888poker Sponsors Third November Niner

888poker has just locked up a sponsorship deal with a third member of the November Nine after recruiting Kenny Hallaert to wear the company’s patch. The Belgium player now joins Canadian pro Griffin Benger and Spain’s Fernando Pons in representing 888poker at the 2016 WSOP Main Event’s final table.
Benger and Pons actually became November Niners after qualifying for the $10,000 buy-in event via online satellites at 888, and currently sit in 7th and 9th positions respectively. Hallaert’s sponsorship deal, however, comes with a price tag, but also represents a better opportunity for 888 to back the eventual winner as the Belgium currently sits 4th in chips on a 43m chip stack, equivalent to 80 big blinds.
Interestingly, Kenny Hallaert became a sponsored Unibet Tournament Director in August, but with just a few days left before the ME Final Table resumes on October 30th, it appears 888 has achieved what it managed in 2015 by sponsoring one-third of the finalists still competiting for tournament poker’s top honor.
As well as being a tournament director, Kenny Hallaert is a talented pro with $246,038 in online winnings playing under the screen name SpaceyFCB, as well as a further $2,317,530 in the live arena, including the $1 million he is already guaranteed for becoming a November Niner. That places him at number 3 on Belgium’s all-time money list, behind last year’s ME finalist Pierre Neuville ($3,862,736), and 3-times WSOP bracelet winner Davidi Kitai ($7,534,007). With huge pay jumps and an $8 million first place prize going to the eventual champion, however, Hallaert has every chance to leap frog his fellow Belgium’s and heap further glory on himself and his sponsored site. There is a formidable group of competitors standing in his way, though, with the players lining-up as follows:
2016 WSOP November Nine:
1: Cliff Josephy – 75m
2: Qui Nguyen – 68.075m
3: Gordon Vayo – 50.45m
4: Kenny Hallaert – 43.325m
5: Michael Ruane – 29.8m
6: Vojtech Ruzicka – 27.45m
7: Griffin Benger – 26.175m
8: Jerry Wong – 10.325m
9: Fernando Pons – 6.225m