Belgian poker legend Pierre Neuville has died at the age of 83 following a battle with prostate cancer.
Neuville became one of the most recognizable figures in European poker during a remarkable second act to his career, competing at the highest level well into his 70s.
His greatest tournament moment came at the 2015 World Series of Poker Main Event, where he reached poker’s most famous final table and eventually finished seventh for $1,203,293.
It was the largest score of his career, but Neuville’s reputation had already been established long before his run in Las Vegas.
From Business Career to the European Poker Tour
Neuville’s route into professional poker was unusual.
Born in Belgium in 1943, he enjoyed a successful business career before turning his attention increasingly towards poker later in life.
After retiring from business, he became a regular presence on the European Poker Tour and developed an extraordinary reputation for qualifying for major tournaments through online satellites.
That persistence earned him the nickname “The Serial PokerStars Qualifier.”
Neuville reportedly qualified online for 23 consecutive EPT Main Events, repeatedly turning comparatively small satellite entries into seats at some of Europe’s largest tournaments.
His results eventually proved that he belonged there.
Twice an EPT Main Event Runner-Up
Neuville came agonizingly close to becoming an EPT Main Event champion on two occasions.
His first runner-up finish arrived at EPT Vilamoura in 2009, where he collected €257,681.
Three years later he went even closer to another major title at EPT Copenhagen, finishing second for DKK 1,600,000.
Those performances established Neuville as far more than an entertaining veteran who had discovered tournament poker late in life.
He was capable of competing against generations of players who had grown up studying online poker.
That longevity became one of the defining features of his career.
Neuville Makes History at the WSOP Main Event
Nothing, however, compared with his run in the 2015 WSOP Main Event.
Neuville survived one of the largest and toughest fields in poker to become part of that year’s November Nine.
At 72, he became the oldest player ever to reach the delayed November Nine version of the WSOP Main Event final table.
Neuville entered the final table fourth in chips with more than 21 million and ultimately finished seventh.
His $1.2 million payout remains the biggest recorded tournament cash of his career.
The achievement also gave Neuville a permanent place in WSOP history.
The Main Event remains the tournament by which poker careers are often remembered. Even in 2026, reaching its final table can transform a player’s profile overnight, as this year’s WSOP Main Event finalists discovered in Las Vegas.
Neuville reached that stage when most professional players of his generation had long since stopped competing.
A Poker Career Built on Longevity
Neuville continued playing tournaments after his Main Event breakthrough and accumulated millions of dollars in recorded live winnings during his career.
His story was particularly unusual because so much of that success arrived relatively late in his life.
Poker has produced plenty of young champions, particularly since the online era transformed how quickly players can learn and accumulate experience.
Neuville represented something very different.
He demonstrated that experience, patience and competitiveness could still carry a player deep into elite tournaments decades after most people would have considered retirement.
That made him a familiar and popular presence throughout European poker.
His death removes another recognizable figure from an era that helped bridge the traditional European poker circuit and the modern online generation.
Pierre Neuville was 83.
