Pierre "The SerialPokerstarsQualifier" Neuville

A player who has truly used the benefits of online poker to make an impact in the live tournament poker world, Pierre Neuville continues to be a stalwart of the European poker scene.

A veteran of fifty years of poker, Pierre – who calls Knokke-heist, Belgium, home – is a successful businessman who got his start designing board games. In the 1990s, he left his Vice President’s position at a major toy company to become a personal advisor to European sports stars and celebrities. While enjoying that part of his life, Pierre had a desire to pursue the game of poker, something that he did once retiring from the business world.

Pierre’s first tournament score came in 2007 at the Belgian Poker Championships. In a €1500 NLHE tournament, Neuville came in 31^st out of the 800 player field to earn his first cash of €5022. Buoyed by this success, Pierre would expand his tournament horizons by heading into the international tournament poker scene, earning his first European Poker Tour and World Series of Poker cashes in 2008.

2008 also marked Pierre’s first foray into online poker. Under the name “Zoutechamp,” Neuville became a force in $100 NLHE tournaments on PokerStars. He would earn his largest ever online tournament cash of $11,739 for his victory in one of PokerStars $55 NLHE rebuy events in April 2011 and has made over $157,000 in his online poker career. Where Pierre has had the most success, however, is in the satellite qualifiers on PokerStars to EPT tournaments.

Pierre currently holds the record for most consecutive EPT events qualified for through PokerStars satellites, which is at 23 tournaments and counting as of July 2011. He qualified for every stop on the EPT Seventh Season and was awarded the PokerStars’ EPT Online Qualifier of the Year award during the Sixth Season of the EPT (Pierre was the runner up for the award for Season Seven). Neuville is also the oldest member of Team PokerStars Pro.

Neuville has not wasted those hard earned satellite seats over the years. He finished in ninth place at the 2009 EPT San Remo and nearly captured the championship of the 2009 EPT Vilamoura, finishing second to Antonio Matias for his largest live tournament score (as of July 2011) of €257,681. He has gone on to cash in eight more EPT tournaments while adding in seven more WSOP cashes, including three at the 2011 festival.

For his career, Pierre has four tournament wins, fourteen final tables and 33 cashes to his credit. His lifetime earnings currently sit at $930,882 and, along with his online earnings, he has earned over $1 million from tournament poker.

While he may play under the name “Zoutechamp” online, PokerStars itself has dedicated a new nickname to Pierre – “The Serial PokerStars Qualifier!” Perhaps Neuville’s attitude towards life and poker is best summed up by Online Poker Magazine’s John “JohnnyQuads” Wentzel, who said in an article about Pierre, “Pierre Neuville is an anomaly. He is retired, he’s fun, he always has a good word for everyone, he doesn’t have a huge ego, he always has a good time at the tables and he wins. It seems Pierre will enjoy poker for eternity.”