Timing is Crucial
My fellow Dutch News columnist Peter Dalhuijsen is becoming more feared at the poker tables every week. This is mostly because of his timing - timing on and off the tables, mind you, since he is constantly winning tournaments during the
months in which I write for
Card Player, making him look good and at the same time not too full of himself, since it wasn't he who reported on another win by "de Dal." I wrote about Peter taking back-to-back wins and back-to-back-to-back final tables at the
Summer Classics in Utrecht two months ago, and this month I find myself forced to write about him again after his win at the
Dutch Poker Open.
Peter, at the final of the unofficial
Dutch Championship, bested 38 players from a selection of 13 preliminary rounds of 60 players each. This puts the total of scalps, technically, at 779. Dalhuijsen is the successor of fellow pokercollege.nl administrator Steven ten Cate, who won it last year, and Rolf Slotboom, who was the Dutch champion two years ago. He took home the relatively modest sum of €31,374, a monster of a cup, and a ticket to the main event of the
Master Classics of Poker in Amsterdam, but what is far more important, he will be referred to as "Dutch Champion" for the year to come.
Poker in the Media
With poker hype at its peak, new television programs about our game are still popping up. I recently learned that the development time for a TV program is up to two years for producers, so kudos for their timing, too. Lately the shows have gotten more of a reality show character than of a real poker program. The latest in the series is Vegas Voyage, which follows a group of young poker players on their trip across the United States. The idea is for them to pay for the trip from cash they earn while playing poker, against each other or in the local games that they pass.
If it weren't for the obligated assignments and complete lack of poker skill with most of the contestants, it would probably have made for a decent show. Now it's like watching Big Brother - OK, in fairness, it's like watching that episode of
Big Brother in which Rolf Slotboom shows up to teach everyone poker! Luckily, Dutch media firm RTL has just bought the rights to broadcast the
World Poker Tour, and it looks like it will be broadcast on "free" basic television, so we will at least have one more choice on those free nights spent at home.
Master Classics of Poker
The
Master Classics of Poker was played again, as it has become customary, at the beginning of November. Bigger than ever, Holland Casino Amsterdam was ready to break some records. The tables were crammed into the place, allowing for more players and bigger paydays. The most notable Dutch finishes were: Marc Naalden (first in the €1,000 rebuy for €160,640), Noah Boeken (fourth in the €5,000 main event for €131,900 and second in the €200 rebuy for €28,836), Peter Meere (second in the €1,000 rebuy for €90,360), Abel Meijberg (first in the pot-limit Omaha €300 rebuy for €75,552), Daniel Smidt (first in the €300 rebuy for €74,493), and Michel Vat (first in the €200 rebuy for €51,264).
The Dutch were going strong on home turf, with five out of the seven events going to Dutch players. Sadly for us, the main event once again was won by a foreigner - in this case, Norwegian Trond Eidsvig. After last year, when German Ali Jalali took it after futile resistance from the Dutch, we were all hoping for one of our stars to win at home this year, but the Dutch at the final table - Noah Boeken and Joris Jaspers - came a few coin flips short. Eidsvig is on a roll in Europe: He reached final tables in the
European Poker Tour both in Dublin in October and in Barcelona in August of this year. In Amsterdam, he took down €620,600 after beating Michael Martin, from the United States, heads up.
All in all, it has been a good edition of the
MCOP, when it comes to booking results for the Netherlands. The various forums are full of congratulatory shout-outs, and rightly so. On the atmosphere part, the general consensus was that the
MCOP is becoming less sociable. I suppose that was bound to happen after a few years in which the number of participants grew consistently and significantly - for instance, from 345 for the main event last year to 428 this year - but it is still a shame for the tournament that has always been well-known in Europe for its ambiance. A Dutchman might have to stand up next year to take the main prize and restore the atmosphere. If I'm reporting, keep an eye on Dalhuijsen.
Anthon-Pieter Wink is a writer for www.pokerinfo.nl.
