Masterclassics of Poker, Holland Casino Amsterdam

As I sit down to review my week in Amsterdam it all seems a bit of a blur. I don’t suppose I’m the first to say that!

We arrived on Sunday morning, early! It seemed even earlier because the previous two days had involved Withnail’s Home Game on the Friday (an entertaining evening!) and some serious golf with Paul Spillane and Julian Gardner on the Saturday at The Grove. Although I lost the money, I might just have persuaded Julian to play as a Guest for WPS, a serious coup!

So I wasn’t 100% as I struggled out of bed in time to catch the 07.25 from Heathrow to Amsterdam on Sunday. What does the 0 stand for? There wasn’t enough coffee in the World to cheer me up.

Things didn’t improve when we arrived as the hotel wouldn’t give us rooms until 2pm, the starting time of the €500 buy-in warm up tournament. I was hoping to check in early and get some sleep but instead we went for more breakfast. Breakfast in Amsterdam probably isn’t the best preparation for a poker tournament!

A few hours later and things were no better. I had just changed tables for the second time. I was down to 1,100 of my 3,000 starting stack and I was yet to check in to my hotel.

30 minutes later and life was beautiful as I wandered back to the Holland Casino having just left my bags in my brand spanking new room. Inside my chip-leading stack of 35,000 was waiting for me to go back and raise every pot and cruise to the final table. I had gone from 1,100 to 35,000 in three hands, one after the other! It was the biggest rush I’ve ever experienced (at least at poker!). Average was 7k. There is no better feeling than being a HUGE chip leader at the table.

When I got back they were breaking the table again! There was some amusement in the fact that I needed two bags to carry my chips across to my new seat. Then it took me the best part of a round of the table to stack up my chips. Cool!

I should have just cruised into the money as a big stack and then thought about the final table but I played badly for the rest of the evening and into the night. I think I tried to win the two day tournament on Day 1 - always a stupid move. Having had five times the average with 150 left I was a short stack approaching the bubble. But I didn’t want to come back the next day without a decent shot of winning, so I found a last opportunity to be aggressive before the flop. My 86 was no match for TT. The return of the €500 buy-in for my trouble hardly seemed worth it.

Withnail