Poached egg ‘n boast

Master Classics Of Poker 2003, Amsterdam
Report by Keith ‘The Camel’ Hawkins on Wednesday, 5 November 2003 at 9:04 pm

Amsterdam. The only city in the world where you need a holiday when you get home to recover from your holiday.

So many stories so little time.

I could tell you the one about the Chimney Sweep betting an American heiress $10,000 that he doesn’t dye his hair and her offering to pay for his flight to Texas to go to a clinic to prove it.

Or Carlo Citrone betting 1000 Euros that he can eat 24 poached eggs on toast inside 30 minutes.

Or Graham Pound telling the satellitte organiser with a totally straight face his name was Jan Boubli to avoid waiting 2 hours to get a seat, while the real Jan Boubli huffed and puffed in indignation that he was sure he was due a seat.

Or Mick the Clock swapping 5% with me in the 200 no limit holdem 10 minutes after selling his seat.

But seeing as my current bugbear is the scalping of seats in big tournaments, depriving players getting in at the right price I will tell you about how the scalpers got scalped earlier this week…

In the minutes before the 200 limit holdem on Monday tickets were changing hands at upwards of 550 euros. Disgraceful.

But the unscrupulous members of the poker community saw a perfect opportunity for a killing on the next days 500 Euro Omaha. Especially when a rumour went round the bar there was only 3 seats left!

There followed an unsightly scramble to the Cashiers Cage as 3 individuals who will remain nameless scrabbled to get their mucky paws on the seats…

They looked like the cats who had got the cream and were already mentally spending the 400 Euros they hoped to make on their investments..

But, oh no! The rumour was no more than that! There was still 50 seats left! The three Amigos were left with tickets in events they had already got entries for. And if the scramble to buy the seats was unsightly, the attempts of these boys to try and sell their investments was little more than pitiful. I hate to see a grown man beg!

I am pleased to report at least two of the Amigos were forced to sell the seats at a loss!

The poker this week has been not to good as yet for either me or The Mob. But the real stuff starts today with the 3000 Euro main event.

The boys better get their collective fingers out because at the start of the week I backed at least one of them to make a final at 2/5 and I am starting to sweat.

But that won’t stop me working my pieces off to try and knock them out today!

Take care,

The Camel

Keith (far right) and the Reading Mob

Final results of the Euro 200 NLH Unlimited Rebuys:

Entrants: 220 Rebuys: 312
Prize money: EUR 106,400
Added prize money: EUR 2,400
Total prize money: EUR 108,800

1. Johan Storakers, Sweden, EUR 42,134
2. Job van Dommelen, Netherlands, EUR 21,067
3. Anthony Chapman, England, EUR 10,534
4. Noah Boeken, Netherlands, EUR 6,847
5. Patrice Boudet, France, EUR 5,267
6. Bob Morley, England, EUR 3,687
7. Elias Brussiamos, Greece, EUR 2,633
8. Lawrence Robjent, England, EUR 2,107
9. Rino Mathis, Switzerland, EUR 1,580