When I Was A Donk – Marcel Luske

In this series, Card Player asks top pros to rewind back to their humble beginnings and provide insights regarding the mistakes, leaks, and deficiencies that they had to overcome in order to improve their games.

Marcel Luske, otherwise known as the Flying Dutchman, worked in nightclubs and even owned a bar before finding poker. The colorful character opened a card club in Belgium before turning pro himself, traveling all over Europe to play the game.

Luske appeared on the British television show Late Night Poker before breaking out in Las Vegas in 2003 with a win at the Bellagio Five-Star World Poker Classic for $67,512 and a 14th-place finish in the World Series of Poker main event for another $65,000. The very next year, he returned to the WSOP, and finished second in the $5,000 stud event for $120,800, and went deep in the main event yet again, earning $373,000 for tenth place.

In total, Luske has racked up nearly $5 million in career live tournament earnings, which includes 33 live tournament titles, and seven WSOP final tables. Now 65-years-old, Luske is still playing the game at a high level. In 2017, he finished 23rd in the WSOP main event, earning $263,532, and earlier this year, he finished second in a partypoker MILLIONS Germany high roller for $224,635.

Here, Luske talks about discovering a new game for the first time.

“One hand that stood out was the first time I played pot-limit Omaha. I was playing in a casino just outside of Amsterdam. I was used to hold’em, but they were playing this four-card game that was totally new to me.”

“I had played all sorts of poker games up to that point in my home club, but never Omaha. So I wasn’t too sure about the rules. I remember one hand where I was convinced that I had a full house, only to be told that I couldn’t use three cards from my hand. I think I had something like K-10-10-X on a board with a king and ten, and ended up losing because the board didn’t pair.”

“This happened in a tournament. Earlier in the tournament, I had actually flopped quad tens. This was legitimate quads, I had two in my hand. The flop was 10-10-9 with two diamonds. I ended up playing this big pot with an older woman, and the river was the K. Well you can see where this story is going. I bet, she called, and said she had a straight. I showed my quads, and she turned over Q J for a rivered straight flush.”

“It took me a couple of days to recover from that one, because in hindsight, it seems so obvious. Of course you could only use two cards! But interestingly, I later introduced Omaha to the players at my club, and we decided to play it where you could use all of your cards to make the best hand. Some real crazy games. If you had four spades in your hand, then you only needed one spade on board to make a flush, things like that.”

“We would play a lot of dealer’s choice, and often invented games on the spot that were a lot of fun. Things like double flops, criss cross, eight-card, etc. So there was always action in the game.” ♠