After more than eight hours of play, Frenchman Franck Pepe was crowned the bwin WPT National Brussels champion, outlasting the 475-entry field at the Grand Casino Brussels Viage, winning $70,900. Four years after he was the runner-up of the Main Event in Amneville, Pepe won his first WPT National Main Event at a very tough final table, where he started second in chips and ascended to victory.
Entering the heads-up battle, Pepe had a slight advantage over Cheng-Wei Yin, and Pepe increased his lead after 30 minutes with 10.9 million against 3.3 million for Yin. The Frenchman didn’t let him down until the last hand, where Pepe won with a pair of aces against a pair of sevens for Yin.
Final Table Standings
1st Franck Pepe, $70,900
2nd Cheng-Wei Yin, $48,930
3rd Jimmy de Barros, $31,708
4th Mihai Stinca, $23,448
5th Pieyre Maggi, $17,601
6th Yohann Gibert, $14,101
7th Irfan Babacic, $11,755
8th Mateusz Moolhuizen, $9,375
9th Micha Hoedemaker, $7,034
On Day 1A of the Main Event, bwin invited football players from the well-known Belgian football club RSC Anderlecht. Guillaume Gillet, Steven Defour, and Frank Boeckx took their seat in the tournament. During the dinner break, the players were available for an “All-in” moment at the bwin bar, offering signed jerseys and enjoying a drink with players.
The bwin WPT National Brussels festival attracted many notable players, including Denis Karakashi, Laurent Polito, Ludovic Riehl, Micha Hoedemaker, Mateusz Moolhuizen, and Fedor Holz.
The High Roller attracted 152 entries, generating a total prize pool of $183,630. Niels van Leeuwen, the two-time winner of the High Roller in Valkenburg, also took part of the Brussels edition and finished in 12th place. French players were the strongest ones, taking the first three spots at the podium; Jean Souprayenmestry, Xavier Sitruk, and Jean Zaffran.
The festival also offered a great range of side events during the week in Brussels, with exciting and fun variation of poker, including H.O.R.S.E., Omaha, turbo, bounty, eight-handed, and river-face-up.
Here are the winners of the different events of the bwin WPT National Brussels:
| Event | Names | Winnings |
| WPTN High Roller | Jean Souprayenmestry | $45,289 |
| WPTN Warm-up | Cenk Oguz | $3,748 |
| WPTN Great Max | Michal Mrakes | $6,612 |
| WPTN H.O.R.S.E. | Sophien Drif | $2,548 |
| WPTN Turbo Bounty | Andreas Pournaras | $3,867 |
| WPTN Royal Win the Button | Derrick Engel | $3,091 |
| WPTN River Face up | Pia Jeppesen | $1,162 |
European WPT National festivals will continue in October with partypoker WPT500 and WPT UK, as well as Europe-bet.com WPT National Georgia, PMU.fr WPT National Paris, and partypoker WPT National Kazakhstan in November.
The full list of upcoming WPT events can be found here.
Looking to book you next hotel stay for a WPT National event? Head to WPT Travel for the best available rates.