| Holland Rules in one-day limit hold’em event
By Rolf “Ace” Slotboom
The only one-day event this week was an almost entirely Dutch affair. No less than 8 out of 9 players had the Dutch nationality – something that is unheard of in Master Classics history.
Final table EUR 220 limit hold’em (one optional rebuy)
Players / Nationality / Chip Counts:
Seat # 1: Daan Ruiter, Netherlands, 38,000
Seat # 2: Holger Lindeman, Germany, 208,000
Seat # 3: Wim van Leeuwen, Netherlands, 20,000
Seat # 4: Noah Boeken, Netherlands, 93,000
Seat # 5: Peter L’Ami, Netherlands, 39,000
Seat # 6: Jeroen de Bruin, Netherlands, 11,000,
Seat # 7: Morres Beaucaire, Netherlands / Israel, 30,000
Seat # 8: Jan-Pieter Postmus, Netherlands, 19,000
Seat # 9: Sybrand Maal, Netherlands, 70,000
Despite the fact that eight out of nine players came from The Netherlands, the chip leader did not: he was from Hamburg, Germany, and he carried over 35% of the chips in play.
And he immediately showed us how he had gained those chips: by playing lots of hands - and by playing them aggressively. Right from the get-go, he came over the top of a tight player’s raise with kings holding a queen-ten only to double him up – and it seemed that he had no intention of slowing down.
In the meantime, the sympathetic Morres was lucky to stay alive when in a raised pot he was holding AQ against Sybrand’s Ad Kd. He first flopped his only live card (the queen) and then it also held up, despite the fact that his opponent had flopped the nut-flush draw in diamonds.
A few moments later, Sybrand regained some chips when he busted out Jeroen de Bruin’s KJ with queens, and we also lost shortstacked Peter who had to make a stand with K6 of clubs against Noah’s KQ. With today’s fast blind structure no one could afford to wait, and for a large part because of this we also lost Wim (who was the first person to exit) and Jan-Pieter, who both had to make a stand with relatively marginal cards.
All in all, we were down to five players quickly, and despite the chip lead by Holger, it seemed that young Noah Boeken was well positioned to win today’s event. He had position on Holger, had acquired a fairly large stack himself and he had only short stacks on his immediate left. But then he got lured into bluffing all the way against the Man Who Could Not Be Bluffed – the German on his immediate right. Despite the scary board KQJA3, Holger did not hesitate to check-call his opponent all the way to the river with a Q6 only for third pair / no kicker – and it proved to be good. Having lost 60,000 on this hand (blinds were now 5,000 and 10,000), Noah could not afford to wait anymore. He raised with a K7, but it was the 21-year old Daan Ruiter (who won his entry through a 10 Euro satellite in Groningen) who played back at him from the small blind with a KJ of spades – and that held up to bust out Noah. But then young Daan quickly lost his newly acquired chips as well. First, he had to fold on the turn in a raised pot against Morres, and then he got involved in a three-way pot with Holger and Sybrand, holding the 76 of clubs. He managed to flop an open-ended straight draw but when it failed to get there, it was Sybrand who got the chips – and we were suddenly three-handed.
Fast and furious action – with some remarkable moves
Sybrand did what he was supposed to do: he took the initiative, in order to put pressure on his opponents. He won the largest pot of the night when it was capped before the flop, and then four small bets went in on the flop, two big bets on the turn and one big bet on the river. Sybrand had gotten a bit lucky because his opponent did have the better hand before the flop (queens against his sixes), but on the other hand he was able to get excessive action out of his opponent once he had flopped his set. After all, usually a flop of KT6 wouldn’t look that great to someone holding queens – especially not if you are facing an opponent who seems very willing to put his chips in. Sybrand also got excessive action out of Morres who had flopped top pair on a 972 flop, but who gave way too much action when his opponent had obviously caught a king on the turn for a higher pair. Maal almost finished things off completely in yet another massive pot, when he held aces and both opponents played back at him – but despite the fact that both players were drawing very slim, it was Morres who would win a big pot with 97 for a small straight. Sybrand did finish off Holger when they kept raising back and forth before the flop until the German was all-in, and the Dutchman’s pocket eights prevailed over the German’s AT.
Young Dutchman gets what he deserves
And heads up, Sybrand was able to keep the pressure on. He got the right cards at the right time (making a full house with 96 of hearts on a 9636K board, only to get three bets out of his opponent on the river when he had made kings up), but he also knew how to fold when his opponent had hit, or bluff him out when it seemed he was weak. Morres was able to survive one all-in, but not a second one. Sybrand had a monster with AQ of hearts for top pair / top kicker + the nut-flush draw. His opponent had Q5 of spades for the other flush draw – but fortunately for the young man and his beautiful girlfriend, the spade didn’t arrive.
Congratulations to Sybrand Maal, who got paid off handsomely on his good cards while losing relatively little on his bad ones, and as a result is our first Dutch winner at this year’s highly successful Master Classics.
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