Mohamed Abdou (pictured) has been crowned the WPTDeepStacks Brussels €1,200 Main Event champion for €118,000 + €2,000 WPT Season-Ending Package after he came through a 584 player-field at the Grand Casino Viage.
Abdou defeated Rehman Kassam heads-up for the win in a match that lasted less than 30 minutes. Abdou had battled well on the final table and even found a one-outer on the river with eight players remaining to survive.
Today’s final day of action capped four days of record-breaking Main Event poker in Brussels, which coincided with a full festival of events running over five days, including High Roller and Ladies events. The Main Event entrants total of 584 was a record for the WPTDS Brussels after last November’s previous best total of 535 was smashed to create a €623,128 prize pool.
WPT Champions Club Members Michael Mizrachi (pictured below), Chino Rheem, Davidi Kitai, and Guillaume Darcourt all took their shot in the Main Event, with Mizrachi lasting the longest taking 27th place.
WPTDeepStacks Brussels Final Table Results:
1st: Mohamed Abdou – €118,000
2nd: Rehman Kassam – €79,000
3rd: Thomas Sorre – €57,000
4th: Nissim Vaknin – €42,000
5th: Alexandre Reard – €32,000
6th: Fernando Garay – €25,000
7th: Kyriakos Papadopoulos – €19,000
8th: Gelle Samatar – €15,000
9th: Joris Ruijs – €11,700
Speaking after his victory, Abdou said:
“I feel great! I came to Brussels after playing a satellite on Winamax, but I bubbled the package and received €500. So I decided to come and play anyway.”
“I’m playing a lot more tournaments this year, and I plan to attend WPT Barcelona next month.”
Action of the Day
Eighteen players returned for the final day all with the hope of securing the €118,000 first-place prize as well as the €2,000 WPTDS season-ending package.
The action in Day 3 got off to a fast start with eight players hitting the rail in the first three 60-minute levels.
Long Nguyen was the first of the returning players to see his run in the Main Event come to an end after his all in from the button with jack-ten was called by Rehman Hassam in the big blind with ace-three, and the latter held to score the first knock-out.
Thibault Saillard, Lyor Yiflach, and Bruno Fernandes were also eliminated before the first level of the day came to its conclusion, and Alexandres Golubevs followed them out shortly after when he got all his chips into the middle holding top pair with jack-eight only to see Said El-Yousfi call with king-jack for the higher kicker.
Mihai Stinca took 13th place after losing a flip with ace-king against Hassam who held pocket eights. Stinca paired his king on the flop, but Hassam also improved to a set and secured his second elimination of Day 3.
Said El-Yousfi (pictured), Abou Sy and Vincent Gabel were the final players to miss out on a place at the final table.
The final table bubble burst after Gabel had called an all in from Fernando Garay with the board down deuce-six-ten-queen. Gabal had a tough decision to make as he went into the tank for close to two minutes before he put his final 550,000 in the middle. Garay tabled queen-ten for two pair, and Gabal’s jack-ten was far behind and unable to catch up on the river.
With the final table of nine now set and the payout jumps increasing, the play completely slowed down.
Nissim Vaknin secured an early double up against Alexandre Reard when his ace-king somehow found a board to survive against pocket kings. And from that point on, the momentum continued for Vaknin as he took the chip lead.
Joris Ruijs became the short stack, and despite finding two double ups in the space of just a few minutes, he was eventually the first player to depart from the Final Table. Vaknin had opened the action to 110,000, and Kassam called from middle position before Joris Ruijs moved all in from the button. Vaknin got out of the way, but Kassam was going nowhere and called before he tabled pocket aces. Ruijs was far behind with pocket tens and was unable to survive, taking away €11,700 in 9th.
Garay and Samatar Gelle both secured double up before Mohamed Abdou hit a one-outer on the river to keep his Main Event dream alive. Abdou was all in preflop with pocket tens and had been called by Kyriakos Papadopoulos with pocket jacks. The flop and turn were no help to Abdou, and with Papadopoulos picking up the flush draw, only the ten of hearts would keep Abdou in. But when the river fell that exact card Abdou could not believe his luck and was shocked to have chips still.
Abdou composed himself to take over the chip lead soon after, and Gelle Samatar departed when his ace-queen suited was no good against Papadopoulos’ ace-ten, after the latter hit a straight on the turn.
But Papadopoulos’ luck was to change after the players returned from the dinner break, with the Day 2 and Day 3 chip leader hitting the rail. The Greek player (pictured below) was all in with ace-jack and couldn’t find a board to survive against Thomas Sorre’s pocket nines, leaving the 24-year-old 2018 Aria WPT500 champion to take away €19,000 for his 7th place finish.
Fernando Garay then took 6th place for €25,000 after he had seen his stack fall dramatically he was forced all in with ace-six from the cutoff and ran into pocket kings. Garay had some chips left over, but they all went in Abdou’s direction in the very next hand after his ten-nine could not catch up against jack-four.
When five-handed play began, there was a lot thought out play with several players being forced to fold after seeing their opponents three-bet all in. But that trend was halted when Kassam four-bet all in and saw Alexandre Reard snap-call with pocket aces. Kassam was in bad shape with pocket tens, but found a miracle flop and hit a set. Kassam held as the board completed and took the chip lead, with Reard left with crumbs.
The Frenchman was unable to perform a comeback and departed shortly after in fifth place for €32,000 when his king-four could not beat Abdou’s pocket eights.
FansUnite Main Event Last Longer winner Nissim Vaknin then saw his Main Event run come to an end after he ran his king-jack into pocket kings in blind-on-blind action. Vaknin’s shove from the small blind was snapped off by Abdou, and despite Vaknin picking up outs to the straight to the flop, the turn and river were not kind to him. For his achievements, Vaknin walks away with €42,000, an extra €500 cash, 1,000 Fan Tokens to use at FansUnite, and two sporting event tickets of his choice.
Thomas Sorre was then the final man to miss out on a place in the heads-up battle after he saw Abdou once again score an elimination. Sorre’s shove from the small blind was called by Abdou, and despite Sorre holding the lead with ace-seven, Abdou ultimately won the pot with ace-five after he hit the vital kicker card on the turn, and Sorre departed with the bronze medal for €57,000.
In the first significant heads-up pot between Abdou and Kassam, the players got all their chips into the middle on the flop with Kassam the player with the advantage. The flop was down four-queen-nine and Abdou checks before Kassam bet 500,000 into the 1,000,000 pot. Abdou, who had Kassam covered, moved all in and saw Kassam call for 5,000,000.
Abdou tables queen-seven for top pair, but saw he is behind to Kassam’s queen-ten. Kassam was all set for a double up, but the turn card is a seven which gave Abdou the lead with two pair. Kassam stood from his seat with just one card remaining to be dealt and saw his fate sealed on the river to depart as runner-up for €79,000.
That’s all from us here in Brussels until next time! Be sure to check out the WPT upcoming events, with next on the agenda in Europe is the WPT Barcelona in partnership with partypoker LIVE running March 8-17 with the WPT500, WPTDeepStacks and WPT Main Event all taking place at Casino Barcelona! We look forward to seeing you there!
Looking to win your way to a World Poker Tour event for your shot at becoming a WPT champion? Play for your chance on ClubWPT.com, where eligible VIP Members can play for over $100,000 in cash and prizes each month, including seats to WPT events, no purchase necessary.