Wednesday, June 11, 2008

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Belgian wins free WSOP package at PokerStars

By Sarah Polson

From the land that brought the world waffles, the art of Jan van Eyck and Godiva chocolates comes the latest winner of a 2008 World Series of Poker prize package exclusively for PokerListings players at PokerStars.

Mathias Smagghe, from Waregem, Belgium, won a $12,500 prize package to the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event after playing in a freeroll at PokerStars over the weekend.

The freeroll was exclusive to players who signed up at the poker site through PokerListings.com. Though the 23-year-old student may just cash out the prize rather than going to the WSOP, he isn't any less excited about his victory. It was his biggest poker win so far.

"There were a few good players at the final table," Smagghe said about the playing field. "It was a very aggressive game."

Smagghe handled the pressure of an aggressive game well, though. In fact, the pressure is one of the things he likes about playing poker.

"It's a game you can play just for fun with friends, and when it gets more serious, I love the tension of big pots and bluffs that work out fine," Smagghe said.

He's only been playing poker for about a year, and his experience includes a weekly game with friends and about two hours each day playing on the Internet as well.

That experience paid off as he finished off his final opponent in the freeroll on a hand where he was holding 76 against 82. The flop brought them both a flush draw, and Smagghe had hit his seven in the flop as well. So when his opponent went all-in, he called right behind him.

A club failed to hit the board on the turn and the river, and there wasn't anything else that could help his opponent either, so Smagghe had the win.

If he does decide to head to Las Vegas to use his prize package, Smagghe said he would be very excited and nervous to be playing in the event, especially if he wound up playing against some of his favorite players such as Phil Ivey, Gus Hansen and Daniel Negreanu.

If he could turn his free seat into a win in the Main Event, he would probably try to become a professional poker player and buy himself an Audi s5.

More than likely, Smagghe will just pocket the cash, though.

"I am just a poor last-year student, so I'll save a part of the money," he said. "But I am surely going to use some to go on a trip this summer and add a part to my bankroll."

He currently uses that bankroll almost every day at PokerStars, which he considers the biggest and most reliable site online.

He's also a regular visitor to PokerListings where he signed up to play at PokerStars and took advantage of the bonuses the poker site has to offer PokerListings players.

"[PokerListings] is a nice site," Smagghe said. "I love to check the biggest pots of the day."

PokerListings players at PokerStars will have their last chance to follow in Smagghe's footsteps this weekend with the poker site's final two exclusive WSOP freerolls.

Players who earned 500 player points from May 1-31 will be playing for a $12,500 WSOP prize package on Saturday at 3 p.m. EDT, and players who earned 1,000 points during May 1-31 will get to play June 15 at 3 p.m. EDT.

For more information about these and other deals and promotions for POkerListings.com players, head to PokerStars.

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