Thursday, 28th March 2024 10:44
Home / Uncategorized / Hammering a dream into reality, Bas Haamers headed for the beach

Bas Haamers’ mind is somewhere between the sunshine and the sand. He’s a dreamer living in what is, for him, a bit of a meteorological nightmare. He’s Dutch, which might start to explain things.

“My dream was always to live in the sun and the beach. The weather is always bad in Holland,” Haamers said.

Holland is no place for a beach dreamer, and Haamers–now nearing 30 years old–is facing the stark reality that he has been living under Dutch skies his entire life. He’s eying a move to Malta, somewhere near the water where he might start a new business under a new angle of the sun.

Before that, though, he has some planning to do, because he’s got a beach trip to plan. See, Haamers is about to realize another dream.

“It was always a dream for me to attend the Bahamas, and now it’s become a reality,” he said.

See, this guy who you might at well just start thinking off as “The Hammer,” was one of the first Platinum Pass winners in 2018. He won the PokerStars Winter Series Medium Main Event, and in doing so got one of the first seats to the PokerStars Players No-Limit Hold’em Championship before barely anybody knew what that event was.

Haamers figured it out pretty quickly. In January 2019, he’ll be playing a $25,000 tournament just a few steps away from a Paradise Island beach in the Bahamas.

For a sunshine daydreamer, Haamers found the right job. He works for a company that makes solar panels. It’s good work if you can get it, but Haamers’ passion involves more competitive pursuits.

“I’ve been a sportsman all my life, and my passion was football,” he said. “I also liked the third half a lot, and after the training sessions we would always meet in the canteen at the local football club.”

There, over one or several drinks, Haamers became a football player who also played poker. Soon, those roles flipped.

“I injured my shoulder and was forced to quit field football. After a few months, I decided to go for indoor football. After one and a half seasons, I got injured again, but this time it was my knee,” he said.

The injury didn’t heal quickly, and suddenly Haamers found himself with more free time than made him comfortable. He filled those idle hours with the only other sort of competition he could find: poker.

He succeed quickly. In fact, he found so much success so quickly that he did what a lot of people his age were doing. He quit his job and started playing poker full time, seven days a week. He did it for two full years.

“Easy come, easy go, as they say, and that was true for me,” Haamers said. “I had a long upswing and enjoyed it. Because I was in such an upswing, I didn’t really take good care of my bank roll management anymore.”

That’s a story you might have heard before. Young man finds himself in a poker game, succeeds, then succeeds beyond all reasonable levels, and then starts making decisions as if that money were going to come in like that forever.

“Then I had some bigger swings and noticed that I was getting stressed, and didn’t play my A-game anymore. In that moment, I noticed I needed more stability in my life and decided to look for a good job,” he said.

A lot of people couldn’t handle watching a dream they had hammered from raw material into real life wither and melt in front of them. Most people melt with the dream. Haamers just found another nail to pound. In this case, that’s solar panels, little squares that collect Haamers precious sunlight and hold onto it for him.

“I’m working as an administrator now and play poker when I have spare time. This was a great choice because I’m much more relaxed now and I feel I play my A-game again,” Haamers said.

The Dutchman credits that relaxed attitude for helping him win the Winter Series event, and thus, the trip to the PSPC.

“That resulted in a package to the Bahamas, which I dreamed of my whole life and knew I would achieve it,” he said.

So, now, Hammers is creating his new dream from the remains of his last one. He started studying the teachings of Dutch pros like Lex Veldhuis and Steven van Zadelhoff. He’s working out, getting stronger again, and taking a holistic approach to himself. He’s got Malta in his sights.

“What could be in the Mediterranean…” he mused.

Indeed, Bas Haamers is a dreamer, but he’s one who seems like he could be doing more than dreaming in the next year. If you need him and can’t find him in the poker room, you’re probably a safe bet to look for him on the beach.


Bas Haamers is one of more than 300 Platinum Pass winners who will be going to the PokerStars Players No-Limit Hold’em Championship. Want to see more? Meet them all on in our PSPC Platinum Pass Winners index.

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