Dutch TV Presenter Wins Master Classics of Poker Main Event

Alberto Stegeman Wins Master Classics of Poker Main Event

The 2018 Master Classics of Poker (MCOP) Main Event took place at the Holland Casino Amsterdam during the last week of November, and attracted 294 players to create a €1,164,240 ($1,327,677) prize pool. Five-day later, and emerging a top of the tournament was none other than Dutch journalist and TV presenter Alberto Stegeman, 47, who collected €240,183 ($273,900) for his outstanding performance.

While the Dutch celebrity is no stranger to poker, this does represent his first tournament title to date. Following his victory, Stegeman now boasts $273,900 from ten live cashes dating back to 2016. Furthermore, all of them stem from events originating in his own native country, with the exception of one. This year, Stegeman entered the €10,350 WSOP Europe Main Event in the Czech Republic, and eventually finished 68th out of 534 players to claim a €15,700 ($17,865) prize.

2018 MCOP €4,300 Main Event

The 2018 Master Classics of Poker €4,300 Main Event attracted an international assortment of players, and paid 36 money places. Amongst the notables then seeing a return on their buy-ins was Noah Boeken in 33rd (€7,800), Michiel Brummelhuis in 30th (€9,547), Giuliano Bendinelli in 20th (€11,642), Steve O’Dwyer in 27th (€9,547), Jan Eric Schwippert in 12th (€16,649), and Vlada Stojanovic in 10th (€19,909).

Final Table Recap

Two hands into the final table, Kilian Kramer (A-K) eliminated Pascal Baumgartner (K-Q) in 9th. Soon after, the Swiss player was followed out the door by Spain’s David Algarra in 8th, who jammed his short stack all in preflop holding A-9 only to walk into the pocket rockets of Henri Piironen.

Two hours later, Danilo Velasevic (Q-J) caught no traction against Joey Vittali (A-4) on a K-6-3-10-4 board to depart in 7th. Next, Meijer van Putten lost a big pot against Alberto Stegeman, and after being reduced to a short stack moved all in holding K-10 only to be picked off in 6th place by Vittali (A-K) after the board ran out 10-8-J-A-7.

Five-handed play saw Stegeman (10-10) hit a set on a 10-7-5-8-5 board against Henri Piironen (A-Q) to oust him from the competition in 5th. Before long, Stegeman (A-10) had doled out the same treatment to Joey Vittali (A-9) in 4th, followed by Teun Mulder in 3rd to herald the start of heads-up play.

Heads-Up

Alberto Stegeman began the final battle holding a commanding 7 million to 1.79 million chip advantage over talented pro Kilian Kramer. There was to be no quick resolution to the contest, though, and two hours would elapse before the deciding hand was played.

In the hand in question, Stegeman raised preflop holding pocket nines and received just a call from his opponent with pocket aces. However, Kramer was unable to get away from the flop, and after checking the J-9-10 board then opted to check-raise Stegeman’s raise all in. Stegeman wasted no time calling his opponent’s bet, with a Q and Q on turn and river bringing the proceedings to a close.

Kilian Kramer received €160,432 ($182,954) for his deep run in the tournament, in the process taking his career earnings past the $2 million mark. Meanwhile, an elated Alberto Stegeman became this year’s MCOP Main Event champion.

Final Table Results

1: Alberto Stegeman (Neth) €240,183
2: Kilian Kramer (Aust) €160,432
3: Teun Mulder (Neth) €111,418
4: Joey Vittali (Neth) €80,216
5: Henri Piironen (Fin) €59,842
6: Jasper van Putten (Neth) €45,987
7: Danilo Velasevic (Serb) €36,324
8: David Algarra (Spn) €29,222
9: Pascal Baumgartner (Switz) €23,983

The Master Classics of Poker is one of the world’s longest running poker tournaments, and over the years has been won by a number of big name players. This includes such home spun talent as Noah Boeken, Ruben Visser, and David Boyaciyan, as well as international pros such as Robert Mizrachi, Ram Vaswani, and Ole Schemion.