Since its inception late in 2017, WPTDeepStacks Brussels has been a hit with poker players – so much so that a second festival date per season was introduced in March 2018.
In total, five players have entered the WPT record books by securing themselves a WPTDS Brussels title and WPT.com looks back through the archives at each of the hands that made a champion.
November 2017 – Laurent Polito (€90,000)
The first WPTDS Brussels Champion did it by the book – getting all his chips in preflop with the best starting hand.
Polito opened the action and after looking down to see queen-nine suited in his hand, Leonardo Armino moved all in. It was snap-called by Polito, and though Armino hit a queen on the flop, there was an ace on the board too. It was all over by the turn, and after making numerous final tables in WPT events in the years preceding it – Polito took down the biggest WPT result of his career.
March 2018 – Ioannis Angelou-Konstas (€75,000)
This was a particularly memorable one with Angelou-Konstas breaking records by becoming the first player to do the double in Europe, and only the second worldwide.
With history at stake, the final hand of the tournament was the first time on this list that the eventual champion got it in behind. Martin Kaya was the opponent and with a little over seven big blinds, he moved all in. Angelou-Konstas took a few moments to think about it before calling.
He was trailing to Kaya’s king-six of hearts with queen-three of diamonds, and after Kaya made a flush draw on the flop and hit a pair of sixes on the turn, Angelou-Konstas was looking for just six outs (a queen or a five for the gutshot). Dramatically, a black queen hit on the river, making Angelou-Konstas a two-time WPT champion.
November 2018 – Danny van Zijp (€110,000)
The next title came down to a cooler when WPT-circuit regular Jose Astima three-bet all in preflop with pocket-tens only to be looked up by van Zijp’s pocket-jacks. It was a low-ball run out on the board, condemning Astima to second place and securing van Zijp the title.
To this day, it is still a career-best result for van Zijp.
February 2019 – Mohamed Abdou (€118,000)
After four days of poker, only one player stood in Abdou’s way – Rehman Kassam. Their heads-up battle lasted just 30 minutes with the final hand coming down to an all in post flop. Kassam bet half pot and then called his all in when Abdou shipped over the top. Both players had made top pair, but Kassam had the higher kicker with queen-ten to Abdou’s queen-seven. The poker gods stepped in on the turn when a seven hit and with no redraw on the river – the tournament, title and top prize all went Abdou’s way.
Abdou had narrowly missed out on winning a package via an online satellite, bubbling it in fact. The consolatory prize was €500 and Abdou decided to head down to WPTDS Brussels anyway – what a decision that turned out to be.
November 2019 – Gregory Luttke-Grech (€102,000)
The most recent WPTDS Champion took down the title after a heads-up battle that lasted a mere 12 minutes. Poetically, Luttke-Grech won his tournament in a manner very similar to Polito’s.
In the end, it came down to a post-flop all in with Luttke-Grech holding pocket-rockets against Sonny Franco’s jack-nine that had made top pair on the six-six-nine board. Nothing untoward happened and Luttke-Grech is the reigning champion as a result.
Join them in the WPT record books
With WPTDS Brussels just around the corner, now is the perfect time to book your trip to the Belgian capital and take a stab at joining Polito, Angelou-Konstas, van Zijp, Abdou and Luttke-Grech in the WPTDS hall of fame.
With a full schedule of events on the calendar, there are so many reasons to come down to the Grand Casino Brussels Viage this February.
WPTDeepstacks Brussels Festival
February 4- 9, 2020
WPTDeepStacks Opener
Dates: February 4-6, 2020
Buy-in: €360 + €40 = €400
WPTDeepStacks Brussels Main Event
Dates: February 6-9, 2020
Buy-in: €1,100 + €100 = €1,200
WPTDeepStacks High Roller
Dates: February 8-9, 2020
Buy-in: €2,000 + €200 = €2,200
Ladies Event
Date: February 9, 2020
Buy-in: €150 + €0 = €150
This event doesn’t have any fees. All €150 will go to the prize pool.