker see you all there !!

— Michael Mizrachi (@TheGrinder44) August 28, 2018

The £2,200 buy-in High Roller will host a single flight on November 28 and players will start with 100,000 in chips. A £5,000 buy-in Super High Roller will kick off on December 2 with 200,000 in starting stack.

Satellites to many of the events including the Main Event will be held at the Aspers Casino as well as online at 888poker.

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