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Name: Rolf "Ace" Slotboom
Place of birth: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Professional player since: March 1998

Rolf preparing his daily
reports at the 2003
Master Classics of Poker.

In the summer of 1995, when I was still a student Communication Science at the University of Amsterdam, I started working as a dealer in the first ever 24-hours poker club in town, Concord Card Casino. I enjoyed the work a lot and even though it slowed down my study a little, there was no way I was going to give up the job. In the end, this is what I had to, as the Dutch state casino successfully exercised its monopoly on casino gaming and the Concord was closed down. I then got the offer to move to Concord’s mother company in Vienna, Austria, together with two former colleagues of mine. The work was nice, the payment was fine and I had the chance to work in a very pleasant atmosphere. Still, I thought –as most dealers do- I was talented enough to make a living playing the game, rather than dealing, and I decided to try my luck at the other side of the table. From March 1998 on, I was officially a professional poker player and even though my knowledge and experience were rather limited back then, I was fortunate enough to be a winning player from day #1.

At first, I limited myself to playing only (low) limit hold’em and stud. As my experience grew and my results continued to be good, I gradually worked my way up to the middle limits. In the year 2000 (after having quit my study) I picked up pot-limit poker and was rewarded with the biggest rush out of my career. My main game (which had always been limit hold’em) is now pot-limit Omaha, a highly skillful but also extremely dangerous gambling game, and I’m working hard on improving my ‘other’ games as well (stud, hi/lo games, pineapple-poker). In fact, as you are reading this, I have also become very successful playing in the biggest online games, and in the year 2005 I even became the first “Dutch Poker Champion” by winning the Holland Casino Poker Championships.

At the end of the year 2000 I started writing my regular “Ace Speaks” column for Poker Digest magazine (people in Europe used to call me “Ace”, because when I started my career I played extremely tight; some people claimed I would never play a hand that didn’t contain an ace, no matter the game). I also started writing for the internet site Poker Pages on a regular basis and have been busy developing a point count system for rating poker casinos around the world (see “The ACE Casino Point Count”) and creating a new and exciting tournament game, called “Potnopine Hold’em”. Together with my former girlfriend - and former Concord colleague - Elvira we used to travel from Amsterdam to our “second home” Vienna and back again. We’ve also checked out the action in England –Victoria-, France –Aviation Club-, Russia –Cosmos / Taleon Club- and the U.S.A -Mirage / Bellagio / Commerce / Hollywood Park / Bay 101-, and we’ve done quite a few poker cruises, like Poker Europe’s Mediterranean and Poker Digest’s Northern Europe cruise. In addition to hosting my first ever live poker seminar there, we also had the honor to meet famous people like Mr. Thompson and my former bosses Mr. and Mrs. Field. My results (as well as my play) still keep getting better all the time, and the years 2002 and 2003 have topped all previous records for cash games; plus, I even had a few tournament wins as well. I am now a successful and somewhat established money player, who has gotten recognition not for making big scores all the time, but for my consistency and my unusually steady results. My column for Card Player and my teaching for Poker School Online have been both fun and very helpful – not in the last place for myself, as I am certain that my articles / lessons have helped me understand my own game better.
My main goal for the future will be to make pot-limit poker as popular in the U.S. as it is in Europe now, and to help in creating a worldwide, sponsored, poker tournament competition that might increase the popularity of the game even more by making it a sports, rather than a gambling event. But since this development has basically taken place already in the U.S., I guess there is not much work for me to do here. Another goal is of course to make as much money as I possibly can – but hey, you guys already knew that.
Since 2006, my outside activities have taken over a bit from my playing. I became the Dutch poker commentator at Eurosport, was involved in the poker road show Vegas Voyage, wrote several books (that can be found here at the site), had a daily poker column in a Dutch newspaper, was Bureau Chief at CardPlayer Europe, and was Europe’s tournament reporter at PokerPages. At the beginning of 2008, I quit most of these activities to become a sponsored pro for T6. As part of this deal, I started playing all the major live tournaments – and with more than decent success. After the decline of T6 I joined Holland Poker in 2009, traveling the Dutch tournament circuit as Team Captain. (And again, with more than decent results.) I started writing a popular weekly column for Dutch news site Pokercity, and hosted the monthly internet talkshow “Poker Inside” on this same site. In 2011, the year Rebecca and I got married, I became the spokesperson for the Dutch Poker Federation. and chairman of the Advisory Body. A more ‘political’ task than anything I have ever done, and a great challenge for the future – more than anything because of all the recent worldwide developments regarding online poker. In fact, late 2011 I decided to skip all of my outside activities, including my sponsor deal for Holland Poker and my regular column for Pokercity, in favor of my activities for the Dutch Poker Federation – to focus exclusively on my tasks there.

Rolf’s live tournament winnings to date

Netherlands all Time Money List, Cashes at WSOP etc.

Ace at Wikipedia

Ace at Blondepedia