Dutch Open 2011

This year Holland Casino changed the registry procedure of the Dutch Open tournament. Only the top 50 players of the HC ranking are allowed to buy in directly. Other players had to win their seats through satellites. So the field was combined by very strong and weak players.

106 male and 7 female would fight for the title: Dutch Poker Champion 2011

I was lucky to start the tournament at a quite soft table. Only Fatima (Moreiro de Melo) and Mart de Gier who were sitting on the left of me gave me few hard times.

The startstack was 15.000, which created a much better structure than the usual HC Main event startstack of 10.000. The levels were 40 min, 50 min after dinner break and 60 min on day 2.

During the first 3 levels I didn't play big pots, so my stack stayed around 15.000. After the 1st break I won a 4-way pot with topset which I hitted on the turn. Too bad my opponent didn't paid the turn and my stack increased to 20k. After a few hands my table was broken up and I was seated at another soft table.

Everything went fine. Even my pockets kings got paid all in by a shortstack and my stack hitted 25k. All my 3-bets had not been callled and my stack stayed around 20k without a showdown. But when 39 players were left in the tournament I found pocket JJ on the Cut Off and open raised with it to 2.5k (blinds 600-1200). Freerk 3-betted to 6k on the Button and the blinds folded their cards. I anounced to be all in for 20.5k and Freerk instant called with AJo. As I was happy to see his AJo so I was dissapointed to see the flop AA9..drawing dead!!! 39th place!

Despite the suck out I really enjoyed the tournament. Most of the players know each other, so there was a lot of chit chat at the tables. Everybody looked happy and enjoyed his/her time at the tournament. It was well organised by Holland Casino.

The only thing that I missed were my team mates of Poker 770. But our whole team will be present at the Master Classics @ Amsterdam.