The Dutch player Niels van Leeuwen won the first World Poker Tour event organized in the Netherlands. Late in the evening of last Sunday, he managed to take first place of the WPT National Valkenburg. The Dutch player had to go through very hard match-ups on the final table in order to get his hands on the €40,000 winner prize. For example, one of the veterans in the Dutch poker scene, Marcel Luske, played extremely well, yet managed to only get to the third place.
The Main Event took place within the course of three days with Van Leeuwen beginning the final day with the optimal chip package. There were sixteen more players joining the last day and after two elimination phases, ten were standing.
Another Dutch representative, Pim van Wieringen showed great skill, eliminating a few of his competitors, such as Stieven Razab-Sekh, Bas van Marwijk and Jeroen Minnekeer who got out first.
The strong and consistent play of Van Leeuwen could be seen from the start of the finals and throughout the day.
Niels is a considerably experienced poker player, starting his professional career in poker back in 2011. He is known for winning the France Poker Series, getting the impressive amount of €175,000. The 25-years-old Dutch has studied Hospitality Management and then Communication Studies, yet his real passion lies in live poker tournaments, he says.
His domination at the final table began when he first eliminated Peter Gutker, who was forced to be satisfied with the 13th place. Niels beat Sandro Pitzanti’s ace-king with an ace-seven and took another ‘trophey’, eliminating the other player just a few minutes after Gutker.
The 10th spot was taken by Zeus Post after he was forced out by Luske, followed by Timo Hendricks on the 9th.
Luske continued to show strength, despite his weak start of the final table when he had little chips, he managed to increase his stacks and prepare for further action. Next were Danny Opt Hof, who finished 8th, and was followed by Van Wieringen, who managed to sweat up Van Leeuwen, who seemed a bit off during those hands.
Niels managed to get back in his top form by getting all the chips from Van Tran and leaving him on 7th spot. Luske tried to get his hands on Van Leeuwen’s chips and managed to double his stacks, yet that did not affect Niels that much.
He again managed to overcome a close hand of ace-king versus van den Bijgaart’s ace-nine. Bijgaard got the third spot ahead of Keijzer’s €14k fourth spot who, as many could expect, was also dominated by Leeuwen with pocket kings versus ace-ten. The end was coming closer and closer and Luske made a strong move by playing aggressively, and getting ahead of Leeuwen for a short time. As a surprise to many, Wieringen was the man to stop Luske in the best hand of the day, according to those who participated. The adrenaline was high when Wieringen overcame the aces of Luske.
It was Leeuwen and Wieringen standing last at the table. It was the ace-nine which betrayed Wieringen to the pocket fives of Niels and left him with second spot. Many would be satisfied with second spot, yet the €40,000 winner prize was what Wieringen was after. At the end of the day, however, it would have been any Dutch player’s pride to have won the first World Poker Tour organized in the Netherlands.
