This big fan of FC Bruges, who lived in the Ghent region for a long time before going into exile on the London side where he is now director of … Poker tournaments, had already succeeded in 2016. A year after the Belgian pioneer Pierre Neuville (7th in this tournament in 2015), Kenny Hallaert had taken 6th place in the Main Event in 2016, with more than 1.464,000 dollars.
In total, Kenny Hallaert’s earnings in “live” poker tournaments (which does not understand the many tournaments accessible on the internet) amount to nearly 6 million gross dollars. It is therefore necessary to deduce the registration fees.
Our long interview with Kenny Hallaert after his first feat in 2016 in 2016
Eight days of play to get there
The world poker championships (WSOP) take place every year in Las Vegas, in June and July. Dozens of tournaments award a bracelet of world champion to those who win them but only one tournament per year is considered to be the real world poker championship: the “Main Event” (main event) which traditionally takes place at the WSOP.
The reputation of this tournament means that hundreds of amateur players come to compete with professionals to try to realize a dream: to become world champion … and millionaire by the way.
To go from 9,735 players, who all started the tournament with a “carpet” of 60,000 tokens, only 9 players, it took eight days of play. The “chipleader” (understand the one who has the most tokens) when starting this final is the American John Wasnock, an amateur player. He will resume the game this Tuesday with 108 million tokens. Kenny Hallaert is in 4th position in the ranking with 80.5 million tokens.
Many things can still happen during the last two days of the tournament which will take place during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday and that of Wednesday and Thursday, after a day of rest. Like the route experienced by Michael Mizrachi, the best known player of this final table (with nearly $ 20 million in career gains): past the elimination on the start of the 8th day, with a carpet of less than 2 million tokens, he finally went up to 3rd position as this final approaches with 89 million tokens. His experience and his “carpet” will make him the favorite in the supreme title.
A woman in the final for the first time in history
If it is excessively rare to reach the final of this tournament twice, Kenny Hallaert will not be the main attraction of this end of hand. And for good reason: the Spanish player Léo Margets is the first woman to stay in race up to 9 remaining players in the modern WSOP era.
Professional player for many years, the one who lives in Barcelona but is from the Pyrenees, has about $ 2 million in “live” gains so far. She will therefore add to at least a million dollars in the coming hours. “”It’s just a dream, I am so lucky to be able to live these moments. It is the bonus of my career and my life “ She commented just after the elimination of the 10th player, Joey Padron, celebrated as a victory by the nine survivors.
Poker is one of the few disciplines that is mixed at the highest level. And if women are more and more there to challenge men, the imbalance between the number of players and players remains enormous, which largely explains that Leo Margets is the first to reach the final of the world championships.