2007 The start of an adventure born around a simple forum.
17+ Years of experience before the rebirth under the banner PFB.
3Rooms at the height of the multi‑room period.
2025 End of a cycle and birth of Poker France Belgique.
2007 · birth ◆ 2009 · first live ◆ 2014 · the Monster ◆ 2024 · 3 rooms ◆ 2025 · PB becomes PFB ◆ End 2026 · partnership Circus Poker
The spirit of the adventure
A story of passion, resilience and adaptation.
Poker Belgique has never been just a tournament organiser. From the start, the project was built around a strong idea: create a meeting point for players, build a solid community and develop the sector.
Over the years, PB then PFB have seen attendance records, major partnerships, several locations, crises, closures and genuine rebirths.
But the engine has remained the same: poker, the players and the desire to build.
Key moments
Five dates to understand everything.
The major turning points of PB then PFB. Each date leads to its chapter of the timeline.
Some visual markers
From forums to festivals, rooms to the relaunch.
Common thread
A community first, structures later.
It is precisely this human base that has allowed the adventure to survive the years, the crises and the sector’s changes.
The timeline
The major steps of PB / PFB.
2007
The genesis.
The idea Poker Belgique appears in 2007, at the height of poker’s boom. After an evening, a student called Leandro imagines a forum for Belgian poker enthusiasts.
The idea is unifying: bring players together, allow them to discuss poker and especially get to know each other.
The forum is created in one night. On 5 April 2007, the story of Poker Belgique begins.
An adventure that starts almost artisanally, with an idea and lots of drive.
2008
The real beginnings.
With Sébastien P., Leandro takes part in a poker expo organised in Gembloux to promote the forum and meet the community.
For 48 hours, registrations keep coming, sit and go tournaments are organised and the two friends tirelessly promote the idea Poker Belgique.
The project’s dynamism eventually catches Winamax’s attention, which offers a partnership. Poker Belgique now has a growing community and a first online partner.
2008 : Poker Belgique truly begins to exist in the poker landscape.
2009
The start of live.
Ludovic C., Jonathan K., Ramon S. and Nicolas V. gradually join the project.
The staff now wants to organise its own live events. The non-profit Poker Belgique is created on 23 July 2009.
On 8 August 2009, Poker Belgique organises its first live freeroll. The Winamax partnership is then replaced by Everest Poker, with several challenges allowing some members to go play in Las Vegas, Valencia or the Canary Islands.
The shift from virtual to live permanently changes the project’s trajectory.
2010 → 2012
The tough years… but foundational.
The evolution of the online market triggers the end of the partnership with Everest. Poker Belgique now focuses more on live.
Regular events often attract more than 100 players, and it is during this period that the spirit of Poker Belgique is truly built.
After several major meetings, the staff decides to have a base. A room opens in Anderlues on 1 January 2012.
Activities multiply, as do poker travel projects. It is also the birth of Team Poker Belgique.
Anderlues becomes one of the first real anchors of the project.
2013
Poker Belgique arrives at the Namur Casino.
The staff gradually decides to professionalise its activity.
The Namur Casino sees in Poker Belgique a partner capable of revitalising its poker room. On 6 August 2013, PB becomes the casino’s official resident.
The first Poker Belgique Festival exceeds 500 players in the Main Event and over 1,000 participants throughout the week.
A change of scale is under way.
The Namur Casino gives Poker Belgique new visibility and a new standing.
2014
Professionalisation.
Poker Belgique develops its network and works in particular with Kings Casino Rozvadov.
The Poker Belgique Masters, with €100,000 guaranteed, firmly places the project in another dimension.
But 2014 mainly marks the birth of the classics: the Monday, the Big One, the PB Masters and especially the Monster.
With 980 entries in its Main Event, the Monster then sets an attendance record in Belgium.
Poker Belgique gradually moves from club status to that of a recognised poker event organiser.
2015
Soignies and new records.
A second Poker Room opens in Soignies. The project thus regains a real foothold outside a casino.
Attendance rises throughout the year, while the major events continue.
The Monster then reaches 1,108 entries in the Main Event and 262 in the High Roller.
A new stage is reached in the history of Poker Belgique.
2015 combines territorial expansion and attendance records.
2017 → 2022
The difficult years… again.
In 2019, Poker Belgique has to close the Namur room.
Leandro then concentrates part of his activity at the Spa Casino, which entrusts him with reviving its poker room after the good results of the 2018 EPS.
Soignies also reopens and new partnerships appear, notably with Casino Aš and Banco Casino Bratislava.
Then Covid arrives. Activity in Spa stops and Soignies has to be put on hold.
A new momentum was beginning to emerge. The health crisis abruptly halted it.
2022 → 2023
The rebirth.
After the health crisis, Poker Belgique can finally resume its activities in full.
The change in regulation concerning buy-in outside casinos in January 2023 profoundly reshapes the Belgian landscape.
Poker Belgique, which played a major part in the initiatives that led to this development, now finds a sustained pace.
The community exceeds 11,000 members and new projects are emerging.
After several difficult years, live poker is regaining momentum.
2023
The sector is entering the era of the “multi‑room”.
From 2023 onwards, the Belgian scene is evolving very quickly. The multiplication of projects and venues creates far more intense competition.
A new model is developing: the multi‑room. The main operators now aim to be present simultaneously in several regions.
To stay competitive in this environment, Poker Belgique must in turn adapt its strategy and prepare a broader network.
At the same time, the Monster continues to grow. It is gradually evolving towards the broader concept of Monster Expérience, mixing poker, entertainment, meetings and content.
2023 therefore marks a double turning point: the rebirth of live poker and the start of a new territorial development race.
2023: the Monster continues its evolution while the Belgian market gradually moves into a multi‑room logic.
2024
The pinnacle: three rooms and ever larger events.
In 2024, Poker Belgique reaches a new milestone.
In Fontaine‑l’Évêque, PB settles on the prestigious site of the Ferme du Château, a particularly complete environment with poker room, restaurant, tavern, accommodation and online studio.
At the same time, an establishment is developing in Ath with the help of franchisees.
With Charleroi, Fontaine‑l’Évêque and Ath, Poker Belgique then reaches its structural apex with three poker rooms.
The Monster has now become Monster Expérience. The editions are growing, notably at the Van der Valk in Charleroi and at the CEME, with guests, partners, entertainment, games, stands and conferences.
2024 represents the height of the PB model: three locations, major events and visibility never before achieved.
2024 marks the golden age of the multi‑room period: Fontaine‑l’Évêque, major gatherings and a rise in overall strength.
2024 · Ath
A new establishment in western Hainaut.
The multi‑room development also passes through Ath, where Poker Belgique relies on a franchise system.
This establishment confirms PB’s desire to have a wider network and to be present in several player catch‑areas.
Ath thus becomes one of the symbols of this rapid expansion period.
Ath then completes the network and fully materialises the multi‑room strategy.
2025
The dark year.
After the euphoria of expansion comes the most difficult period in recent history for Poker Belgique.
For various structural, economic and organisational reasons, the model gradually becomes harder to sustain.
The Ath room closes, then it is Soignies’ turn.
Only the Poker Room in Charleroi remains. However, the climate, market pressure and extremely strong competition also eventually take their toll on this last location.
The Charleroi room closes in turn. An era ends.
The multi‑room development had been a response to market evolution. In 2025, that same market became so tight that the model is no longer sustainable in its previous form.
2025: expansion gives way to a thorough overhaul, up to the closure of the last historic stronghold.
October 2025
PB is dead. Long live PFB!
The disappearance of the last rooms could have been the final point of an adventure that began in 2007.
But after nearly 17 years devoted to the sector, Leandro refuses to leave poker on a bad note.
With several early supporters, notably Meggy, alias “Pink Fish”, a new adventure takes shape.
Poker Belgique now belongs to history. A new banner appears: Poker France Belgique.
The new room meets immediate success. It opens 7 days a week, with regular tournaments, special events and festivals.
The Monster also returns, in a deliberately more reasonable and sustainable format, but with the same DNA.
The relaunch under the Poker France Belgique banner immediately gets back on solid foundations: an active room, real momentum and an audience present.
2026
Hit, but certainly not sunk.
2026 begins in the continuity of the relaunch, but the year holds for PFB the gravest mishap known in the combined history of Poker Belgique and Poker France Belgique.
An armed robbery forces the organisation to close the room for about a month.
A very hard blow, but not the end of the story.
The room then reopens its doors. The staff returns with even stronger motivation, new projects and a Monster in preparation.
After a major trial, PFB gets back on its feet, reopens and goes on with the will to build even stronger.
End of 2026
A new chapter with Circus Poker.
The next stage of the story is written with a new partnership with Circus Poker.
The aim is to gradually build a network of partner rooms across Belgium, while relying on the experience accumulated by PFB in organising and running live poker.
The first announced location is Chapelle, with a start planned for November 2026.
After almost two decades of transformations, the project thus returns to what has always been its engine: creating venues, bringing players together and continuing to evolve the experience.
The story continues: what started in 2007 as a simple forum is now a new network built around Poker France Belgique and its partners.
Almost twenty years of evolution
Adapting without losing its DNA.
Forums, online partnerships, first organisations, casinos, attendance records, rooms, Monster, health crisis, multi‑room, closures, renaissance and new network: the setting has changed enormously. What has never changed is the desire to create play, spark meetings and build a community around poker.
Back to the origins
One last video for the road?
Here is the first video made for Poker Belgique by Sébastien Koszulap. A memory of a time when everything was still to be built and which reminds how important the journey travelled is.
The video loads from YouTube (youtube-nocookie.com) when you start it.
2007 → today
The story changes name. The passion remains the same.
Poker Belgique now belongs to the history that built the project. Poker France Belgique writes today its continuation: a lively room, regular tournaments, the return of the Monster, new partnerships and new projects across Belgium.