3: Barrels of a Unibet flavour as Christophe de Meulder wins in Belgium, the online poker room sponsor the International Poker Open, and return to Dublin after a seven-year hiatus.
Belgium.
It’s a decent country.
They have some of the best footballers in the world, cracking French fries, and some decent poker players.
And the De Meulder twins, one of which took down a tournament on home soil this week.
Christophe De Meulder won the 438-entrant (108 re-entries) €550 Main Event at the Belgian Championships. The Casino Blankenberge acted as host, and Kindred Group’s Unibet took the role of sponsor.
The event brought in €219,000 in prize money, and De Meulder topped the 63 people who made money, banking the first prize of €42,020 after his pocket fives beat 86cc all-in, pre-flop in the final hand of his heads-up encounter with Samir Akhoullou.
Christophe and his brother Matthias once represented Belgium as members of PokerStars Team Pro before the online giant let them go in January 2016.
Christophe’s victory in the Casino Blankenberge was his third live tournament victory, and the second in the Belgian Championships after taking down a €220 buy-in event beating 127 entrants to bank the €6,585 first prize back in 2016.
The Belgian Championship victory is De Meulder’s most significant of his career, coming a few months after his previous best of €38,250 for finishing 6/1716 in the €1,100 No-Limit Hold’em Open at the partypoker MILLIONS Grand Final Barcelona.
Here are the final table results:
Final Table Results
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. Scroons Werner – €5,080
9. Fabrice Halleux – €4,070
Unibet to Sponsor the International Poker Open in Dublin
In other Unibet news, the online poker room and casino are set to sponsor the International Poker Open (IPO). The series returns to the Bonnington Hotel, Dublin for its 12th appearance on the poker calendar in October.
The star attraction is a €300 buy-in, five-starting flight Main Event running 25-29 October. There is also a €550 High Roller, and the APAT €210 buy-in Irish Amateur Poker Championship is also on the menu.
Last year, John Bambury beat a field of 821 entrants to win the €40,260 first prize in the IPO Main Event. Back in 2014, when Boylesports sponsored the event, the IPO Main Event pulled in a crowd of 1,656 players, and Chris Pyke won the €71,650 first prize.
After the IPO, Unibet remains in Dublin for their very own Unibet Open. The Open runs between Nov 21-25, with the €1,100 Main Event the star attraction, alongside a €2,200 High Roller and a €110 #QueenRules Ladies Event.
There have been three Unibet Opens in 2018 thus far.
Anton Vinokurov defeated 592 entrants to win the €103,630 first prize in Unibet Open Bucharest, Daniel Jacobsen beat 273 players to take the €60,090 first prize, and Andreas Wiborg bested a field of 349 entrants to bank the £56,807 at Unibet Open London.
The last time Unibet held an Open in Dublin was in 2011 when Paul Vas Nunes defeated 260 entrants to win the €105,300 first prize.
