So last weekend it was finally time again for some Live poker. The last time was at the Bahamas and it’s something I love to do so I was really looking forward to the weekend.
I was driving to Venlo with a buddy (Mick) of mine and we had some issues getting to the hotel. The hotel was at the edge of the forest and we were at the other edge. Google Maps tried to point us via various ways but most were not really suitable for a car. In stead of bringing a 4*4 I brought a Ford Fiesta so these roads were not really an option but after 10 minutes we figured out that we had included “walking” on Google Maps. Unchecking that option helped a lot and the hotel, De Bovenste Molen, was a nice and relaxing place to stay.
The casino in Venlo wasn’t really in the center of town, it was in the middle of the industrial area. We took a cab so we had the option to drink a beer after we busted (or won) the tournament. The €300 Freezout started at 16:00 and after some chit-chat with familiar people it was time to play. When I sat down I noticed I was sitting on the same table as Stijn, someone who I’ve met at the WSOP in 2009. At least I could root for somebody else when I was not in the hand. I never really managed to get something going and after the diner break I lost most chips to Joep van de Bijgaart, fellow PokerStars Pro, who got moved to our table. After that hand I only had a couple of chips left, I did manage to triple up before busting the next hand. Nothing really special so it was time to rail my buddy. He busted in 28th place, 16 got paid (out of 150) so that wasn’t really a good result either.
Now when talking to people everybody seemed to really dislike Venlo itself. There was nothing to do and most people were either playing cashgames or went directly to the hotel. My buddy and I knew some pub owners in Helmond which was nearby enough to head over there. On the way over we paid 2 guys €50 to drop us off, which seemed cheaper then taking a cab. From 23:00 till 02:30 we made sure we kept hydrating ourselves and at least we had a fun night out in a place I had never been to. The cab back was €115 so the deal we made with the two guys was pretty good 🙂 I woke up without a headache the next day which was a nice surprise and we chilled a bit outside in the sun since the €1.000 freezout started at 16:00 as well. I would rather start a little earlier and play some extra levels but at least it was a 2-Day event.
I started out losing 5k pretty early which was half of what we started with. There wasn’t really much I could do about those hands but I still was happy to get moved to another table as the gameflow wasn’t really going my way. My buddy was sitting on that table as well and some other people who like to chit-chat while playing so it was a bit more fun. Also I managed to win some pots and since the structure was a bit deeper then the €300 there was plenty of room left to play after the diner break. The table then broke, I moved back to my old table but rather quick I got moved again and was sitting next to Joep again. At that moment a lot of people had a shove stack so there wasn’t a lot of post-flop play left. I won some, lost some, shoved 3 times to pick up the blinds and when I shoved the 4th time with AK I lost vs 99. My buddy was still in so I was supporting him which ment bringing him enough beer. After he reached the last 27 players the tournament was stopped and we had a couple of beers in the Casino.
When arriving in the hotel we all still wanted to play some cards so we convinced the concierge to give us a deck of cards and we were allowed to sit in one of the conference rooms. Since the Hotel Bar was closed most of us went over to their hotel room to trash the mini-bar. Everybody had 2 bottle’s of beer, 2 small bottle’s of Bacardi, Whiskey, Jenever and maybe some other stuff as well. We decided to play a Sit & Go but only then found out we of course didn’t had any chips. One guy had an idea and after 3 minutes he came back with sweeteners, sugar and milk. So we divided those among the 6 of us and played some poker, it went like this: I raise your 2 sweeteners, with 1 sugar and a milk…. We had a good laugh, played some “slowroll” Omaha Flips after the Sit & Go and went to bed around 06:00.
Next morning when we checked out the lady asked if Mick had used something out of the mini-bar. When he replied: “Everything but the red wine” she was pretty confused 🙂 Mick had to play again at 17:00 but since some friends would pick him up to drive to Austria I didn’t need to stay around. Sure I wanted to see him winning the tournament but it would also be possible that I had waited all day and then he bust in the first hand so I drove home and watched him live on the internet, since Pokercity.nl did live coverage of the tournament. He busted in 10th place, winning €3.375, first price was $42.000 so unfortunate but still some extra money in his pockets. It was a fun weekend for sure and would love to do it more often but I won’t be able to play any other Holland Casino Series before I go to the WSOP. The MCOP in Amsterdam is for sure on my list as well.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.