November Niner Kenny Hallaert Becomes New Unibet Tournament Director
August 8, 2016 9:44 amAhead of the much-anticipated 2016 WSOP Main Event final table, betting companies have been seeking out the November Nine in order too offer them lucrative sponsorship deals, and last week Kenny Hallaert announced that he has now accepted an offer from Unibet.
While that in itself is not unusual, what has come as quite a surprise is the nature of his deal with the company as the Belgium pro is now set to officiate the upcoming €1,100 Unibet Open Copenhagen main event as a tournament director.
The Unibet Open at the Casino Copenhagen will run from August 25-28th, and marks the tour’s third stop this season, having already visited London and Malta, with winners David Shallow and Martin Soukup having each picked up around €65,000 for their respective victories.
In the meantime, it seems Kenny Hallaert is quite happy to give his poker playing skills a respite, and demonstrate his versatility as a pro by adjudicating the Copenhagen tournament, instead, and commenting after the deal was announced, stated:
“I’m very happy to be part of the Unibet Open team. I have already played some of these events in the past and always had a good experience. Now I want to give that same experience to the players.”
Kenny Hallaert is currently sitting on $1,317,530 in live tournament earnings, although that figure will soon rise exponentially as he is already guaranteed a minimum of $1 million for reaching the WSOP final table, with a further $8 million prize awaiting the ultimate champion. Hallaert will have the 4th biggest chip stack when the Main Event resumes on October 30th, and commenting on his chances of taking down tournament poker’s most coveted title, the Belgium stated:
“I can’t complain about my position at the table. The vast majority of the chips are to the right of me, but everyone who has made it to this stage knows something about the game. Winning it would make me very happy, but won’t be disappointed if I finish ninth.”