Many tours and festivals may be ferociously battling it out for bums on seats and vying for the hearts of the poker world, but there’s one prestigious tournament in Europe that always seems to draw a crowd with minimal effort, the ever-popular Amsterdam Master Classics in the extravagant Holland Casino proving once again to be high on everyone’s priority list.Although competing with the GBPT Main Event in Bristol, numbers were strong once again in Amsterdam, the crème de la crème following tradition and participating in what has become a seemingly unmovable fixture on the poker calendar.
And, as we reached final table, one of the veterans of the game, and probably this venue, Tony ‘The Lizard’ Bloom, headed in to the last day as shortstack after setting the pace for most of the week.
Seat 1: Noah Boeken -- 219,000
Seat 2: Michael Martin -- 819,000
Seat 3: Trond Eidsvig -- 1,062,000
Seat 4: Mikael Norinder -- 647,000
Seat 5: Joris Jaspers -- 219,000
Seat 6: Tony Bloom -- 119,000
Seat 7: Eric Larcheveque -- 435,000
Seat 8: Tristan McDonald -- 415,000
Seat 9: Christian Grundtvig -- 330,000
As expected, it was the Lizard who would be crawling his way back up the entrance ramp, his A-Q instacalled by Christian Grundtvig’s Kings and failing to improve on a raggy board.Next to fall would be 20-year old Joris Jaspers. After pushing in consecutive hands, Joris finally felt the wrath of the Bullets when his Qd-Jd was swiftly called by Martin’s (right) Aces. A Queen on the Flop wasn’t enough and Jaspers was gone, but his ‘Can You Feel It’ entrance music would live on in the heads of anyone who heard it.
Seven left, and it would be former Paris WPT winner Grundtvig who would snap up the next spot, an integral clash with Trond Eidsvig seeing all the chips fly in on a Js-5s-3s Flop with the young Scandinavian making the final call. Grundtvig had the set with Pocket Jacks, but with Trond’s Cowboys also threatening a higher flush, Grundtvig had good reason to fear the fourth space which cruelly hit the River.
If you thought American pro Martin was satisfied with eliminating just the one player, then think again, as he suddenly turned executioner as he first swallowed up Eric Larcheveque (K-K vs. A-Q), then M Norinder (A-A vs. K-Q) before finally catching Noah Boeken with his fingers in the cookie jar (K-9 vs. 9-7) to leave us with our final three.
Tristan McDonald -- 390,000
Trond Eidsvig -- 1,650,000
Michael Martin -- 2,240,000
England’s Tristan McDonald, inexplicably named Justin throughout, hit quads against Trond for a timely double up, but it wasn’t enough as he was forced to settle for 3rd place when 7-7 ran into the Norwegian’s K-K.
Although there were rumours of a deal in which both players agreed to €450,000 each, the heads-up encounter proved to be a mammoth affair, the back and forth action heading right into the early hours of the morning before Trond finally snatched victory with 6-8 on a 6-J-8-5-A board.
The final thus panned out as such:
1st Tronde Eidsvig -- €620,000
2nd Michael Martin -- €368,000
3rd Tristan McDonald -- €216,000
4th Noah Boken -- €139,000
5th M Norinder -- €111,000
6th Eric Larcheveque -- €87,000
7th Christian Grundtvig -- €66,000
8th Joris Jaspers -- €47,000
9th Tony Bloom -- €34,000
Although only emerging on the scene recently, Trond Erik Eidsvig has already proven himself to be a menacing foe with two final table appearances at the EPT, not to mention a third place finish in the Scottish Poker Championships.A successful cash game player from the small village of Ǻlesund, Eidsvig has been playing professionally for 18 months, but if his current form is anything to go by, we’ll be seeing him on the circuit for many more years to come.