The inaugural WPT National Valkenburg at Holland Casino has crowned its first champion, Niels van Leeuwen. The €550 buy-in WPT National Main Event concluded with 402 entries, a total prizepool of €194,970 and first place taking home €40,000.
Van Leeuwen triumphed after battling his way through an eight-handed all Dutch Final Table which fittingly, for the first WPT event in Holland, included local poker legend ‘The Flying Dutchman’ Marcel Luske. Van Leeuwen started the final day with the overwhelming chip leader closely followed by fellow countryman Pim van Wieringen, who set the early pace by knocking out the first three players at the Final Table. The long heads-up battle between Niels and Pim concluded with Van Leeuwen taking the title of the first ever champion of a WPT National event in Holland.
Notable players who made the trip to southern Holland included runner-up at the Season XI WPT Baden Main Event Paul Berende and famous local players such as Mateusz Moolhuizen, Oanh Bui and Steve Wong.
For full information on how the tournament played out see the live coverage from Pokernews.
Event Statistics:
Final Table Standings
- Niels van Leeuwen (Holland) €40,000
- Pim van Wieringen (Holland) €28,856
- Marcel Luske (Holland) €18,990
- Ronald Keijzer (Holland) €13,843
- Joep van den Bijgaart (Holland) €10,236
- Thomas Brader (Holland) €8,189
- Van Tran (Holland) €6,824
- Danny op t Hof (Holland) €5,459
The next WPT National heads to Marrakech for the €1200 Main Event October 9-12. For full festival details see the wpt event page here: http://www.worldpokertour.com/Shared/Tournaments/Seasons/Regional_and_National/PMU_fr_WPT_National_Marrakech.aspx