Looking back on the Master Classics of Poker
Of course, all Dutch eyes were on the 15th
Master Classics of Poker in November, which - as expected - broke all records again. More foreign players than ever before made the trip to Amsterdam, so the total prize money of all events combined exceeded €3 million for the first time. For the main event, the maximum number of players was increased from 270 to 350, and just in time, at that, because at 345 participants, it was just a few missed planes short of a sellout.
To celebrate the 15th anniversary of the
Master Classics of Poker, Holland Casino awarded nine seats into next year's
World Series of Poker to the finalists. On top of that, the house took no entry fee out of the €5,000 buy-in, and added €45,000 in prize money for places 19 to 27, but this already has been standard practice in past years. The players also were extremely content to find that the tournament was extended to last four whole days, creating a structure that even outdoes the
EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo.
Add the excellent structure to all the added prize money, and this might very well have been the best tournament in the world for players who like to think in terms of expected value. Although I did hear some Scandinavian voices complain that the tournament took way too long, those complaints were of course easily ignored.
And there was another exciting development this year: For the first time, there was a Dutch TV crew present to film the entire main event, including a featured table, which was broadcasted nationwide in four episodes, only one day after it was recorded. All of this got dozens of Dutch players to line up around the block to sign up for the main event, especially since all of the smaller hold'em events were already sold out for weeks, and they all wanted their shot at their 15 minutes of fame, even if it would cost them €5,000.
So, for the first time, the largest portion of the field was Dutch, which yielded high expectations with the orange-minded crowd, but, naturally, it was not to be. Only Rolf Slotboom, who started the final day as the chip leader, and Jorryt van Hoof, who was leading the tournament from the start and deep into the third day, managed to reach the final table, but they had to settle for a disappointing fifth and seventh place, respectively.
The €690,000 first prize was taken across the eastern border by the young, talented German player Alex Jalali, who pretty much secured the victory when he beat Rolf's A-K with an A-K of his own, by finding four spades on the board. If you ever wanted to hear an entire casino explode, you should've been there.
Looking back, there can be some improvements still; for instance, the payout structure was way to steep, considering the way the fields have grown. The fact that you will find 70 percent of the total prize pool for the final three spots is not so uncommon, but paying only 18 places when there were 345 participants did raise a couple of professional eyebrows. High expectancy might be a good thing for professional players, but only when combined with a somewhat lower variance.
The staff assured me that they will change this next year, so now all they have to do is give the announcers a couple of English lessons to really leave me with nothing to complain about. But I'm sure I will have found something else by then. What can I do? I'm Dutch; it's in my blood.
Police raid private tournament
In other news, the entire Dutch poker community was shocked when the police brutally raided a private tournament in the third week of November. The Dutch government has clearly started to enforce its policy toward illegal gambling activities, since Holland Casino is the only institution allowed to offer games of chance, to which poker still belongs, unfortunately.
Apparently, they expected to find a huge underground gambling operation of some kind, since they barged in with more than 40 officers, all armed to the teeth, wearing bulletproof vests, and topped off with a couple of attack dogs to make a lasting impression. They were extremely disappointed to come across only eight poker tables, where 80 students were playing an innocent €20 tournament.
To compensate for this embarassment, after the players had to sit there with their hands on their heads for at least 20 minutes, the three organizers were taken for questioning and put behind bars at the local police station for the allowed maximum of 72 hours, where they awaited the charges, which they still haven't received.
But in the end it worked, in that this whole affair scared a lot of people out of organizing and hosting private tournaments. Immediately, dozens of tournaments were cancelled, or at least hidden from the public eye.
By enforcing the monopoly of Holland Casino in this way, the consequences are obvious and somewhat frightening. Poker enthusiasts with small bankrolls, who want to play live instead of online, are forced to go play at Holland Casino, where you can't get anything better than a €50 rebuy tournament with a horrible structure, making poker truly a game of chance. These players will often be playing above their limits, and many of them will end up with depleted bankrolls, never to return to this beautiful game again, or will start borrowing money to be able to play again the following week, which is even worse.
The other solution is visiting the smaller underground tournaments, which the government has outlawed but has trouble finding now, since the organizers all took down their websites out of fear of another one of those special visits.
And then, when nobody except an invited few know about a game, we'll go back to ancient times of playing cards in secret clubs and shabby basements, which all sorts of unsavory types tend to frequent.
This, unfortunately, has already begun. A couple of weeks ago, one of these private tournaments was hijacked by a couple of shady characters who pulled an old-fashioned holdup and took off with the entire prize pool, leaving the chip leaders with nothing left to play for but a story.
A new age of prohibition appears to have begun in Holland. Let's all hope that European legislators can do something about it, before it leads to a helpless government that's violently battling large underground poker syndicates, complete with bosses, henchmen, bribes, dirty cops, and a couple of "Untouchables" ambushing bookkeepers at railway stations.
At least I know what my wish is for the new year.
Peter Dalhuijsen is a professional poker player who writes for PokerCollege.nl.
