Dutch News

Holland Casino Series of Poker

The final few months before the start of the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, a number of tournament festivals were being held across the country at various locations of Holland Casino.

After two successful festivals in March, at the Holland Casinos of Venlo and Rotterdam, Holland Casino Nijmegen hosted its Pokervierdaagse, which consisted of four tournaments. This relatively small casino did a great job in creating the capacity for these events, so that the 98 players that played the main event, which was a €750 no-limit hold'em freezeout, didn't have any seating problems.

After two days of play, it was Dutch rounder Stefan "Stealing" Stijsiger who took down the first-place prize of €26,460 and the beautiful trophy, which will remind him of this sweet victory long after the money has been spent.

From May 5 to 11, it was Holland Casino Enschede's turn to show what it could do, when it hosted its annual tournament series for the third time. The Twente Series of Poker was renamed to Twente Classics and again had some great events with excellent structures.

The team event was something special, as the 67 couples that participated had dozens of big name Dutch players among them, all of whom wanted to be part of this unique event.

The structure was beyond great. It took two full days to get down to the heads-up stage, where Rob Hollink showed that he is indeed the heads-up pot-limit Omaha expert that everybody says he is, after his sister and teammate Clementine had laid the groundwork in the previous no-limit hold'em level by eliminating two other teams.

"Team Hollink" won €12,060 for its efforts. Everybody expressed their hope that this event will be repeated next year, because the tournament itself was just as special the atmosphere at the rail.

The €200 no-limit hold'em with rebuys was won by the strong Thijs Wessels (€17,856), who made up for his disappointing ninth place finish in the €2,100 main event, which was won by Daniel Smidt. With his fearless aggression, Smidt dominated the main event final table from the start, and once again showed that he is one of Holland's greatest poker talents, after winning the €300 no-limit hold'em with rebuys at the Master Classics of Poker last November. He beat local favorite Coen Bakker heads up for the victory and took down the first-place prize money of €63,360.

After coming so close to victory in Enschede, Coen Bakker felt that he had something to set straight. The first opportunity came at the North Sea Poker Classics, which were held at Holland Casino Scheveningen from May 27 to 31, and he seized it with both hands.

Bakker triumphed in the main event, a €750 no-limit hold'em freezeout, and won another €32,288 to finish out an excellent month.

In the side events, there were also no flukes, as Germany's Michael Dürrer won the €300 freezeout (€10,800), while the €400 freezeout was easy prey for Kevin Vreeswijk (€16,800), and Naïm Tahan took down the €250 with rebuys (€13,500).

New Schedule for Master Classics of Poker

Of course, the largest and most prestigious tournament festival in Holland will always be the Master Classics of Poker in Amsterdam. To prepare for this coming November, the tournament directors sat down with a number of players and used their feedback to come up with an entirely revamped tournament schedule.

The series will run from Nov. 7 to 15, with a total of six events, and, of course, a super satellite. The first two events will be no-limit hold'em and pot-limit Omaha semi-freezeouts, both with a €1,000 buy-in and one optional rebuy or add-on.

On the Monday, there will be a €300 no-limit hold'em with rebuys, which is only one of two events that were also was part of last year's schedule -- instead of the usual rebuy tournaments, the final four events are all freezeouts.

The main event will start on the Tuesday, and will have a slightly increased buy-in of €6,000, with the field capped at 400 players. From Thursday onward, there will be a €2,500 freezeout, a €500 freezeout, and a €300 speed freezeout to end the series, replacing the infamous one-day crapshoot event -- the €100 with rebuys.

Registration for the Master Classics started on May 13, so don't wait to reserve your seat, because most of the events will be guaranteed sellouts. You can register online at www.masterclassicsofpoker.com.

All in all, this year's Master Classics of Poker again looks like it's going to be a series of events that everybody in Europe will want to be part of. Make sure you don't miss it.

Peter Dalhuijsen is a professional poker player who writes for pokercollege.nl.