Vive La France!

Colorful Vivian Anseline beats Roy “The Boy” Brindley heads up – in an absolutely thrilling “Grand Finale” with no less than three Frenchmen among the last five

By Rolf “Ace” Slotboom

Sometimes even an experienced poker reporter can get surprised by an unexpected turnaround. While yours truly is used to the fact that in tournaments short stacks can get back into contention at the turn of a single card, or see chipleaders lose their massive stacks in no-time, it is a rather unusual occurrence to see an entire atmosphere at the table change 100% - change 100% in a positive manner, that is. Today we had one of these rare tables. While the first couple of hours in the €300+20 pot-limit Omaha final absolutely nothing happened, the final two hours of this exact same event were nothing short of thrilling and exciting. And the people who hadn’t said a word before, were now suddenly laughing, joking and cheering. So, what happened?

Well, as I said, in the beginning not all that much. With the blinds at just 2000-4000, the money was quite deep, and there was not much talking – let alone any action. The only raises came from people who had aces, and the only guys who would initiate any kind of action with less-than-premium hands were Roy Brindley and Benjamin Kang. The chipleader Gilles Haddad even came in late because he “had been showering”, and he slowly but surely lost the big stack that he had started with at the beginning of the final.

Start of a pattern

After 33 hands of small-pot poker, the action started in hand 34. Frenchman Vivian Anseline had not said a word yet, and also had not played a hand. But then, in a blinds only confrontation, he called small blind Roy’s pot raise while holding a JJ97 single-suited, against what turned out to be aces for the Boy. On a flop T72 rainbow, the Irishman bet pot, and Vivian called all-in with his pair + overpair + gutshot. A typical example of the common Omaha situation where (both before, and on the flop) someone just cannot get away from a more-than-decent, but still second-best hand. At least that’s the way Roy viewed this situation, because when a 7 came on the turn to give Vivian the pot, Roy left the table in disgust – and wasn’t even back in time to play his button.

And then, an hour or so later, basically the same thing happened. This time, with blinds 4000-8000, it was Vivian who had raised the pot to 28K with J♠J♣T♠2♣. When he got reraised by Eddy Scharf’s obvious higher pair, Vivian decided to go for it, calling the 69K total all-in bet from the German. Eddy tabled AKK5 double-suited in hearts and diamonds, and thus hit a set when the flop came A♣K♠7♣. But the Frenchman had actually flopped a very good draw, even more so after the turn 4♠. Vivian now had no less than two live flush draws, and also any queen would give him a straight. And indeed, to the joy of the French audience, the 9♣ came on the river. For the second time this final, Vivian Anseline had won a massive pot with a good but second-best holding. But having won both these pots he was in great shape now – and the tone was set for the rest of the final.

On our way to the inevitable clash Brindley – Anseline

After Herbert Otto and Alan Otte had busted out, it was Roy who eliminated the impressive Benjamin Kang from Germany. In the last hand before the dinner break, Benjamin had made it 25K to go, only to see Roy reraise the pot to 79K from the big blind. Again, it seemed clear Roy had aces, and Benjamin decided to call with what I presumed to be a rundown type of hand like QJT9 or T987. The flop came ATT, and now Roy bet extremely small, 20K, a bet that said: “Hey, I either have the aces, or I am trying for a very cheap bluff.” Ben called, and then checked it back when a blank came on the turn and Roy decided not to bet. On the river, a queen came, and now Roy put his opponent all-in. Benjamin sensed that he was beat, knew Roy’s play throughout the hand had been consistent with aces, but still decided to call the 62K total. He got shown bullets, and we were off to dinner without the strong German.

And then right after the break, we had another highly interesting hand. In an unraised blinds-only confrontation, Roy bet the pot, 16K, on a flop A♣J♥8♥. The Frenchman thought for a while and then made something of an “aggressive call”, matching the opponent’s bet by smashing his chips on the table very forcefully. This exact same pattern repeated after the turn 5♣, where again Vivian tried to intimidate and impress the (what he viewed to be) somewhat sensitive-to-tilt Brindley by smashing his chips into the pot. Of course, all of this to the joy of the mainly French audience. And when the river K♦ indeed had given Vivian the nuts with his Q♥T♥J♦3♣, and he was able to make the Boy pay off 41K, the Frenchman expressed his joy so loudly, that I was eager to see if indeed the Boy would start steaming after all this pressure put on him by his opponent.

But there was no telling whether or not Brindley was in fact vulnerable after losing this pot, as just two hands later, he picked up a monster hand, aces – and eliminated no less than two players on one hand with that hand. Facing a pot raise from short stack Gilles Haddad’s QJT9ss and a pot reraise from David Winston’s KKQ8ss, Roy found aces in the big blind. He came over the top for all his money, both players called all-in, and then the board A74TA gave him no less than quad aces. Suddenly we were down to three, the chip counts being:

· Roy Brindley 351K

· Vivian Anseline 353K

· Fabrice Bismuth 134K

All in all, we now had two Frenchmen who had a large (and loud) crowd support, while Roy Brindley only had Simon Trumper, Simon Nowab & Andy Black cheering for him. Still, the French played it in a correct and sportsmanlike manner, and were not trying to squeeze Roy in any way. In fact it was Fabrice who even got eliminated by his own fellow countryman. On the turn J659, small blind Vivian loudly exclaimed “Pot!”, but despite this obvious giveaway of a huge hand, his fellow countryman Fabrice raised all-in. Vivian of course called with 87 for the nut straight – but with KQT8, Fabrice had a big hand of his own: a decent wraparound higher straight draw, for lots of outs. The board paired on the river though, eliminating Fabrice, and giving us the heads up battle we had all looked forward to: the battle between the two guys-with-a-history. The stacks: 349K for Roy, and 490K for Vivian – with the blinds still just 5K-10K.

Fast and furious heads up battle brings victory to the French

Even though especially Fabrice had tried to put Roy on tilt a bit throughout the event, the two quickly reached an agreement to save a bit of money, knowing that first place was twice as much as second. But as especially Roy was very eager to win the special Master Classics plate and take the honors of winning the event, by no means did the heads up phase turn into a simple shove-it-in fest. Quite the contrary: Despite the fact that Fabrice had obviously been having a few drinks in the past couple of hours, both players continued to play fast-but-hard poker. And probably most important of all: It was incredibly exciting to watch!

The chips went back and forth, with many preflop raises from especially the strong Roy. The Irishman also won a pot when he decided to play a flopped set of aces creatively by just check-calling the flop, to then bet out on the turn when a dangerous straight card fell. Despite getting called, his three aces proved good to give him the lead. And he even increased this lead somewhat by winning a few pots uncontested after the flop. But then Vivian fought back with an absolutely stunning move.

In an unraised pot, the flop came Q♠5♣3♠. When Roy bet out 20K, small blind / button Vivian said “OK, my friend”, and then called. When the turn came 9♥, Roy again bet the pot (60K), and as before the Frenchman called. Before the river card came, Roy looked away from the table, and looking at the board I was thinking along with him: “Gee, not a single blank left in the deck.” That’s when a queen came on the river, a card that almost certainly could not have improved Vivian’s hand. After all, assuming that the Frenchman had been drawing, this card was as much of a brick as Roy could have hoped for. Roy bet out 60K, and while I expected Vivian to fold, he took his time, and calmly started counting his chips. Not in the forceful manner that he had used before to move his chips – no very, very calmly. After more than one minute of thinking, he finally said: “100,000 more”, and calmly pushed in twelve 5,000 chips plus five stacks of green. Knowing that Vivian had not made any kinds of moves up to that point, Roy immediately decided to fold – only to get shown a KT74 for a total bluff! Vivian pumped his fists in the air, and the people in the audience went crazy. And quite correctly so, as the Frenchman’s timing and execution of this bluff had been absolutely flawless.

And two hands later, it was all over. In again a raised pot, Roy had bet the pot 60K on a flop 9♣5♠4♠ with the A♠K♦8♠2♦ for the nut flush draw plus an inside straight draw. Even before he had the chips in, Vivian had already exclaimed: “Raise the pot!” When Roy started contemplating, the Frenchman even started needling his opponent a bit, saying “Don’t be a girl – stick it in!” Roy then obliged by indeed moving all-in for about 300K with his premium draw. But Vivian had a good hand of his own, 9654 for top two pair plus an open-ended straight, and actually was a favorite to win the pot. The turn 7 even improved his hand to a straight, meaning Roy could only win by catching a spade on the river. But a blank came to give the Frenchman the title, and the almost €100,000 first prize.

So, we had our winner of the only PLO event here at the 2006 Master Classics – Vivian Anseline. Someone who single-handedly had turned a somewhat tedious & boring final into an exciting, thrilling poker show, and who was rewarded for this with a spectacular title.

Final results:

Entrants: 284 (the max. 280 plus 4 alternates)

Rebuys & add-ons: 543

Added prize money: €2700 (buy-ins returned for places 19-27)

Total prize pool: €250,800

1. Vivian Anseline, France, €99,240
2. Roy Brindley, Ireland, €49,620
3. Fabrice Bismuth , France , €24,810
4. David Winston, England, €16,126
5. Gilles Haddad , France , €12,405
6. Benjamin Kang, Germany, €8,683
7. Eddy Scharf, Germany, €6,202
8. Allan Otte, Denmark, €4,962
9. Herbert Otto, Germany, €3,721

Results €200+20 supersatellite (unlimited rebuys + add-on)

With the maximum number of 280 entrants and a large number of alternates, the supersatellite for tomorrow’s €5,000 Main Event was a big success. In fact, as it looks now the biggest event at this Master Classics will be a sell-out – meaning that for the first time in Master Classics history, every event will be full. The 34 qualifiers are:

• W. Westerbeek, Netherlands
• V. Karras, Germany
• R. Cohen, France
• I. Galazan, Thailand
• F. Lari, France
• E. van den Burg, Netherlands
• T. Zablocky, Lithuania
• P. Alterman, Netherlands
• E. Brussianos, Greece
• F. Morhee, Netherlands
• G. de Werd, Netherlands
• R. v.d. Linde, Netherlands
• T. v. Tilburg, Netherlands
• M. Vronskiy, Russia
• K. Anastasyadis, Netherlands
• A. Krause, Germany
• M. Antonsen, Norway
• R. Jelassi, Sweden
• A. Wiersma, Netherlands
• W. Lo, Netherlands
• J.P. Jachtmann, Germany
• R. Shevach
• S. Sagstuen
• T. Caiffa, Netherlands
• H. Liebing, Germany
• K. Callow, England
• I. Liepina, Latvia
• M. Magee, Ireland
• D. Kitai, Belgium
• R. Rapp, Austria
• R. Teke, Netherlands
• A. Temmler, Germany
• J. Shenkman, Netherlands / Israel
• A. Derei, Israel

Beautiful Karsten Bullies His Way To The Title

Strong Dane takes advantage of unusually tight play at the final table to take first major Master Classics title

By Rolf “Ace” Slotboom

After the two days where there were lots of Dutchmen in the final stages, the first really ‘big’ tournament in this Master Classics had just one fellow countryman. It was a strong one, though. Paul van Wijk has recently shown his abilities especially within the Netherlands, but to a lesser degree also in international events. His most recent finish included the second place in the Holland Casino Poker Championships, the semi-official Dutch Championships. Holding an average stack, and with no really big names at this final table who had a lot of chips, I actually thought that Paul would have a decent chance of getting far into this event.

A calm final

While previous final tables had some fast and furious action, today’s final started out unusually slow. The only surprise was the early exit of Osman Mustanoglu, the Turkish Englishman who had started the day second in chips. He got crippled when he lost a coin flop for 72K against David Lacoste, losing with A♠K♠ versus TT, and then lost his remaining 116K when he came over the top of a 60K raise by the very tight Mario Bentivedo. Osman had AQ, but of course he was in bad shape against the Italian’s QQ, and found no help.

And Paul van Wijk also didn’t last long. He lost valuable ammunition when he raised under the gun to 35K with 33, only to get called by the rather loose / aggressive button Jonas Klausen. On a flop 7♣7♦2♣, Paul bet out 35K, but then was unable to call the large raise by the 20-year old Dane. Afterwards, Paul told that it had been a mistake getting involved with this hand in the first place, while to me it seemed that folding the hand postflop may have been the bad decision. This simply because it was quite unlikely the Dane had Paul beat, even more because he had tried to prevent Paul from making his flop bet – usually not a sign of someone holding a powerhouse. Paul lost even more chips when he first raised to 40K with a K♦J♦, and then decided to call David Lacoste’s 125K total all-in raise. David’s A♥T♥ held up, meaning Paul was down to just 29K now. He went all-in for this amount with 88, saw Jonas Klausen call this raise with a K9, and was out when a nine came on the river.

Just before and after these eliminations, we had lost the two short stacks. The first one to go out was Alan Smurfit, who got eliminated by Mario Bentivedo. And the second one was Jean-Bernard Bot. The Frenchman had fought his way into the tournament very well by winning six pots uncontested, simply by moving in for all his chips. The seventh time, he decided that his stack had become large enough, so he now decided to raise to just one fourth of his stack, 35K total. As fate would have it, he instantly got reraised off his hand by Jonas. Down to 100K again, Jean-Bernard then made a move, going all-in from the small blind with a T8. His fellow countryman David Lacoste decided to call from the big blind with AQ – enough to bust out his buddy.

Elimination of aggressive Jonas paves way for Beautiful Karsten to start taking over

The young Jonas Klausen looked very strong to me, and correctly took advantage of the somewhat tight / passive play of some of his opponents. He had already won a few pots uncontested by coming over the top of raises, when he finally ran into that big hand that would cripple him. Having moved all-in to no less than 190K with a mere Q♠J♠, small blind Jan Bendik woke up with pocket kings in the small blind – enough to eliminate the loose / aggressive Dane.

From then on, it was another Dane to take over. Karsten Johansen, a man from Odense and nicknamed “Beautiful Karsten” (allegedly because he finds it very important to look good at the tables) decided to change gears. Seated at a four-handed table where all three of his opponents were waiting for good cards before committing, he simply started robbing them blind. With the blinds at 10K-20K and a 3K ante, he won pot after pot without ever needing to show a hand. At the dinner break, he had accumulated such a chip lead that, especially taking into account the too tight play of his opponents, a victory for him seemed to be just a matter of time. The chip counts at that stage:

• David Lacoste 199,000
• Mario Bentivedo 199,000
• Jan Bendik 405,000
• Karsten Johansen 672,000

Bad fortune in 320,000 pot cannot stop strong Dane from lifting the trophy

And indeed, also after the dinner everything seemed to go strictly according to plan. Karsten’s opponents continued to do what they had done before the break, folding to the Dane’s raises. With the blinds at 15K-30K and a 3K ante, Mario had basically anted himself to death, and was taken out by the chipleader. Now it was time for Karsten to go after the person who had been in that position at the start of the final table, Jan Bendik from Slovakia . Jan finally decided to make a stand against Karsten’s continuous aggression, reraising his 100K raise to 146K all-in from out of the big blind. Jan’s timing seemed a bit off though (even more so because in previous hours he had rarely made any kinds of raises); yet now he committed fully with a Q8 offsuit in a situation where he knew for a fact he was going to be called. But he got away with it: Despite being dominated by Karsten’s QT, he managed to not just split but even scoop the 320,000 pot by catching an 8 on the river.

Karsten then decided to shift his attention to Frenchman David Lacoste. Again getting his money in as the favorite, this time with A9 versus A8, the best hand held up, a nine on the turn clinching things. And heads up, Karsten’s second attempt to eliminate Bendik proved successful. Having made the initial raise to 60K, the man from Odense called the 280K all-in reraise, again being a slight favorite (55 versus the Slovakian’s dead man’s hand A♠8♠). An eight on the flop seemed to get Jan Bendik back in the saddle once again, but a five on the turn gave Karsten Johansen his well-deserved title.

Congratulations to the winner Beautiful Karsten for this excellent win. I don’t know if he really looked beautifully, but he definitely played beautifully. His reward: Almost €200,000 – and of course the honor of winning the first major Master Classics event of this year.

Final results €1000 +20 no-limit hold’em (one optional rebuy):

Entrants: 280

Alternates: 22

Rebuys: 183

Added money by the house: €9,000 (buy-ins returned for places 19-27)

1. Karsten Johansen , Denmark , €194,000
2. Jan Bendik, Slovakia, €97,000
3. David Lacoste, France, €48,500
4. Mario Bentivedo, Italy, €31,525
5. Jonas Klausen, Denmark, €24,250
6. Jean-Bernard Bot, France, €16,975
7. Paul van Wijk, Netherlands, €12,125
8. Osman Mustanoglu , England / Turkey, €9,700
9. Alan Smurfit, USA / Ireland, €7,275

Final table €300+20 pot-limit Omaha (unlimited rebuys)

On the way to the final table in the only pot-limit Omaha here at the Master Classics, many European poker stars were still in. For instance, with just three tables left, we had Mads Andersen, Julian Thew, former winner Arno Weber and Marcel Luske still in contention. Marcel had even gone off to a flying start in this event, having accumulated no less than 42,000 after just three hours of play. But when other stacks got bigger, the Flying Fox couldn’t maintain his lead. And after losing a huge pot in a slightly unfortunate manner, he tried to recoup these losses by becoming extra aggressive – the end result being that he busted out before the real money.

Because real money we have in this event! With a full field of 280 entrants plus even some alternates, first prize will be almost €100,000 – and I have been told that this makes this event the biggest PLO tournament in Europe. Play has been concluded with blinds of only 1500-3000, meaning that at the final table, there is more than enough room for play.

The nine finalists:

1. Roy Brindley, England, 171,400
2. Angeline Vivian, France, 84,900
3. Eddy Scharf, Germany, 85,000
4. Benjamin Kang, Germany, 84,800
5. Fabrice Bismuth , France , 100,100
6. Allan Otte, Denmark, 31,800
7. Herbert Otto, Germany, 21,400
8. Gilles Haddad , France , 214,100 (chipleader)
9. David Winston, England, 44,400

Dutchmen Again Bite The Dust

Heinz Traut from Germany eliminates Dutch favorites and the experienced Nick Gibson to take no-limit hold’em trophy

By Rolf “Ace” Slotboom

As was the case with yesterday’s event, it seemed quite logical that someone from the Netherlands would take the €200+20 no-limit hold’em Master Classics title. After all, four out of the final nine players were Dutch, and at least three of them were quite experienced on top of that. But just like yesterday, when it was time to collect, it was the foreigners to take home most of the dough.

Chipleader increases lead quickly

Despite the fact that the focus for today was mainly on the Dutchmen and the two strong international players Mike Magee & Nick Gibson, it was actually Heinz Traut who had started the day as the chipleader. And in no-time, he had built the 136,000 that he started with to well over 400,000. He first eliminated Idriss van Straalen with A9 versus 88, flopping an ace, and then he also busted out Jorden Boer with the exact same hand, and in the exact same situation. Again with A9, again in the big blind, he again called the large raise, and again was up against a small pocket pair – making him again a small dog. But as before, the flop would be of assistance, meaning the German had busted out his second Dutchman of the day.

And Heinz wasn’t quite pleased with the elimination of just these two players – no, this seemed to be just the start for him. In what became like a rather obvious pattern, he continued to eliminate players by calling large raises with what some people consider to be “problem hands”. His next victim was John Morris, who with the blinds at 3K-6K / ante 500 had moved all-in to 75K with an A♥T♥. This time Heinz called from the small blind with an AJ – and that held up. The fourth player he eliminated was Mike Magee. In the past two days, Mike had made it a bit of a pattern to raise and reraise all-in with marginal or even crummy hands, correctly making use of the tight image that he had. But Heinz didn’t fall for the Irishman’s solid image, and called no less than 98K extra out of his 8K big blind with A♥T♥. He was correct, catching small blind Mike with his pants down, showing just a 98 offsuit. And despite the fact that the first card off the deck was an eight, the second one was an ace – meaning the German had played four big pots with relatively marginal hands, and won all four. So, having started with 136,000, he now had more than 400,000 – for over half the total chips in play.

Were there also any other players on the table besides just Heinz?

“Were there also any other players at this table?” you may ask. Well yes, there were. For one, there was Nick Gibson who caught an extra-ordinary number of premium hands at this final table. One of the first raises that he made was from under the gun, raising the 6,000 big blind to 20,000. Despite the fact that the combination of the size of this raise, Nick’s tight raising standards and his bad position indicated that he probably had a premium hand, Kevin Vreeswijk decided to commit fully with an AQ, reraising all-in to 61K. As it turned out, the Dutchman was indeed up against a big hand: pocket kings for Gibson. No ace on the board meant that Kevin was out in eighth place. And Nick also crippled Thierry van den Berg. Thierry had just won a very big pot, calling all-in with K♠9♠ on a flop Q♠J♥8♠ against Abdulkadir Turgut’s stop-and go play. Turgut was drawing himself with the K♦T♦ for an open-ended straight. And he even completed that draw when an ace came on the turn. But was it was the A♠, it also completed Thierry’s flush – earning him a 180K pot. Still, as I said, Thierry couldn’t hold on to these chips for very long. On the immediate next hand, facing a 52K total all-in raise from Nick on the button, Thierry suspected a steal and decided to call 44K more with the Q♦J♦ - only to stare into the Englishman’s AA.

All in all, with four players left, Heinz still had half the chips in play. Basically the only pots that he lost were when he raised and then folded to a reraise. This happened a couple of times, and this kept especially the tight Abdulkadir alive, who patiently waited for quality hands and, as was the case with Nick, also caught a lot of them. But Abdulkadir probably gave big blind Heinz a bit too much credit when he folded a hand as strong as AJ against a reraise, after having made the initial 40K raise, with only 111K behind.

Last remaining Dutchman bites the dust

And while many spectators hoped that hometown player Thierry would double up soon, he was actually the first to go out. Clearly waiting for a proper hand to commit with, he came over the top of Nick’s 30K button raise with an AT, knowing that it would almost certainly be the best hand. Indeed it was the best hand, but as it was only 47K more to Nick, the Englishman decided to call with his speculative holding, the 9♥8♥. Speculative as it was, the flop T76 gave him the stone-cold nuts, meaning that we had lost our last remaining Dutchman.

Not much later, it was Abdulkadir turn to be eliminated. He got crippled by Nick in an unraised blinds only confrontation, where on a flop Q♣J♣7♠ he bet all-in with Q6 for top pair. But with the K♣7♣, Nick had flopped a premium draw with his bottom pair + kicker + flush draw. And when he caught the 3♣ on the river, Gibson now suddenly had a decent stack. Abdulkadir was down to just 22K now, and got eliminated by Heinz on the very next hand.

Massive pot ends heads up stage

With the blinds still at just 5,000-10,000 with a 1,000 ante, Nick was still in there, starting the heads up stage with 253K up against Heinz Traut’s 552K stack. And when Heinz again folded to an all-in reraise after having made the initial raise, Nick had even passed the 300K mark – meaning he had a clear shot of winning.

That’s when the final hand came up. In one of the most unusual heads up hands I have ever seen, both players found a massive hand, AK suited – A♣K♣ for Nick, A♥K♥ for Heinz. In no-time, they had all the money in preflop, and they actually started shaking hands, releasing some tension now that it was clear they had an almost certain split pot.

But Lady Luck had bad intentions for Nick. Two hearts came on the flop, giving Heinz a live flush draw, and completing that flush on the turn. That was it – the tournament had been decided by a bit of a fluke pot, an almost certain split pot that now turned into a scoop for Heinz. To Nick’s credit, he didn’t blink. He didn’t say a word, mutter or complain – no, he simply shook hands with Heinz, gave him a genuine and friendly smile, and congratulated him on his spectacular win. In what seemed like a no-deals final, it was Heinz Traut from Aachen, Germany who had gotten five big or semi-big aces at this final table – and who was able to win five massive pots with them. The end result: A €64,400 first prize, a golden money clip, the beautiful white winner plate, and kisses from Marie-Louise Overtoom, Adele Bruijn, Loeki van Wijlick and Debby Heus. All in all, I would say a more than fair reward for a fast & exciting night of poker – and I am fairly certain that Heinz will agree.

Final results

Entrants 290

Rebuys & add-ons 515

Added prize money by the house: €1800 (return of buy-in for places 19-27)

1. Heinz Traut, Germany, €64,400

2. Nick Gibson, England, €32,200

3. Abdulkadir Turgut , Germany , €16,100

4. Thierry van den Berg, Netherlands, €10,465

5. Mike Magee, Ireland, €8,050

6. John Morris, England, €5,635

7. Jorden Boer, Netherlands, €4,025

8. Kevin Vreeswijk, Netherlands, €3,220

9. Idriss van Straalen, Netherlands, €2,415

€1000+20 no-limit hold’em (one optional rebuy)

The first really ‘big’ tournament in this Master Classics attracted a field that was much more international than the previous two events. With about three tables left, there were only a few Dutchman left – this in contrast to previous days. We still had quite a few big names in action though at this stage. For instance, WPT France winner Christian Grundtvig was still in, as was EPT Baden winner Vlado Sevo. And then of course there were the two possibly biggest names of all, Joe Beevers and Dave Colclough, who got involved with each other in a major clash. After a raise and a call, Dave decided to come over the top for all his money with AK. Joe probably thought that since there was one shortstacked all-in player, that El Blondie could be trying to shut him out with cards of just relatively marginal value. So, after long deliberation the Elegance decided to call with what turned out to be a dominated hand, AQ – and found no help.

After Vlado Sevo busted out on the bubble, we had our final table for tomorrow. For the first time this Master Classics, a truly international one. The blinds will start at 4000-8000 and a 1000 ante. Paul van Wijk will be defending the Dutch honors with an average stack, and there are three players with over 200,000: “Beautiful Karsten” Johansen from Denmark, the Turkish Englishman Osman Mustanoglu and the chipleader going into the final, Jan Bendik from Slowakia. First prize: €194,000.

1. David Lacoste, France, 106,200

2. Jonas Klausen, Denmark, 91,600

3. Osman Mustanoglu , England / Turkey, 249,100

4. Mario Bentivedo, Italy, 157,700

5. Jan Bendik, Slowakia, 384,800

6. Paul van Wijk, Netherlands, 156,800

7. Karsten Johansen , Denmark , 238,700

8. Jean-Bernard Bot, France, 54,700

9. Alan Smurfit, USA / Ireland, 42,000

Unknown Young Man From Devon Shakes Off Top Pros To Take First Master Classics Event

By Rolf “Ace” Slotboom

With 18 out of the final 24 players in the €300+20 limit hold’em having a Dutch passport, sheer numbers dictated that this event should go to a Dutchman. Even more when checking out the line-up of the final that included top pros like Noah Boeken, Sijbrand Maal, Peter Dalhuijsen and Peter L’Amie.

But in the end, the title went to a young man from Devon who has only been playing poker for about 6 months or so. So, from the perspective of the Dutchmen: What went wrong?

Experienced top pros drop like flies

With so many people from the Netherlands still in, and with so many well-known players, this was a final that I genuinely looked forward to. And I wasn’t the only one: Peter L’Amie had brought a small group of spectators, Martin Vallo had brought a few Danes, Sijbrand Maal was backed by his lovely girlfriend Mariken plus a bunch of friends, Peter Dalhuijsen had the entire Poker College crew behind him, and Noah Boeken always brings a bunch of friends. So, because of this large crowd and the many spectators around the stage, we had an electric atmosphere at this opening event of the Master Classics.

But most of the favorites didn’t start out too well, actually. With the blinds at 1500-3000 and 497,000 chips in play, especially Sijbrand & Noah went off to a bit of a slow start. The most reputed foreigners at this table started off pretty badly as well. Martin Vallo became shortstacked in no-time, while the strong Eddy Scharf even busted out within 45 minutes. The chips in the first hour went to the unknown players at this table, Tom Nightingale and Charalampos Kapernopoulos, who was very active at the start of this final. Jan de Vries was lucky to stay alive, being all-in on the turn with just an open-ended straight draw – that he completed at the river. But just before, the same Jan had lost a chunk of his stack to Peter L’Amie, who won a massive pot having made a set on the turn, in a situation where his opponent turned out to have the nut flush. Jan decided to slowplay by just flatcalling Peter’s turn check-raise, and then raised him all-in on the river. But the river had actually paired the board, giving L’Amie a full, and earning him a massive pot.

And off to a very slow start was Peter Dalhuijsen. Just like the final hours yesterday night, he was a bit invisible, staying alive by stealing a few pots here and there, but never being involved in any big pots. He was eliminated in a three-way pot where he had raised before the flop with the Q♥T♥. On a flop A♣A♥8♥ he bet out, and when he got check-raised by the overacting Tom Nightingale (who looked at the dealer angrily when the flop came down), he then called all-in against his opponent’s check-raise. Of course, Tom had the third ace and when Peter couldn’t catch a non-pairing heart, he was out in eighth place.

And not much later, we also lost Noah Boeken! He got crippled in a huge pot against Tom, when Noah had bet aggressively with an AJ, and as it turned out had been check-called all the way by Tom’s unimproved A♥Q♥. On the river, Noah decided to check it back, only to lose to his kicker. He was now so shortstacked that his double up with pocket aces to 2500 didn’t help him much. Holding 88 on the immediate next hand, he called all-in against Charalampos’ 4000 big blind. The man from Greece had J5 and caught a jack to bust out the hometown favorite.

When again not much later we also lost Martin Vallo (who had AK, made the nut flush on the river, only to see that this same card had completed Peter L’Amie’s QQ for top full), we suddenly had lost four top favorites. And when also Sijbrand Maal got eliminated with AQ on an AKKQ board up against JT, receiving no help on the river, we had played only 62 hands – and had lost five of the very best players. All of the sudden, many of the spectator seats were empty, now that the players they had come to watch were eliminated. The chip counts with four players left:

• Peter L’Amie 44,200
• Tom Nightingale 273,000
• Jan de Vries 17,900
• Charalampos Kapernopoulos 159,600

Play moves into a different gear

Despite the fact that the Dutch had performed so excellently throughout this event, suddenly the two remaining foreigners had almost 90% of the total chips in play. It seemed that with the blinds moving up to 3000-6000, the Dutch would have no shot at winning whatsoever, but as so often in poker things turned out to be quite different. Jan de Vries had been shortstacked all along, but quite frankly played very strong and won no less than seven all-ins to stay alive. And also Peter won a big pot against Charalampos, crippling him with a flopped set of deuces, to then finish him off not much later when his A♣J♣ held up against the Greek’s J9. So, despite still being shortstacked, the two Dutchmen had now made it to the final three, where both of them were obviously thinking how to get into second place.

At least, that’s what I thought! But when Jan was down to just 30K, Peter went for an extremely risky play to reraise Tom before the flop from out of position, and check-raise him on the turn. A risky play, because it could have led to him get eliminated in third place rather than settle for an almost certain second place – but he got rewarded for the chances he had taken here. Because when Jan was finally eliminated, Peter had worked his way up to 147K, and had become a serious competitor again going into the heads up stage. Yeah sure Tom had considerably more with about 350K, but with the blinds still just at 3000-6000, everything was still in there for the Dutchman.

Heads up stage starts off rather badly for L’Amie – but he shows great fighting spirit

Throughout this event, Peter hadn’t been exactly fortunate. In a crucial pot early on at this final, Peter had lost a massive pot when he correctly read Charalampos for making a move when he got check-raised on the turn by the Greek – only to see his opponent hit his two-outer on the river. And then in this heads up stage, Peter again got unlucky when in a massive pot Tom was drawing thin with an A♥5♣ and stumbled into a runner-runner straight. Down to just 60K now, the Dutchman recovered very well though when he won a huge pot with an unimproved KK. But when he made a failed bluff attempt with a 54 for a busted straight draw, he was down at 29K again. Peter again fought back by doubling once while holding the best hand, but then on the final hand he again reached the showdown with (what looked like) nothing more than a busted draw. With around 100K in the middle, he bet his remaining 14,400 on the river A♠8♠5♥Q♠T♦, and after some deliberation Tom decided to call. Peter tapped the table saying “Good call”, Tom showed his A7, and that was that. A young man from Devon, England, having played poker for just little time, had beaten a whole bunch of experienced pros to take this title. Having played smart and aggressive poker, and having gotten his fair share of both good cards and good fortune just when he needed it, Tom Nightingale was the first champion of the 2006 Master Classics – netting him almost 60,000 Euros.

Final results:

1. Tom Nightingale, England, €59,640

2. Peter L’Amie, Netherlands, €29,820

3. Jan de Vries, Netherlands, €14,910

4. Charalampos Kapernopoulos , Greece , €9,691

5. Sijbrand Maal, Netherlands, €7,455

6. Martin Vallo, Denmark, €5,218

7. Noah Boeken, Netherlands, €3,727

8. Peter Dalhuijsen, Netherlands, €2,982

9. Eddy Scharf, Germany, €2,236

Added prize money by the house: €2700 (buy-in returned for places 19-27)

Final table €200+20 no-limit hold’em (unlimited rebuys)

The second tournament of this 2006 Master Classics was the ‘cheap’ no-limit hold’em event with unlimited rebuys. A true rebuy festival, because with 280 entries plus a few alternates, we had no less than 515 rebuys / add-ons. It was Marciano Vink, the former Ajax soccer player, who went off to a flying start: Despite the starting amount of just 1,000, he ended the rebuy phase with no less than 34,000 in chips – meaning he had more than twice as much as any other player in the event.

But despite this, he wouldn’t make it into the money. A few other well-known players did reach the money, but then couldn’t make it to the final table of nine players. For instance Noah Boeken was eliminated in 19^th place when he first made a courageous call for 39K (30K more to him) with 55 but lost against Nick Gibson’s QQ, and then was caught on a steal all-in for 19K with a J♠3♠ against an AQ. Also Frank Blumlein (finalist last year), Edgar Stuchly and Julian Thew were unable to make it to the final 9. Julian was eliminated with AK against the bullets of the on-a-roll Kevin Vreeswijk, who with two tables to go had built an impressive stack. Fellow Dutchman Jorden Boer, a normally highly aggressive player, was in equally good shape – but with ten players left, two tables of five, he made two quite remarkable decisions. First, he folded TT face up as the big blind against a large button raise (coming from another big stack, so indeed he could have gone broke on the hand). And not much later, with the big blind at 6,000, Jorden raised from under the gun to 20,000 – and with just 40K behind, he then folded against big blind Mike Magee’s all-in reraise. In fact, Jorden even claimed to have folded AK, to which Magee showed him the hand he had moved in with – an A4 offsuit.

All in all, despite the fact that we lost Tonnie Krijn just before the final, this final table does again have quite a few Dutchmen with proven track records. Not only does it have Jorden Boer, but also Thierry van den Berg and Kevin Vreeswijk have shown in the past they are capable of winning tournaments. They will have to battle not just the experienced Mike Magee and the strong Nick Gibson, but also with two players from Germany who both have 100K+ stacks. Anyway, play will resume tomorrow at 5 p.m. with blinds 3000-6000 and a 500 ante, in the following line-up:

1. Mike Magee (Ireland) 93,700

2. Jorden Boer (Netherlands) 40,400

3. Traut Heinz (Germany) 136,000

4. Nick Gibson (England) 115,600

5. Idriss van Straalen (Netherlands) 28,300

6. Abdulkadir Turgut (Germany) 114,800

7. Kevin Vreeswijk (Netherlands) 70,800

8. Thierry van den Berg (Netherlands) 124,600

9. John Morris (England) 80,800

Holland Rules In Opening Event Master Classics – Yet Foreigners Have The Chips

By Rolf “Ace” Slotboom

For the past five years, I have been the official reporter for the Master Classics Of Poker. Every single year, I could write about new records we had just set. And also every single year, I honestly thought these records could or would not be broken. After all, when taking into account the tough competition from televised, sponsored tournaments like the EPT, it seemed quite logical to assume that in time the Master Classics could possibly suffer from all this.

Master Classics bigger than ever

But the way things look now, the 2006 Master Classics will be the biggest ever by a rather large margin. Almost all tournaments are sold out already, with the exception of the pot-limit Omaha tournament (40 tickets left) and the €5,000 no-limit hold’em Main Event (140 tickets left). While 140 tickets may seem like an awful lot, because this year there can be up to 350 participants, no less than 210 tickets have already been sold – meaning that in all likelihood, every tournament will be a sell-out.

And it is not just that. For the first time ever, the Main Event at the Master Classics will be televised. Granted, this time it will be broadcasted only in the Netherlands, but of course this is a great first step. If this experiment proves successful, maybe as a next step the Master Classics could be broadcasted all around Europe – and this is exactly what all the big players in Europe have always hoped for. Right now, we have an impressive stage inside the casino, with dimmed lights, lots of cameras, and sufficient room for spectators. Obviously, all finals this week will be played at this table.

Dutchies are everywhere

All finals at this table – and that includes of course the final of our first event, the €300+20 limit hold’em with one optional rebuy. In previous years, the first couple of events would have a relatively high number of people from the Netherlands at the final stages, sometimes up to 20 or even 25% at the last three tables or so. But this time, things were just crazy – the Dutch were everywhere. Out of the last 24 players, no less than 18 were Dutch!

Despite this extra-ordinary large number of Dutchman at the final stages of this event, at all times it was the foreigners who actually held the chiplead. Throughout the event, it was Tom Nightingale from Devon, England who carried an impressive amount of chips. This despite the fact that he didn’t seem overly aggressive, and he even folded a couple of times as the first one in on both the button and the small blind. He only lost his chiplead to another foreigner, Charalampos Kapernopoulos from, you guessed it, Greece. And a third foreigner at the final table has a lot of chips too. The well-known Martin Vallo from Copenhagen, Denmark had accumulated quite a bit of ammunition in some battles against the Dutchmen. First, he crippled Peter Dalhuijsen early on in the event with aces versus kings. Then, he won two pots where the turn got checked by the preflop aggressor and then on the river Martin could take the pot uncontested (his victims: again Peter, and the second time Noah Boeken). And finally he eliminated the shortstacked Morres Beaucaire with AT versus the Dutchman’s AK, a ten on the flop.

But as I said, this tournament was more than anything a Dutch Show. Never in Master Classics history have so many Dutch players reached the final stages of an event. And there were not just many – almost without exception they were also high-quality players with proven track records. What about Sijbrand Maal, the winner of this exact same limit hold’em event in 2004. Or Morres Beaucaire, who was one of the finalists back then too. Then of course my very own buddy Peter Dalhuijsen, who is considered one of the better young players in Holland, and someone who excels both in tournaments and in cash games. Tijs Mul, another successful Dutchman who – like Peter – uses Barcelona as his hunting ground. Cees Loffeld and Peter L’Amie, two highly experienced players who often make it far into tournaments. One of the Dutch rising stars Jorryt van Hoof, who in no-time has reached the online $25-50 no-limit hold’em and pot-limit Omaha ring games, and who now “cleans up” the games there (totally in line with his nick, the Cleaner). And finally of course Noah Boeken, who by many is seen as one of the best young players in Europe.

Many Dutch casualties just before the final

Not all of them made it to tomorrow’s final, obviously. For instance Tijs Mul, the short-stacked Cees Loffeld & the suffering-from-back-problems “Cleaner” Jorryt van Hoof busted out just before the final 9. For some time, it looked like the very tight Peter L’Amie would also be one of the victims, but he doubled through when his 88 held up against Q♦J♦ in a reraised pot. And then the last hand of the night, Peter was able to check-raise Noah successfully after the flop to make him lay down, meaning that the guy who used to have the Showboat in Vegas as his office is now in decent shape. That last pot cost Noah quite a few chips, meaning that despite the fact that he played good and aggressive throughout the day, “Exclusive” will start below-average tomorrow. A Dutchman who did like the final stages of this day was Sijbrand Maal. With KK up against AJ, he looked away when the river card came – but it was a blank, earning him an absolutely massive pot.

Battle within a battle?

And it is not just a simple poker battle tomorrow. When taking into account that Sijbrand, Noah & Peter are all involved in the three biggest poker information sites in Holland (Pokerinfo, Pokernews and Pokercollege, respectively) one could claim that there’s a bit more to tomorrow’s final that just the trophy or the money. There’s a lot of pride & honor involved not just for these three players, but also for their respective sites.

We will almost certainly start tomorrow with blinds 1500-3000, limits 3000-6000. The line-up plus chip count will look like this:

1. Noah Boeken, Netherlands 36,300

2. Sijbrand Maal, Netherlands 66,000

3. Peter L´Amie, Netherlands 34,300

4. Martin Vallo, Denmark 57,700

5. Tom Nightingale, England 91,900

6. Peter Dalhuijsen, Netherlands 23,500

7. Jan de Vries, Netherlands 44,600

8. Charalampos Kapernopoulos, Greece 109,500

9. Eddy Scharf, Germany 31,000

All in all, a highly interesting final I would say, not in the last case because of the presence of strong and experienced German Eddy Scharf – someone who has used Amsterdam as a happy hunting ground in previous years. First prize tomorrow €59,640, and that is an amount not to be sniffed at. In fact, for a tournament with just a €320 buy-in and only one €300 rebuy it can simply be considered an awful lot of money.

Some final words

Not just will tomorrow have the final of this first Master Classics event with all these Dutchmen (starting time: 5 p.m.). No, three hours earlier we will also have the start of the €200+20 no-limit hold´em with unlimited rebuys. So, two tournaments will go on simultaneously – possibly even with some multi-tablers who (as Rob Hollink did last year, and very successfully on top of that) will try to tackle two tournaments at the same time.

Anyway, that´s about it for my day 1 report. Tomorrow the action will truly get under way, with this first final in a series of seven. For now, it´s goodbye from me – see you all tomorrow!

The Master Classics in Amsterdam have started! Nine days of top poker in my home town - and this year, things are expected to get bigger than ever. The reason is simple: For the first time in Master Classics history, the Main Event will be televised. Yes, televised only in the Netherlands - but for many Dutchmen this possibiliy of having one's face on nationwide TV is just that little incentive to pony up the required 5,000 Euros.

As in previous years, I will be the official reporter for the casino, doing daily updates rather than my usual live updates. This means that just like last year you can find the reports here on Poker Pages, but of course only after they have been put on the official Master Classics site.

All the smaller tourneys have been sold out already, and for the Main Event well over 200 tickets have already been sold. The field is capped at 350 players for this event, if I'm not mistaken 80 entrants more than last year, and despite this larger field this Main Event may actually be the first-ever sell-out in Master Classics history.