Nearly two years ago, just as poker players were taking their seats for Day 1A of the WPTDeepStacks Amsterdam event at Holland Casino, tournament organizers were forced to postpone the tournament. At the time, little was known about COVID-19, but precautions were being taken and that included preventing gatherings of more than 100 people at indoor locations in the Netherlands.
Over the next weeks, months, and years, COVID-10 wreaked havoc on the poker tournament scene. Tournaments were canceled or postponed. Now, as the world is beginning to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, poker tournaments are back in a big, big way – and that includes the return of WPTDeepStacks Amsterdam after what turned out to be a two-year hiatus.
The festival runs March 25 – April 2 and features 11 events highlighted by the €1,100 buy-in WPTDeepStacks Main Event starting on March 29. The Main Event features two starting flights (March 29 & 30) which offer unlimited re-entry. Players start with 30,000 chips and will play 40-minute levels on their way to crowning the newest WPTDeepStacks champion.
For those looking to get in on the action for a fraction of the price, there is a €120 buy-in Main Event satellite on Monday, March 28.
The rest of the schedule includes three Hyper NLH events, a pair of Pot Limit Omaha events, and four No Limit Hold’em events, the highlight of which is the €2,200 buy-in WPTDeepStacks 8-Max High Roller on Friday, April 4. That event allows for a single re-entry.
In 2019, Felix Schulze worked his way through 506 other entries to win WPTDeepStacks Amsterdam Main Event for a $117,018 score. It was his third win of the festival and gave the young German poker pro the chance to correct a mistake he’d made earlier in the week.
“After my first win, I didn’t even have a winner’s photo taken. So I joked with the tournament director that I would wait to have my picture taken as Main Event winner. He just came and congratulated me and was shocked it actually happened.”
The World Poker Tour has been coming to Amsterdam since 2015. From 2015 – 2018, Holland Casino hosted a WPT Main Tour event with Farid Yachou (2015), Andjelko Andrejevic (2016), Daniyar Aubakirov (2017), and Florens Feenstra (2018) each adding their name to the WPT Mike Sexton Champions Cup.
Holland Casino is seen as the epicenter of poker in the Netherlands. The 12-table room regularly hosts a full sale of tournaments and cash game action.