Seat 3: Jorryt van Hoof (38,375,000 -- 95 BB)
Born November 15, 1982, Dutchman Jorryt van Hoof hails from the city of Eindhoven where he studied Industrial Engineering for a year before he decided to become part owner in a game store called GameForce. In 2003, van Hoof discovered poker, and while he prefers pot-limit Omaha cash games, he now finds himself as the chip leader of the 2014 World Series of Poker November Nine.
From a very young age, van Hoof has had entrepreneurial interests. At the age of 12, he played Magic The Gathering, and it was his involvement in that game, along with the fact that many of his customers frequently played the game, that brought him to poker.
Van Hoof's early poker knowledge stems from reading books, after which he further evolved his game by playing and discussing strategies with his friends. The Dutchman notched his first ever live tournament result at the Aviation Club in Paris in the Spring of 2005. Just a few months later, he played his first event at the World Series of Poker and earned his first cash in a $2,000 no-limit hold'em event where he finished 66th for $3,450.
While tournament poker is not Van Hoof's bread and butter, he managed to cash three times at WSOP times in 2007 and 2008, though after that he took a five year sabbatical from Las Vegas. At the 2013 Utrecht Series of Poker, in the Netherlands van Hoof won the €1,000 event for €32,205, and coincidentally last year's November Niner Michiel Brummelhuis finished seventh in that same event.
Against all odds, a Dutchman has now made the November Nine in back-to-back years, and as fate would have it Brummelhuis and van Hoof go way back as both were a part of the early poker movement in the Netherlands.
After having lived in Dublin for a year to fully focus on being a consummate professional, van Hoof moved to Malta, a country he lived in for many years. Van Hoof now lives back in the Netherlands where he spends most of his time playing PLO online under the moniker “TheCleaner11.”
Interestingly enough, van Hoof owes his online screen name to Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo. After playing against Bonomo under the screenname “Jorrytvh,” Bonomo was asked if he knew who he had played against and responded, "I don't know, but he cleaned me out.” The rest is history.