The Master Classics of Poker returns to Holland Casino Amsterdam City Center from Nov. 13-21, with the 35th edition of Europe’s longest-running poker festival bringing nine days of action to the Dutch capital. The schedule features a restructured Main Event, lower High Roller buy-ins with larger starting stacks, and a full program of bounty events, PLO tournaments, satellites, and Hyper Turbos. The €3,000 Main Event runs Nov. 17-21 and serves as the centerpiece of a festival that dates back to 1992.
The Master Classics of Poker is Europe’s oldest continuously running poker festival. It was born in November 1992 at Holland Casino Amsterdam City Center, when Holland Casino management sent two executives to Las Vegas to learn how to run a poker tournament from Doug Dalton, then at The Mirage. Dalton and his wife Edna traveled to Amsterdam to train the dealers, and the first MCOP took place that same November, a Seven-card Stud event won by local player Eng Angh for ƒ18,600. For years, Holland Casino was the only venue where poker could be played legally in Europe, making Amsterdam the continent’s de facto poker capital before the boom.
The festival has grown considerably since then. The Main Event buy-in sat at €5,000-€6,000 through most of the 2000s, when fields of 300-400 players generated prize pools above €2,000,000 at the peak of the poker boom. The buy-in dropped to €4,000 in later years before settling at €3,000 from 2022 onward, bringing in more players and fresher faces. The only year without an MCOP was 2020, when COVID-19 forced a cancellation. Every other year since 1992 has produced a winner. The 2026 edition will crown the 34th Main Event champion in festival history.
The 2026 MCOP Main Event
The €3,000 Main Event gets two starting flights this year. Day 1A runs Thursday, Nov. 17, at 3 p.m., with Day 1B at the same time on Wednesday, Nov. 18. Both flights play nine 60-minute levels. The biggest change from 2025 is the starting stack, which increases from 40,000 to 50,000 chips.
Day 2 begins at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 19, with levels stretching to 75 minutes. Late registration remains open for two more levels on Day 2. Day 3 follows on Friday, Nov. 20. The tournament plays to a conclusion from 2 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 21, with levels shortened to 60 minutes when six players remain and to 30 minutes at three-handed.
The 2025 Main Event drew 427 entries and a €1,150,765 prize pool. Britain’s Tim Chung won €203,800 after defeating Amsterdam’s Raoul Kanme heads-up. Finland’s Elias Suhonen finished third for €96,894. The record for entries stands at 498, set in 2022 when Julien Sitbon of France took the title.
The High Rollers
Two High Rollers are on the 2026 schedule, both restructured from 2025. Buy-ins are considerably lower than the pair of €10,300 events held last year, while starting stacks increase to 100,000 chips and Holland Casino has announced a new betting structure for both.
The €5,000 PLO High Roller 6-Max opens the festival on Friday, Nov. 13, at 7 p.m. Day 1 plays eight 40-minute levels before the tournament concludes Saturday, Nov. 14. The €6,000 NLH High Roller 8-Max runs during the final weekend, with Day 1 on Friday, Nov. 20, at 7 p.m. and Day 2 on Saturday, Nov. 21.
An early registration discount is available for both events. Players who register for either High Roller before Nov. 6 do not pay the €300 fee, reducing the cost to €4,700 for the PLO and €5,700 for the NLH. In 2025, when both High Rollers carried €10,300 buy-ins, Joris Ruijs won the NLH event for €105,840 to claim his third MCOP trophy. Nino Pansier won the PLO for €101,430.
The €1,650 Re-Entry and the Wouter Beltz Story
The €1,650 NLH Re-entry opens on the festival’s first day, Friday, Nov. 13, at 12:30 p.m. Players start with 30,000 chips and play 40-minute levels on Day 1, with Day 2 on Saturday, Nov. 14.
The event has become strongly associated with Wouter Beltz. He won it in 2022, finished second in 2023, won again in 2024, and in 2025 reached the heads-up for the fourth consecutive year before losing to Sweden’s Johan Karlsson. Karlsson collected €82,404 for the win. Beltz took €55,097 for second. His finishing positions across those four consecutive editions: 1st, 2nd, 1st, 2nd. No player in the recent history of the MCOP has built a run in a single event like that.
Karlsson is a familiar name in Northern European poker circles and a friend of poker.pro. He won the 2020 Kings of Tallinn Main Event for €126,900 in what turned out to be one of the last major live events before COVID shut everything down, and returned to KoT in 2025 to win the Royal Showdown Invitational, an event reserved for past Kings of Tallinn champions, defeating Finnish poker legend Juha Helppi heads-up. The MCOP Re-entry title added another chapter to a career built largely in the Baltic and Benelux circuits.
Side Events: PLO, Mystery Bounty and Progressive Bounty
A two-day €2,500 PLO 8-Max Re-entry begins Saturday, Nov. 14. The €1,100 NLH Mystery Bounty starts Monday, Nov. 16, with €500 of the buy-in allocated to the mystery bounty pool. Progressive Bounty events run throughout the week: a two-day €550 NLH opens Sunday, Nov. 15; a two-day €1,100 PLO Progressive Bounty starts Thursday, Nov. 19; and a two-day €1,100 NLH Progressive Bounty follows from Friday, Nov. 20. The festival closes Saturday evening, Nov. 21, with the traditional €550 Team Event.
Sander van Wesemael holds the all-time MCOP trophy record. He won a €1,100 PLO event in 2025 to take his total to five MCOP trophies, a number no other player has reached.
Recent Main Event Champions
The €3,000 buy-in era, which began in 2022, has yet to produce a Dutch winner. Finn Tommi Lankinen won in 2023, Finn Eero Abbey in 2024, and Brit Tim Chung in 2025. The last Dutch champion was Kevin Paque, who beat Steve O’Dwyer heads-up in 2019. Dutch players have won seven of the last 11 editions before the current stretch, but the open field at the €3,000 level has brought in more international competition, and the trophy has traveled.
| Year | Champion | Entries | Prize Pool | First Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 |  Tim Chung | 427 | €1,150,765 | €203,800 |
| 2024 |  Eero Abbey | 427 | €1,150,765 | €203,800 |
| 2023 | Tommi Lankinen | 469 | €1,276,852 | €218,714 |
| 2022 |  Julien Sitbon | 498 | €1,355,805 | €237,808 |
| 2021 |  Bas de Laat | 340 | €666,400 | €126,883 |
| 2019 | Kevin Paque | 346 | €1,370,155 | €260,878 |
| 2018 | Alberto Stegeman | 294 | €1,164,240 | €240,183 |
| 2017 |  Claas Segebrecht | 285 | €1,128,594 | €235,087 |
| 2016 | Hakim Zoufri | 356 | €1,409,760 | €275,608 |
| 2015 | Jussi Nevanlinna | 291 | €1,154,193 | €300,000 |
2026 MCOP Full Schedule
| Date | Time | Event |
|---|---|---|
| Friday, Nov. 13 | 12:30 p.m. | €1,650 NLH Re-entry Day 1 |
| 1 p.m. | €700 PLO Satellite to PLO High Roller | |
| 7 p.m. | €5,000 PLO High Roller 6-Max Day 1 (early reg. €4,700) | |
| 7 p.m. | €330 NLH Hyper Turbo Re-entry | |
| 9 p.m. | €440 NLH Satellite to Main Event | |
| Saturday, Nov. 14 | 12:30 p.m. | €5,000 PLO High Roller 6-Max Day 2 |
| 12:30 p.m. | €1,650 NLH Re-entry Day 2 | |
| 1 p.m. | €550 NLH Re-entry Day 1 | |
| 1 p.m. | €360 PLO Satellite to €2,500 PLO | |
| 6 p.m. | €2,500 PLO 8-Max Re-entry Day 1 | |
| 7 p.m. | €330 NLH Progressive Bounty Turbo Re-entry | |
| Sunday, Nov. 15 | 12:30 p.m. | €2,500 PLO 8-Max Re-entry Day 2 |
| 12:30 p.m. | €550 NLH Re-entry Day 2 | |
| 1 p.m. | €550 NLH Progressive Bounty Day 1 (€200 bounties) | |
| 6 p.m. | €1,100 PLO Re-entry Day 1 | |
| 7 p.m. | €550 NLH Hyper Turbo Single Re-entry | |
| Monday, Nov. 16 | 12:30 p.m. | €550 NLH Progressive Bounty Day 2 |
| 12:30 p.m. | €1,100 PLO Re-entry Day 2 | |
| 1 p.m. | €1,100 NLH Mystery Bounty Day 1 (€500 bounties) | |
| 7 p.m. | €330 PLO Hyper Turbo Re-entry | |
| 9 p.m. | €440 NLH Satellite to Main Event | |
| Tuesday, Nov. 17 | 12:30 p.m. | €440 NLH Satellite to Main Event |
| 12:30 p.m. | €1,100 NLH Mystery Bounty Day 2 | |
| 3 p.m. | €3,000 NLH Main Event Day 1A (50,000 chips) | |
| 7 p.m. | €330 NLH Progressive Bounty Turbo Re-entry (€100 bounties) | |
| 9 p.m. | €440 NLH Satellite to Main Event | |
| Wednesday, Nov. 18 | 12:30 p.m. | €440 NLH Satellite to Main Event |
| 3 p.m. | €3,000 NLH Main Event Day 1B (50,000 chips) | |
| 7 p.m. | €330 NLH Hyper Turbo Re-entry | |
| Thursday, Nov. 19 | 12:30 p.m. | €3,000 NLH Main Event Day 2 (late reg. open) |
| 2 p.m. | €1,100 NLH Turbo Re-entry | |
| 6 p.m. | €1,100 PLO Progressive Bounty Day 1 (€400 bounties) | |
| 7 p.m. | €330 NLH Hyper Turbo Re-entry | |
| 9 p.m. | €850 NLH Satellite to NLH High Roller | |
| Friday, Nov. 20 | 12:30 p.m. | €1,100 PLO Progressive Bounty Day 2 |
| 12:30 p.m. | €3,000 NLH Main Event Day 3 | |
| 1 p.m. | €1,100 NLH Progressive Bounty Day 1 (€400 bounties) | |
| 7 p.m. | €6,000 NLH High Roller 8-Max Day 1 (early reg. €5,700) | |
| 7 p.m. | €330 NLH Hyper Turbo Re-entry | |
| Saturday, Nov. 21 | 12:30 p.m. | €1,100 NLH Progressive Bounty Day 2 |
| 12:30 p.m. | €6,000 NLH High Roller 8-Max Day 2 | |
| 1 p.m. | €550 NLH Progressive Bounty Day 1 (€200 bounties) | |
| 2 p.m. | €3,000 NLH Main Event Day 4 (final day) | |
| 6 p.m. | €550 NLH Team Event Single Re-entry |
Early registration discount: players who register for the PLO High Roller or NLH High Roller before Nov. 6 pay €4,700 and €5,700 respectively, saving the €300 fee. Main Event levels run at 60 minutes on Days 1 and 4, 75 minutes on Days 2 and 3, with a reduction to 60 minutes six-handed and 30 minutes three-handed on the final day.
FAQ
- Sources: Holland Casino
- Images courtesy of Holland Casino.
- Article originally produced at poker.pro.
