2015 WPT Amsterdam Champion Farid Yachou Leads After Day 1a

The first of two starting days of the 2018 World Poker  Tour Amsterdam Season 2017-2018 €3,300 Main Event at the Holland Casino attracted a field of 83 entries and just 40 players bagged up chips after eight levels of 60 minutes each. At the top of the counts is a player that already knows how to run good on Dutch soil, as WPT champions club member and 2015 Amsterdam winner Farid Yachou (pictured above) claimed the top spot with 183,500.

While Yachou slowly but surely grinded his way to an above-average stack throughout the day, it wasn’t until the last three hands of the night were announced that he jumped into the top spot. In a big three-way clash he called the shoves of Kees van Brugge and Ali Matin on an eight-high board with trey-deuce suited for the flush draw. Van Brugge turned over pocket aces and Matin had pockettens, but a third diamond on the river gave Yachou the winning flush.

Other notables with big stacks include Jean Paul Zaffran (147,500), Bart Spijkers (129,700), Hossein Ensan (110,000), Alex Foxen (99,300), Justin Bonomo (88,600), Jonathan Abtellatif (83,200), 2017 WPT Amsterdam third-place finisher Jan Jansma (82,700), Hakim Zoufri (80,000), Govert Metaal (79,300), Kristen Bicknell (51,600), Tobias Peters (47,700) and WPT champions club member Anthony Zinno ( 43,200).

Also through to day 2 on Wednesday April 18th 2018 are Jack Sinclair (40,300), Rainer Kempe (31,800) and 2017 Master Classics of Poker Main Event champion Claas Segebrecht (27,000). Among those to take a shot and fail to run up a stack were such familiar faces as Steve O’Dwyer, Noah Boeken, Thijs Menco, Chino Rheem, Olvedo Heinze and €1,500 WPTDeepStacks finalist Dzmitry Rabotkin.

The day started with three tables in action and a bang that saw Bart Spijkers climb up 80,000 in the first level, als thanks to the bottom set against top pair and top kicker of Tobias Peters. In level three, Govert Metaal failed with a bluff on a busted nut flush draw and was caught by Jean Pauil Zaffran with queen-five suited for two pair.

Both Peters and Metaal re-entered successfully, as did Abdelhakim Zoufri. As the levels went by, the field grew more and more international with the arrival of such big names as Maria Ho, Rainer Kempe, Steve O’Dwyer and poker’s latest power couple Alex Foxen and Kristen Bicknell.

In the last level of the night, Bicknell flopped a flush with queen-ten suited against Chino Rheem and her boyfriend dominated one table over. From there on out, the action escalated quickly at the tables for all that wanted to get a dccent stack for Day 2 or bust and try again the next day.

Day 1b will kick off at 2 p.m. local time on April 17th 2018, and just prior to that the WPT Player Council hosted by Matt Savage will take place at the top floor of the casino at the restaurant area.