In poker terms, Marcel Luske is old.
We refer to him as a Dutch legend, and whenever we apply that wart onto the skin of the stars of this world, we are saying, “you are old.”
Luske is a dapper, handsome man, but in poker parlance, he’s been around longer than most young wizards have been alive, and his first-ever live tournament cash was in the 1999 Master Classics of Poker, showing how old the Netherlands premier poker tournament is.
In fact, It’s been around longer than Luske.
27-years.
So, it was a surprise to see the organisers forget the culture that created such a powerful brand.
Culture doesn’t merely exist, you create it, and that’s what the Master Classics of Poker has done to great effect over the past 27-years. In doing so, they have created a tightly knit group that turn up year after year to play in the event, and sample the delights that the city of Amsterdam has to offer.
As Seth Godin says in his brilliant book This is Marketing – culture beats strategy – so much that culture is strategy.
It was not a solid strategy to hold a €25k buy-in event as part of the festival, because the Master Classics isn’t a tightly knit group of people that play €25k events.
Steve O’Dwyer Wins Again
The €25k High Roller at the Holland Casino in Amsterdam attracted a measly three entrants. It’s a cataclysmic miscalculation in expectation by the organisers, and one that leaves an albatross sized poop stain on the festival when it comes to the recognition it receives annually.
O’Dwyer beat a field containing Stefan Wolzak and Patrik Antonius, and the form that the American is in, you have to take your hat off to the both of them for even getting into the ring with the man. With more than $6m in live tournament poker alone on his resume in 2018, you have to be a sadist to want to exchange chips with him.
Wolzak controlled the early action before O’Dwyer found pocket aces at the same time Antonius went for gold holding KQss. The rockets held up, Antonius went searching for the person who suggested he show up, and O’Dwyer went into the heads-up encounter with Wolzak even in chips.
O’Dwyer won the first couple of pots, took the chip lead, and like a bellboy holding a bag, patiently waiting for his tip, he never relinquished it. A simpleton would have figured this one out. Heat begets heat, and you don’t find them much hotter than O’Dwyer these days.
Here is the final hand.
Wolzak opened to 600 from the button, and O’Dwyer called. The flop was Tc6h2s, and O’Dwyer check-called a 700 Wolzak bet. The kc hit the turn, and O’Dwyer check-called a 2,800 Wolzak bet. The final card was the Jc, O’Dwyer checked for the third time, Wolzak bet 4,500, O’Dwyer moved all-in, and the Dutchman called. Wolzak showed two black aces, but O’Dwyer had him beat with 52cc for the flush.
The win was O’Dwyer’s fifth of 2018 and comes a week after the American finished second to Roger Teska in the $25,500 MILLIONS World in the Bahamas where he earned $1.3m.
O’Dwyer tripled his money, pocketing €74,250 for the win, and I expect him to have a successful trip to Prague for the PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) if he does, as expected, choose the winter wonderland instead of the dry heat of Las Vegas and the World Poker Tour (WPT) Five Diamond Poker Classic.
When it comes to culture, O’Dwyer is a man who prefers a European one over an American.
