Texas Holdem Poker

Dutch Poker Players
There are many beloved poker players who come from the Netherlands, some very highly regarded in the poker community. One recently well-known poker player from the Netherlands is Rob Hollink, who took home three wins from the 2008 WSOP, one of which was first place in Event #30, the World Championship Limit Hold ‘em. He also placed 15th in Event #19 Pot-Limit Omaha and 22nd in Event #50 World Championship Pot-Limit Omaha.

Another rising star from Amsterdam in the poker world is Noah Boeken, born in 1981. Like many other professional poker players from all parts of the world, his strategy skills came from excelling in the game Magic: The Gathering, which prepped him for a successful career in poker. His big break came from his 1st place win at the 2005 Scandinavian Open when he took down Ram Vaswani for almost $200K.
Boeken is often called Mini-Marcel after his mentor, fellow Dutchman and intercontinental poker champion, Marcel Luske, who is probably the most well-known of Dutch poker players. Luske is also known as the “Flying Dutchman” as he started out playing poker all over Europe, flying from city to city to compete in tournaments. Luske is an avid player at many high-stakes live events and a winner of millions of dollars. This classy poker giant, also from Amsterdam, is the definition of poker etiquette and his stylish air is pleasantly complemented by his acute sense of humor, known for breaking out in song at the tables and wearing upside down sunglasses. Being an older poker player gives him an edge against the young guns that populate the tables these days. He approaches poker with respect and in 2001 was ranked as the number one player in Europe, later to be European Player of the Year in 2003 and 2004. In 2008, he ranked as 150th on the Player of the Year list, up from 884th in 2007. Needless to say, he’s not new to poker.
Luske taught Boeken that there is a place for modesty and respect for yourself and others in poker and in life, in general. Luske has been called “Poker’s Roving Ambassador” for the goodwill he exhibits among his opponents. He embodies the honorable character of the region he represents and teaches Boeken to do the same. These two players are seen together often, representing the past, present, and future of Netherlands poker. Both of these poker players from the Netherlands are proud of the role they have played in Dutch poker, as well as global poker. They have a huge Dutch following, and many of their fans are inspired by them enough to follow in their footsteps. Luske, especially, has done a great job promoting poker as a rather admirable job in the Netherlands.

After only eight players registering for last weeks Pokerstars $5,000 freezeout texas holdem tournament, we are back here this week with another stacked field. Steve Billarakis and Barry Greenstein were in the poker tournament field today, although neither made the final table. We joined the final table with seven players left and none of them are top notched, well known poker pros unless you are in the underground community. We picked up the action in this hand, where we saw takechip take a hand off texpert.

PokerStars Game #16874246465: Tournament #84456176, $5000+$200 Hold’em No Limit – Level IV (150/300) – 2008/04/20 – 17:58:53 (ET)
Table ‘84456176 2′ 10-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: bart spijker (21000 in chips)
Seat 2: takechip (16557 in chips)
Seat 3: texpert (6399 in chips)
Seat 4: HEMIpowerSWT (4603 in chips)
Seat 5: ADZ124 (10003 in chips)
Seat 8: APerfectGent (26310 in chips)
Seat 10: JERRRY (15128 in chips)
bart spijker: posts the ante 60
takechip: posts the ante 60
texpert: posts the ante 60
HEMIpowerSWT: posts the ante 60
ADZ124: posts the ante 60
APerfectGent: posts the ante 60
JERRRY: posts the ante 60
HEMIpowerSWT: posts small blind 150
ADZ124: posts big blind 300
*** HOLE CARDS ***
APerfectGent: folds
JERRRY: folds
bart spijker: raises 600 to 900
takechip: calls 900
texpert: raises 5439 to 6339 and is all-in
HEMIpowerSWT: folds
ADZ124: folds
bart spijker: folds
takechip: calls 5439
*** FLOP *** [Ad 5c 7d]
*** TURN *** [Ad 5c 7d] [6s]
*** RIVER *** [Ad 5c 7d 6s] [Ac]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
takechip: shows [As Qs] (three of a kind, Aces)
texpert: shows [2h 2c] (two pair, Aces and Deuces)
takechip collected 14448 from pot
HEMIpowerSWT said, “gg”
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 14448 | Rake 0
Board [Ad 5c 7d 6s Ac]
Seat 1: bart spijker folded before Flop
Seat 2: takechip showed [As Qs] and won (14448) with three of a kind, Aces
Seat 3: texpert (button) showed [2h 2c] and lost with two pair, Aces and Deuces
Seat 4: HEMIpowerSWT (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 5: ADZ124 (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 8: APerfectGent folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 10: JERRRY folded before Flop (didn’t bet)

HEMIpowerSWT put a big three bet in here over the top of takechip. ADZ124 called, however, and used his pocket tens to send HEMI on the rail in sixth place.

PokerStars Game #16874328413: Tournament #84456176, $5000+$200 Hold’em No Limit – Level IV (150/300) – 2008/04/20 – 18:02:20 (ET)
Table ‘84456176 2′ 10-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: bart spijker (20969 in chips)
Seat 2: takechip (22836 in chips)
Seat 4: HEMIpowerSWT (4333 in chips)
Seat 5: ADZ124 (5682 in chips)
Seat 8: APerfectGent (30185 in chips)
Seat 10: JERRRY (15995 in chips)
bart spijker: posts the ante 60
takechip: posts the ante 60
HEMIpowerSWT: posts the ante 60
ADZ124: posts the ante 60
APerfectGent: posts the ante 60
JERRRY: posts the ante 60
APerfectGent: posts small blind 150
JERRRY: posts big blind 300
*** HOLE CARDS ***
bart spijker: folds
takechip: raises 477 to 777
HEMIpowerSWT: raises 3496 to 4273 and is all-in
ADZ124: raises 1349 to 5622 and is all-in
APerfectGent: folds
JERRRY: folds
takechip: folds
*** FLOP *** [2d 7c Kc]
JERRRY said, “damn”
*** TURN *** [2d 7c Kc] [4c]
*** RIVER *** [2d 7c Kc 4c] [8d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
HEMIpowerSWT: shows [As 9h] (high card Ace)
ADZ124: shows [Ts Th] (a pair of Tens)
ADZ124 collected 10133 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 10133 | Rake 0
Board [2d 7c Kc 4c 8d]
Seat 1: bart spijker folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 2: takechip folded before Flop
Seat 4: HEMIpowerSWT showed [As 9h] and lost with high card Ace
Seat 5: ADZ124 (button) showed [Ts Th] and won (10133) with a pair of Tens
Seat 8: APerfectGent (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 10: JERRRY (big blind) folded before Flop

Here, all the money got in before the flop. ADZ124’s Ace/8 was defeated by the Ace/Jack of takechip, who took down the pot and knocked ADZ124 out of the tournament.

PokerStars Game #16875149917: Tournament #84456176, $5000+$200 Hold’em No Limit – Level IV (150/300) – 2008/04/20 – 18:37:25 (ET)
Table ‘84456176 2′ 10-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 2: takechip (56834 in chips)
Seat 5: ADZ124 (11904 in chips)
Seat 8: APerfectGent (21990 in chips)
Seat 10: JERRRY (9272 in chips)
takechip: posts the ante 60
ADZ124: posts the ante 60
APerfectGent: posts the ante 60
JERRRY: posts the ante 60
ADZ124: posts small blind 150
APerfectGent: posts big blind 300
*** HOLE CARDS ***
JERRRY: folds
takechip: raises 600 to 900
ADZ124: raises 10944 to 11844 and is all-in
APerfectGent: folds
takechip: calls 10944
*** FLOP *** [5h Qd Tc]
*** TURN *** [5h Qd Tc] [7c]
*** RIVER *** [5h Qd Tc 7c] [3c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
ADZ124: shows [Ad 8c] (high card Ace)
takechip: shows [Jd Ah] (high card Ace – Queen+Jack kicker)
APerfectGent said, “gg adz”
takechip collected 24228 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 24228 | Rake 0
Board [5h Qd Tc 7c 3c]
Seat 2: takechip (button) showed [Jd Ah] and won (24228) with high card Ace
Seat 5: ADZ124 (small blind) showed [Ad 8c] and lost with high card Ace
Seat 8: APerfectGent (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 10: JERRRY folded before Flop (didn’t bet)

The pocket nines weren’t up to snuff to the pocket kings of takechip, which led to the demise of APerfectGent in third place.

At heads up, takechip had a mnsted 9:1 chip advantage. JERRRY joked about a chop and asked for a mere $15,000, but was of course turned down. The play remained mostly preflop and flops weren’t big. The finish came in the following hand.

PokerStars Game #16875712680: Tournament #84456176, $5000+$200 Hold’em No Limit – Level V (200/400) – 2008/04/20 – 19:03:05 (ET)
Table ‘84456176 2′ 10-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 2: takechip (86900 in chips)
Seat 10: JERRRY (13100 in chips)
takechip: posts the ante 80
JERRRY: posts the ante 80
takechip: posts small blind 200
JERRRY: posts big blind 400
*** HOLE CARDS ***
takechip: raises 400 to 800
JERRRY: raises 12220 to 13020 and is all-in
takechip: calls 12220
*** FLOP *** [6d Kd 9h]
*** TURN *** [6d Kd 9h] [Jc]
*** RIVER *** [6d Kd 9h Jc] [Qc]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
JERRRY: shows [8h 8c] (a pair of Eights)
takechip: shows [Ac Td] (a straight, Ten to Ace)
takechip collected 26200 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 26200 | Rake 0
Board [6d Kd 9h Jc Qc]
Seat 2: takechip (button) (small blind) showed [Ac Td] and won (26200) with a straight, Ten to Ace
Seat 10: JERRRY (big blind) showed [8h 8c] and lost with a pair of Eights

As no deal was ever made, takechip took down the $100,000, and yes, his avatar was the Poker Stars logo with a line through it.