The PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker has always been a very exciting tournament series for me, one I look forward to a lot every year, so it was nice to exchange beautiful, sunny Ibiza beaches and parties for something just as fun for me: grinding the WCOOP from a raining and grey Amsterdam.

Although I only slept for two hours the night before, and still had the Swedish house mafia beats from the club in my head, I was eager to finally start grinding WCOOP. I decided to late register for the $320 mixed hold'em event. I started out my poker career playing limit hold'em in the casino and later online. What a lot of people these days can't imagine is that there used to be days where there were more limit hold'em games then no limit games. Lots has changed!

The $320 mixed started great for me and, right off the bat, I was crushing it! I was running and playing great. Also I was really lucky with my table draws as I had players who would not mind me running over the table.

I would play pretty tight in no limit hold'em, but in the limit hold'em parts of the tournament I would play like a real animal, raising pretty much every hand I could to steal a lot of chips.
It wasn't until the final table where I really found some well known players such as Shaun Deeb and Gboro780. I started the final table with the chip lead and never looked back. It was an amazing feeling to finally win a WCOOP event after playing them for many years, and if I wasn't already so excited to play for a bracelet, I am even more determined now after tasting victory!

Two days later I came close again when I made the final table of the $530 Omaha Hi Lo tourney. At one point on the final table I was chip leader but in the end, after a few beats and ever-increasing blinds, I had to settle for 6th place.

At least I have another week of WCOOP to win a bracelet for my other wrist. Let's go!

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Poker started for me a few years after I found out that there was a Master Classics of Poker. I saw an ad once on TV; it was for one of Europe's biggest poker tournaments held in the Amsterdam Holland Casino each year. At the time I was only 16 years old and not legal to even enter the Casino. Since then lots has changed!

I first went to the Holland Casino to play in their cash game, which was 20-40 Limit Hold'em in Guilders (Dutch currency before the Euro). I will never forget the 600 Guilder pot I won when I hit my open-ended straight draw on the river, pretty much doubled my net worth at the time :-)

Every year since 2002 I have entered the Master Classics of Poker tourney series with a lot of success. It started in the first year, where I won a satellite for the main event on a freeroll ticket a friend of mine gave me. Back in the early days of the MCOP, Holland Casino added seven seats for the main event to a freeroll they held at the start of the week which was eligible for anyone who bought into three or more events.

Since then the Holland Casino has been adding more value to the tourney series by giving the six people who bubble for the money their tourney buy-ins back, making the whole tournament series a great value.

Since 2002 I have made at least one final table every year and twice two of them! That puts my FT count before this year's Master Classics at nine finals with no wins, a great record but all that really counts is the wins so this year I was even more focused to get a win in one of the five tournaments I played.

My first event I busted end of day 1, the next event, a PLO tourney, I had high hopes for but never really got anything going and busted at the start of day 2. I busted so early that I could still play in the 500 buy-in crapshoot a little later. I built up a good stack but after an unlucky hand I was 0-3 and it was time for my day off before the main event where the big money gets won.

I had a rough start on day 1 in the main but found my way back into it and bagged up an above average stack and was excited to come back the next day for day 2. Day 2 didn't go as planned when I lost 30% of my stack in a coin flip and after that I went completely card-dead. In the end I went broke just before dinner on day 2.

All week everyone was watching me and kept coming at me saying: "Hey, final table this year? You have to do it, like every year." So the pressure was on in the second last tourney of the series: the 1,000 euro, one rebuy tourney. I was off to a great start until my Q-Q ran into 2-2 all-in preflop and my opponent spiked a deucey for a 100 big blind pot, leaving me with a small stack. I stayed patient and was lucky enough to win my key hands and at the end of day 1, I was in good shape with an above average stack.

On day 2 we played down to the final table and after being one of the shortest stacks with 20 left I came back to become the chip leader heading for the final table the next day, I did it again! My tenth final table in eight years, and surely time for a win!

I was in great shape with the chip lead, but in the end I finished fourth* after losing two crucial coinflips. I was short stacked and eventually busted just after dinner when my A-3 ran into A-K.

In a tourney everything has to go right to win it, and this time in Amsterdam it again wasn't meant to be. I was fortunate to win my important flips on day 2 to make it to the final table; I just wish my luck lasted a little longer ;)

Next November I will be back for another Master Classics and hopefully another final table.

*Noah won $39,712 for the fourth-place finish

Winning WCOOP Heads-up tournaments has always been a huge goal of mine. Having watched fellow Dutchman Rob Hollink win the Heads-up in the first WCOOP ever, I was eager to follow in his footsteps and take this tournament down.

Unluckily for me I was met with my elimination in the very first round. I went 146 hands deep against my opponent "MickBt23" before going all in on a flip. I ended up getting it all in with AK against TT. The board ran out rags and I was busted out early. AK got me into trouble a few times in this tourney. It can be a tricky hand to play properly heads-up.

I came back to watch the final eight play, as this was the first big jump in money. Everyone was guaranteed over $16k in winnings at this point, which was over $10K more than the final 16 paid out. I noticed that fellow Magic the gathering player player and LAPT winner Julien Nuijten was still in it and was playing really strong. He grinded down his opponent 'pokerjamers' playing a balanced poker game until he had a big chip lead. Then Julien put the pressure on and took his opponent out.

In other final eight action, player 'Benba' took out 'evilly' in what was the quickest match of the quarter finals. Huxfluxen was the next to win his quarter final as he busted out sqmpork after a heated battle. The last match pitted Lucarelli and IFiNishfish against each with IFiNishfish as the eventual winner.

By the time the semi-finals were set, all the players were playing extremely well. They had each won many matches in a row, and were comfortably playing in most situations, and overall were showing huge confidence. Preflop no one was willing to commit much money and were rather trying to trap each other. What decided the final four ultimately came down to not making mistakes and instead producing sound decisions and maintaining a high level of mental endurance.

IFiNishfish faced off against Huxfluxen. This heads-up really didn't last long. On the tenth hand both players ended up all in on a flop of [5s 4s 3h]. Hux had 55 for a set, up against the flopped nuts of IFiNishfish who had 67. The board came turn K river K sending the pot to Huxfluxen with his runner runner full house. It was all over on the next hand when Hux took the last 100k off of his opponent in a blind all in.

PANDAChan12 (Julien) faced off against Benba in the other match. Julien continued to play his strong pre and post flop style, again grinding his opponent down pretty well until getting involved in a huge cooler hand. Julien and Benba ended up with first nut against third nut, and Benba doubled up huge. Julien took the chip lead back about 20 minutes later when he tripped up middle pair on the turn. It didn't take much longer for Julien to win the match.

Going into the heads-up final both players wanted to make a deal. Instead of playing for an extra $50K for first place, both players decided to take $70K and play for the remaining money. Play seemed to loosen up as both players were assured some nice money. Both players started to open up some more, with Julien getting in the hole early. Eventually both players were all in on the flop with Julien holding a pair against the flush draw of Huxfluxen. The flush hit on the turn, and Huxfluxen won the bracelet.

Watching this event play down with the best players battling it out was really a great experience for me. I am confident that my own thinking of how I played today combined with the analysis of watching the others (including the eventual winner) will prove to have been a really good rehearsal for the $25K Heads-up event

I will be playing in the WCOOP on Sunday. Wish me luck!

Congratulations to all the players that have cashed in this year's WCOOP, and good luck to the rest of you that are going to cash!

Noah Boeken is a member of Team PokerStars Pro.