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Marcel Lüske over the years:
The Fox Just Keeps On Flying Higher And Higher

When I started my professional poker career about eight years ago, I could regularly be found playing limit hold'em games as small as $5-10, trying to grind out one to two big bets per hour. I usually played in the Holland Casinos in my hometown Amsterdam. Every once in a while, a tall and charismatic person would walk into our poker room, always looking fresh and shiny, nine times out of ten wearing a tailor-made suit with the inevitable tie. Everyone in the room knew who he was: Marcel Lüske, the man who had his own club just around the corner where people could play poker every now and then, and someone who generally wanted to play for much higher stakes than most of us felt comfortable with back then.

While Marcel would continue to pop in occasionally to play in the big game, I slowly but surely continued to move my way up the ranks, and after a couple of years I was finally ready to make the transition to what I'll refer to as "Marcel's game". The big game at that time had become pot-limit Omaha, a fast and high-stakes gambling game, and also one that featured quite a few big gunners: in addition to Marcel, we had people like Ed de Haas, Rolf Schreuder and Kosta Anastasyadis who would come in at least three or four days a week. I was very pleased that I managed to hold my own in this game, because for years I had looked up to these high-rollers, and now it was me, the little guy, battling wits with them on a regular basis. My strategy, which was not much more than just a waiting-for-the-nuts / sandbagging / move-in-early approach, was quite different from the open and attacking style of play that Marcel was known for, a style that more than anything was based on quality reads rather than just on playing quality cards. Because of our different approaches to the game, we got involved in huge pots on quite a few occasions and we had big clashes more than once. Of course, I didn't always get the best of it (in fact, most of the time I probably got the worst of it), but there was no question that all people in the game - myself included - enjoyed the company and the colorful personality of Marcel, whose presence helped in creating an exciting, gambling type of atmosphere.

Flying Fox spreads his wings

Then suddenly, just when I thought that we had found a game that would last, Marcel decided it was time to broaden his horizon. In the year 2001, he made his debut on the European tournament trail, and he totally crushed the opposition - in fact, for some time it looked like he would win just about every tournament that he played. That year, he got voted Europe's Player of the Year (as he told me in an interview three years ago: "without even a single vote from my home country The Netherlands"), and in no time he had established himself as the man to beat. He got nicknamed the "Dutch Flying Fox" and also the "Flying Dutchman", and a mutual friend of ours even coined the term "Poker Criminal", because of Marcel's constant focus on stealing pots away from his opponents. It was clear though that Marcel had basically left aside both this game of ours as well as his own club in favor of what he really wanted: trying to challenge the best in order to reach his ultimate goal - becoming the best player in the world.

A few recent changes

When we had our talk at the EPT Grand Final in Monaco in March 2005, the most prestigious European event I had ever witnessed (with a buy-in of no less than 10,000 Euros), Marcel said: "You know Rolf, all the recent changes in poker are just great for everyone. When I started traveling the circuit, there would be one magazine to take your picture if you happened to win an event. Nowadays, there's a whole bunch of them. And then there's the Internet, the Eurosport broadcasts, the sponsorship deals, and in addition to that, both the fields as well as the buy-ins are much larger now. All of this means that just one single win has become quite significant, because there's a lot of fortune and fame at stake - much more than just a few years ago."

"But as a consequence, it has also become much harder to win events nowadays. If I go somewhere to play in a tournament week that has six or seven events and I make two final tables, finishing fifth and ninth, people will view this as disappointing because they are used to seeing me win events. But they forget that with today's large fields, results like this would be much better than average, even for good players like me! So, even though in recent months I have not been doing too well (note: these comments were made a couple of weeks before Marcel's big win at Bellagio's Five-Star World Poker Classic), probably more than anything because of bad luck in some crucial situations, I am convinced that I will start winning big events again soon - even though I know it is simply much harder than before. Don't forget: Not just are the fields larger, but the overall level of play has gone up as well, and there can be no doubt that lots of players are actively trying to find the necessary adjustments to counter my game. Now, even though they may not always make the proper adjustments, for instance because they are not yet thinking at the same level as I do, it does affect my edge of course. And everyone knows that it is hard to just stay at the top when so many others are trying to take your place. But despite all these problems, I just love this sudden interest in poker, and the growth that the game is experiencing. Because of this, I will continue to do my share and help poker grow even bigger than it already is."

Business opportunities

Now, for the man who has truly terrorized the tournament circuit in recent years and who is always described as a real "character", it is obvious that there are lots of opportunities to profit from his popularity. In fact, doing business is something that is simply second nature to him. Already a couple of years ago, he was the one to set up Holland's national poker team "The Dutch Poker Police" (including Ed de Haas, Rolf Schreuder, Kosta Anastasyadis, Rob Hollink and me), easily getting the Dutch state casino interested in backing this project. From there, he got involved in setting up the International Poker Federation that has already hosted major tournaments in St. Maarten and Australia. And when I talked to Marcel right after getting back from Vegas, he had already focused on yet another new venture, having joined with Poker Royalty, an agency that carries the biggest stars in poker. Marcel also shared his plans of setting up something new and extra-ordinary with regards to worldwide poker, but I have promised him not to give away any details until this project is truly under way, so I guess I'll just stick to this promise. All in all, as one of the first ever sponsored players, and with a brand new DVD on the way, the Flying Fox clearly knows how to come up with projects that are not just in his own best interest, but that may actually be of benefit to the poker community as a whole.

Young players under his wing

Even though Marcel is usually the center of attention and the person that people always want to talk to, he doesn't mind sharing his knowledge and his experience with others to help them get better. In the U.S., David Williams, runner up to Greg Raymer at the 2004 World Series, has obviously profited from the fact that he and Marcel get along quite well. And in Europe, young rising star Noah Boeken may be even more thankful for the fact that Marcel has taken him under his wing. Not just does this young man live at Marcel's place, Marcel has also helped Noah lift his game to the level he has now reached: a serious threat to anyone. But in contrast to what one might expect, the Flying Fox is not trying to take full credit for these young people's successes, but rather he compliments them for their ability to learn and develop. Or, in Marcel's own words: "These young guns would probably have made it to the top anyway, but now they may just have gotten there a bit faster. What's more, the interaction with these youngsters also keeps my own mind fresh and leaves me open to new insights. So, by no means is this just a one-way traffic."

Making the transition to the U.S.

As big as Marcel had become in Europe ever since his triumphs on the tournament trail, in the U.S. quite a few people were still fairly skeptical in the beginning. Despite his impressive resume, lots of Americans didn't automatically give Marcel credit for being the top player that he had proven himself to be. On one of his first final tables in the U.S., an event that I was able to follow through a live broadcast on the Internet, the introduction of the final table to the public went something like this. All other finalists at the final table received a warm applause and got extensive descriptions of their accomplishments, their wins and their successes, and then when it was Marcel's turn, the only comment was: "And finally, we've got Marcel Lüske from Europe." Yet, this was the man who had truly crushed the European tournament circuit for more than two years, and who probably more had wins to his credit than all other finalists at that table combined! Of course, once Marcel's face had become a bit more familiar to the people, and especially when he reached the final two tables at the WSOP on two consecutive years (events with 839 and 2,576 entrants respectively), there was no way getting around him anymore, as he had shown the entire world that he hadn't gotten his reputation for nothing. In fact, if you check out the forum on www.cardplayer.com or the newsgroup Rec.Gambling.Poker (RGP), you will find that Marcel has quickly become one of the most popular players around. This popularity of his is caused for a large part because of an appearance on one of the nationwide American poker TV shows. On the final of an important event, Marcel made a quality laydown. Right after he had folded his cards, his opponent started yapping at him "You had kings?", with Marcel immediately responding: "No, I did not have kings. You did." When the show was aired, millions of Americans could see that Marcel's read was spot on - his opponent indeed sitting there with cowboys - and that despite all of the chatter, the singing and the friendly banter, this Flying Dutchman does know how to play.

Success overseas

But it is not just his charismatic character or his good reads that have made him so popular overseas - most importantly, it has been his good results. Knowing how many absolute top players there are at every major event in the U.S. nowadays, Marcel's results are simply quite impressive. Already in 2003, he booked his first ever large win across the pond, taking the $1,500 pot-limit Omaha at the Five-Star World Poker Classic. First prize: A mere $67,000, rather disappointing for a tournament of this stature. A year later he showed he was not just capable of winning an event but also of collecting big money, when his tenth place at the 2004 World Series earned him no less than $373,000. And yet another year later he showed how to combine the two, beating a huge field at the $2,000 no-limit holdem (again at Bellagio's Five-Star World Poker Classic), collecting over $200,000 in one of the most prestigious tournaments in the world. At this final table, Marcel was never in any kind of serious trouble, and three-handed he had acquired so many chips that he could simply bully his way to the title almost free of risk. And if he hadn't lost a crucial pot with aces against kings on the first day of the $25,000 Championship event, all the money going in before the flop, well then who knows what might have happened. Now it was another Dutch star who managed to do well in this event - EPT Grand Final winner Rob Hollink, who would finish fifth here for $377,420 total. But fact is that in no time Marcel has established his name on both sides of the pond, and he is now without a doubt the person who could help European poker grow along the same lines as in the States. In other words: The Fox just keeps flying higher and higher, while most of us are simply standing on the sidelines - watching him fly.

Marcel Lüske is the biggest winner in European tournament poker over the past five years, and has been voted Europe's Player of the Year both in 2001 and in 2004. He has recently joined Poker Royalty and is also part of the International Poker Federation. He is using his popularity and his contacts to move poker into the direction that he views is best: as an exciting and glamorous sports event, where the top players are treated as stars. His most recent win was on April 6th in Las Vegas at the Bellagio, where he took the $2,000 no-limit hold'em for a $212,070 first prize.

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