Marc Naalden spent 10 years in the business world before quitting his job in 2005 to become a professional poker player. Last night, he became a WSOP bracelet holder after dominating 2009 WSOP Event #38 from start to finish. With seven players left Naalden had more than half the chips in play, and other than a brief hiccup heads up he had the near wire to wire finish which yielded him $190,770 for his victory in this tournament.
“This is my fourth WSOP,” Naalden said to the WSOP. “I have played in a lot of events … and third place was my best finish. It is very hard to win a WSOP event. Finally, after all of those efforts, it feels fantastic.”
After playing an estimated 65 World Series of Poker events, Naalden won Event 38, the $2,000 limit hold ‘em event, and can join Rob Hollink as the second WSOP bracelet winner from Holland.
He cruised until heads-up play in which Steven Cowley put up a battle. Cowley managed to gain the chip lead at one point, but the advantage didn’t last long.
The experience of traveling the European circuit seemed to help Naalden keep his focus and realistic outlook. Even though he held the chip lead for most of the last two days, he understood that he needed to do a lot of work.
“Yeah, you tend to over-exaggerate your chances because you have a big chip lead,” he said. “But [I] only had 25 percent of the chips in play. So, I have only about a 25 percent chance of winning, and plus the fact there are quite a few strong players. So, I thought to myself, ‘Don’t get too excited.’ But I went on a big heater.”
Other notable finishers included Phil Hellmuth (17th), Rafe Furst (19th) and Daniel Negreanu (26th).
Below are the complete results of Event 38:
Event 38: Limit hold ‘em
Buy-in: $2,000
Entries: 446
Prize pool: $811,720
Players in the money: 45
1. Marc Naalden ($190,770)
2. Steve Cowley ($117,902)
3. Ian Johns ($77,576)
4. Tam Hang ($54,182)
5. Alex Keating ($39,977)
6. Danny Qutami ($31,088)
7. Jared O’Dell ($25,439)
8. Jameson Painter ($21,819)
9. Ralph Porter ($19,594)
10. Doug Young ($14,156)
11. Nancy Blaustein ($14,156)
12. Ron Burke ($14,156)
13. Yan Li ($10,544)
14. David Baker ($10,544)
15. Anthony Pirone ($10,544)
16. Henric Strath ($8,019)
17. Phil Hellmuth ($8,019)
18. Mike Thorpe ($8,019)
19. Rafael Furst ($6,169)
20. Eric Rivkin ($6,169)
21. Shawn McBride ($6,169)
22. Matthew Lichtie ($6,169)
23. Robert Laberge ($6,169)
24. Julio Rodriguez ($6,169)
25. Brian Cospolich ($6,169)
26. Daniel Negreanu ($6,169)
27. Matthew Kelly ($6,169)
28. Erik Haakenson ($4,902)
29. Stuart McHenry ($4,902)
30. Andreas Martens ($4,902)
31. Matthew Dames ($4,902)
32. Hien Tran ($4,902)
33. Christopher Mudd ($4,902)
34. Stephen Westfall ($4,902)
35. Alexander Kravchenko ($4,902)
36. Diego Cordovez ($4,902)
37. Alexander Morozov ($3,953)
38. Robert Breeden ($3,953)
39. Hansu Chu ($3,953)
40. Rich McRoberts ($3,953)
41. Fu Wong ($3,953)
42. Marvin Wassermann ($3,953)
43. Suresh Doshi ($3,953)
44. Soheil Shamseddin ($3,953)
45. Jeff Wagner ($3,953)
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