Glenn Laureys winner of the UPBC 2019 Main Event
The last weekend of the summer break is traditionally reserved for the Unibet Poker Belgian Championship. This award winning poker festival in the casino of Blankenberge has now 4 editions to count for. This year more than 400 entries in the Main Event made it another huge success. The prize pool easily topped €200.000. After 4 days of live poker it was Glenn Laureys finishing in first and receiving almost €35.000 after a 3-way deal. He is the UPBC 2019 Main Event winner!
A Club Poker icon for the victory
News got out on Saturday night around 2am that Glenn had reached the final table. On top of that he was bigstack at the ft of the Unibet Poker Belgian Championship 2019. All of us in club poker land went out of our minds. A big club poker community woke up Sunday morning slightly nervous about what could possibly end up as a new milestone in the Belgian live poker history. What started as a dream in the morning turned into reality later that evening. Glenn Laureys successfully succeeded Christophe De Meulder as winner of the 4th UPBC Main Event title.
Every club poker player in Belgium definitely knows the name Glenn Laureys. About 10 years ago he started his live poker career playing cards in PokerLiga and Pokahnights. In the different Pokahrooms of Pokahnights he quickly grinded his way up to the best club poker players in the circuit. He showed off his skills before by becoming Pokahchamp. The next year he was runner-up in one of Belgian club poker’s biggest events.
Last year he shifted his attention towards a new passion: padel. Together with his girlfriend Shana Oyen they are introducing the whole of Flanders to this relatively new and very exciting sport from their own Padelschool ChiCita.
When Kristof De Deken, head of Pokahnights, asked Glenn to consider giving up his racket (for one weekend) and getting back to the cards, he didn’t hesitate long. Glenn Laureys suddenly had the opportunity to play in one of the most prestigious live poker tournaments of our country. Glenn could try and defend the colours of Pokahnights and the whole club poker community. All because a qualifier ticket at Pokahnights had become available last minute.
Not for heart patients
To be successful in a multi-day live poker event like the UPBC you better make sure all stars are aligned perfectly. You will be needing exceptionally good skills combined with a little bit of luck. On top of that you definitely need an endless passion for the game. All three ingredients are there when you see Glenn at work.
How did it go
According to Glenn the first day went very smoothly. It all started with a set of fours on the flop followed by a KK paying off. He continued dominating his table to end the day with 270K in chips, way above average.
Day 2 was more or less the same. Except when the pressure was on with only 2 tables left. Laureys lost 2 important flips going from 4.000.000 to 1.000.000 chips in no time. Luckily higher powers weren’t off to bed yet. He managed to get 3 full houses in one orbit making it to the final table as bigstack.
The final table on day 3 started off very stable until with 4 players left he got into a big hand. He got 88 but his opponent took the lead with QQ. The difference between an almost certain fourth place exit or a possible victory all came down to another 8 appearing on the flop. Leading the last 3 players in chips he talked the others and himself into a nice deal. € 30.000 got locked up and € 4.000 was left for the win. The other two got € 28.000 and € 22.000. The rest is already history.
Jack on the turn
Half an hour after the deal Glenn was already playing heads-up when Dutchman Justin Herboldt decided to go all-in with AQ. A rather quick call followed for Glenn with KJ. Laureys was only slightly ahead in chips, so this was a very decisive call. The AJ on the flop didn’t change the lead, but a second J on the turn with a blank on the river changed everything and the party could start for Glenn and his entourage. Glenn Laureys won it, GG!
You can read more about day 3 of the Unibet Poker Belgian Championship 2019 Main Event on the Unibet Open Blog. Check here the interview with Glenn after his win the the UPBC 2019 Main Event.
Club poker rules
This edition of the Unibet Poker Belgian Championship was a great success for many club poker players. All the event played got winners directly coming out of the club poker circuit. On top of this all final tables were stacked with players who consider poker their hobby and passion. Ellen Smets from Club Double Up managed to win the Ladies Event and Oliver Janssens – also resident player at Club Double Up – won the Turbo Event. Valentin Derinck (FR) took down the Deepstack Event. Frederik De Lie (PokerClub West-Vlaanderen – PCWVL) knocked everyone out in the last tournament of the festival, the Progressive Knock Out.
Congratulations to all winners and final table players! Unfortunately we cannot mention all names we came across, but don’t we have Hendon Mob for this, right? Special thumbs up for Leandro Gaone from Poker Belgique! Gaone got even with his partner in crime Joselito who got in third in 2017. GG!
We enjoyed our stay during the Unibet Poker Belgian Championship. We once again would like to thank Unibet and the whole Unibet Open team for their wonderful live poker festival. Together with hundreds of players we already look forward to the 5th edition in 2020.
Don’t forget to create your account with Unibet in the meantime, because there’s a lot of poker action going on. And let’s not forget about the Unibet Open Tour with their next stop in Malta. One more time now… Glenn Laureys wins the UPBC 2019!
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