7+2 = November Nine for Pierre Neuville

It’s extremely rare that the numbers 7 and 2 hit the headlines in poker (unless you’re bluffing with it to win $300k as Tom ‘Durr’ Dwan famously did back in 2010) but in little over a couple of months’ time these numbers will take centre stage, as 72-year old Belgian pro Pierre Neuville arrives to stake his claim as the oldest ‘November Niner’ since its inception.

With the 4th largest stack going in to the final table, Pierre has over 21 million reasons to feel cheerful and is one of only four other players who stands a reasonable chance of making chip leader Joe McKeehen, with 63 million chips, sweat come the big day.

With the exception of fellow final-tabler Neil Blumenfeld at 61 years old, Neuville’s years of experience are greater than any other 2 players combined, and in a game where aggressive youthfulness abounds with many players going straight from school to the green baize, bypassing any notions of ‘real work’, elder statesman Neuville has taken a different route to poker stardom.

His life-long love of the game took hold while at university back in the ‘60’s but it wasn’t until he retired in 2008 that he started to shine and having worked with clients such as Gary Player and Kevin Costner in his previous life as a personal consultant, facing the big names in poker was never likely to phase Pierre. His 18th place and $48,000 cash-out at the EPT PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in 2008 helped to launch his professional poker career at the age of 55, and he followed this with dozens of cashes around Europe.

A peculiar form of fame came along with the $2million fortune he has amassed since then – Pierre satellited his way into the EPT Main Events no less than 23 consecutive times! If you can think of a route in – rebuys, S’n’G’s, Steps and FPP’s - then the Belgian tried it and succeeded every time (which equates to overcoming 8.4 million-to-one odds!) and earned him the moniker ‘the Serial PokerStars Qualifier’.

If that wasn’t reason enough for a fanfare, the septuagenarian November Niner -by now a Team Pro for PokerStars - translated those qualifiers into a 40% cash rate, a figure way higher than your average top-level poker pro. If the phrase ‘In it to win it’ strikes any chords with his fellow final tablers in November, then it may not be a happy tune they hear!

Back in March, while picking up his Lifetime Achievement Award at the European Poker awards in Malta, Pierre Neuville stated with youthful exuberance, “The best is still to come!” he could have repeated this phrase twice as loud following his WSOP Main Event performance in July, a performance which was equal parts experience, enjoyment, fantastic play, luck and beautifully-constructed bluffs.

So, come November 9, it may well be that the smart money will favour youth or a massive chip stack, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the 7-2 of Pierre Neuville may still have something to say on where the $7.6 million first prize will go!