Congratulations to Niels van Leeuwen, Winner of the World Poker Tour National Valkenburg (€40,000)
The first ever World Poker Tour National in the Netherlands reached its epic conclusion late on Sunday, as Niels van Leeuwen came out on top. Van Leeuwen took home €40,000 after beating some very tough competition at the final table that including some of the Netherlands' best players. The godfather of poker in the Netherlands, Marcel Luske, made a very impressive run and busted out in third place.
The third and final day started with Van Leeuwen as the overwhelming chip leader and 16 other hopefuls, but within two levels just 10 remained. Pim van Wieringen was extremely active right away as he knocked out a few players and doubled some up. Jeroen Minnekeer was the first to go followed by [Removed:31], Jeno Marton and Stieven Razab-Sekh. In 13th place we lost Peter Gutker to Van Leeuwen, the start of the day chip leader, who was unstoppable for most of the day. Sandro Pitzanti was very unlucky just minutes later when his ace-king could not hold up against Van Leeuwen's ace-seven. The last table was reached when Rolf Weisshaupt busted in a hand where Joep van den Bijgaart more than doubled up through Thomas Brader.
Zeus Post was knocked out in 10th place when his queens were no match against Van Wieringen's ace-queen who managed to river a straight. One hand later Post was knocked out to Luske's aces, followed by Timo Hendricks who busted out on the official final table bubble.
Luske came into the final table as one of the short stacks but he managed to triple up at the start to give himself some more breathing room. Danny op t Hof had a better position going into the final table, but he was knocked out in eighth place for €5,459. Just a few hands later it was Van Wieringen who was all in for his tournament life with ace-queen against ace-king for the biggest pot of the tournament, but the board saved him when a straight rolled off. Van Leeuwen could've had half the chips in play with six left, but things didn't go his way yet.
Van Tran busted out in seventh place, and it was none other than Van Leeuwen who took his last chips. After this hand Luske doubled up again through Van Leeuwen, but this only dented the stack of the chip leader just slightly. Thomas Brader finished in sixth place for €8,189 and Joep van den Bijgaart's grind ended in fifth place when he ran ace-nine into Van Leeuwen's ace-king.
One hand after Van den Bijgaart's departure it was Ronald Keijzer who hit the rail in fourth place. Keijzer took home €13,843 for his efforts after he also busted out to Van Leeuwen who held pocket kings against ace-ten. After this hand Luske took the lead for a while after playing very aggressively, but it didn't last long. Van Wieringen cracked Luske's aces in the craziest hand of the tournament, and shortly after that Luske hit the rail.
The heads-up battle lasted for quite a while, especially considering the big limits, but in the end it was Van Leeuwen who came out on top. Van Wieringen lost the last hand of the day holding ace-nine against Van Leeuwen's pocket fives. Van Leeuwen was extremely happy with his big win and he walks away €40,000 richer, and he'll forever be able to say that he was the first ever World Poker Tour winner.