Antonio Guida Beats 817-Strong Field to Win Belgium Open Poker Championships 2009
The 2009 Belgium Open Poker Championships played out from Nov. 21 to 29 at Belgium’s Casino de Namur, attracting a total field of 817.
The total prize pool for the €1,500+€200 buy-in event was €1,138,877, and the player who took home the biggest part of that was local Antonio Guida. Although first place was due to receive €302,946, Guida actually received €256,082 due to a deal agreed upon three-handed.
Maurits Blom of the Netherlands was the unfortunate final-table bubble and joined the 71 players on the other side of the rail who had so far received payouts.
The nine players and their chip counts going into the final table were:
Seat 1 -- Antonio Guida (819,000)
Seat 2 -- Dalil Massaud (525,000)
Seat 3 -- Xavier Charlier (940,000)
Seat 4 -- Fabian Gantile (1,286,000)
Seat 5 -- Laurent Gauthier (330,000)
Seat 6 -- Marc Inizan (1,045,000)
Seat 7 -- Barbara Martinez (1,151,000)
Seat 8 -- Joris Springael (1,419,000)
Seat 9 – Stefan Aerts (1,004,000)
After eight hours of play, the final hand occurred when Antonio Guida opened from the button and Fabian Gantile called. The flop was Kd 10h 7d. Gantile checked, Guida moved all in and Gantile called for his tournament life. Guida showed 6d 2d for the flush draw while Gantile flipped over Kh Jh for top pair. The turn kept Gantile safe with the 4s, but it was meant to be for Guida as the river brought a diamond in the form of a ten.
The 47-year-old from Liege in Belgium was crowned the champion of the event, while Gantile received €190,122 for his runner-up finish — slightly more than the original prize of €185,070 due to the three-handed deal.
Full list of final table payouts:
1: Antonio Guida — €256,082*
2: Fabian Gantile — €190,122*
3: Springael Joris — €167,089*
4: Dilal Massaud — €76,875
5: Xavier Charlier — €51,250
6: Barbara Martinez — €36,444
7: Stefan Aerts — €25,397
8: Laurent Gauthier — €18,450
9: Marc Inizan — €13,325
* based on deal made three-handed
The tournament was streamed live via CircusPoker.be and filmed for broadcast, while many other events carried on alongside. One of these events which drew considerable attention was the €10,000 Heads-Up Team tournament. This saw six teams of four battle each other in heads-up matches on Nov.25.
The teams who took first and second place were:
First Place — PokerStars (€45,000)
Player 1: Arnaud Mattern
Player 2: Bertrand Grospellier
Player 3: Johnny Lodden
Player 4: Julien Brecard
Second Place — Netherlands (€15,000)
Player 1: Jasper Wetemans
Player 2: Bert Van Doesburg
Player 3: Jorn Walthaus
Player 4: Marc Naalden
Among other side events on offer at the Belgium Open Poker Championships were a €1,000+€50 buy-in no-limit hold’em freezeout, a €150+€10 buy-in no-limit hold’em Bounty freezeout, and a €100+€10 no-limit hold’em ladies event. All events were well attended and the whole week proved another success for the annual event.
The main event attracted some of the poker world’s top professionals including PokerStars Team Pro members such as Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Arnaud Mattern, Johnny Lodden, Noah Boeken, Joep Van Den Bijgaart, Marcel Luske, Pieter De Korver, Thierry Van Den Berg, J.P. Kelly, and Marion Nedellec, and legends from all over Europe including Surinder Sunar, Davidi Kitai, Michel Abecassis, Marc Naalden, and Paul Jackson.
Kenny Hallaert, Poker Manager of Casinos de Namur and Spa, said, “We expected to have about 650-700 players and in the end we had 817, so it was definitely a success. People were also very pleased with the structure, a five-day tournament structure where it took almost 45 hours of play to honour the winner. Something you never see, especially for a tournament with a buy-in of only €1,700.