Kenny Hallaert had a summer to remember when he made the WSOP Main Event final table for the second time in 2025. It was his childhood dream just to play it. He first got the chance in 2008 and hasn’t missed one since.
He finished sixth in 2016 and went two better in 2025. He started the final table as the fourth-biggest stack and ended up in that same position, for his career-best score of $3,000,000.
“I have a special relationship with the Main Event,” Hallaert admits when we catch up with him at EPT Barcelona.
Hallaert: Getting it quietly
Not many players have done what Hallaert has done in the modern big-field era of the Main Event. But his achievement was overshadowed by Michael Mizrachi, who also made his second Main Event final table appearance this summer — and went on to win it, after taking down the Poker Players Championship for the fourth time.
And there was another player who made a super-deep run in both 2016 and 2025. And Will Kassouf also made more headlines than Hallaert, although they weren’t as positive. Kassouf ended up being marched off the premises and banned for the rest of the WSOP after being eliminated — by Hallaert — in 33rd place.
Hallaert was the one player who seemed completely unperturbed by his antics and he had a unique view on what went down on that chaotic day in Las Vegas.
“Looking at it selfishly, it was a good spot to be in with Will at the table,” Hallaert says with a glint in his eye. “Because he was on tilt and he was putting other players on tilt on Day 7 of the Main Event. We were playing for very high stakes, and while I was focused on my A-game, other players were distracted and not on top of theirs. Theoretically, I picked up a lot of EV there.”
It’s a great point. Hallaert has over 20 years of poker experience, and many deep runs in the Main Event to draw on. For a lot of players, being that deep in the Main Event is a unique experience. And one that certainly wasn’t helped by Kassouf.
However, talking about the “bigger picture,” Hallaert has another take. “If I’m at EPT Malta and it’s Level 1 and Will’s two tables over, I don’t need to hear the noise. I want to enjoy the game and I don't think it creates an enjoyable atmosphere when all these shenanigans are going on. I don’t hate table talk at all. There are a lot of people who have great table talk, but there’s table talk and there’s noise. Will sounds like a broken record.”
PokerStars pushing for the best live experience
Hallaert hasn’t just got experience as a player. He’s been a TD as well, and in his current role as Live Events Advisor at PokerStars, he uses both sides of his poker life to great effect. “I’m literally on the front line here,” he says. “As a player I watch a lot around me. I'll see a lot of things that the regular poker player doesn't see. And, as a player I need to register, do payouts — I can see how the whole procedure works. I can relay all that information back to the live events’ team in order to make our events better for the future.”
It also makes him the perfect person to ask the following question: ‘Why is it that Will Kassouf has never been such a big problem on the EPT?’
“I don’t want to talk about how other operators work,” he says diplomatically. “But at PokerStars we have very strict guidelines and rules, and if we have a player that tends to get a bit out of line, we will take that player aside, have a chat with him, and tell him what he can and especially what he can't do, and where we draw the line and what the potential consequences are if he crosses that line.”
You can tell that Hallaert is proud of his association with PokerStars, and the reputation they have for their live events.
“I know how much PokerStars cares about game integrity, how much they focus on quality of events and, when I was working as a TD, they were my two pillars as well,” he says. “It was a perfect fit for me to join. It's hard to please everybody when you're running a whole festival but you need to try to find a balance where at least 95% of the players are happy.
“On the EPT there is not a single tournament that has a guaranteed prize,” he adds, “yet we still got 5,000 runners in The Open and over 2,000 in the EPT Barcelona Main Event. It shows that if you focus on quality and player experience that players will show up, and I think that's something that we can be very proud of at PokerStars.”
Fine dining not fast cars
We would have asked Hallaert what he plans to do with the money from his huge score this summer, but we know he’s got a penchant for fine dining — “It’s a bit of a hobby that’s gotten out of hand,” he admits.
So, where should we go to eat if money is no object?
“Martín Berasategui in San Sebastian is my favourite restaurant I've been to — and Hof van Cleve in Belgium,” he reveals. “Restaurants that I want to go to are DiverXO in Madrid and Alchemist in Copenhagen. Alchemist is a very unique experience — more of an experience than it is just food.”
And he leaves us with a line that hard to argue with: “Some people like to buy a €50K car. I just like to spend like my spare money on food.”
