Tom Talboom, better known as ‘Tom_Poker_NL’ at the virtual poker tables, is a professional poker player from the Netherlands. Despite his young age, he has already achieved many impressive milestones and built a solid community through his livestreams on Twitch. Last year, he also started producing vlogs from live events besides his content creation, a passion he shares daily on his social media channels. We had the privilege of speaking with Tom, who is now committed to CoinPoker.

As a content writer and Social Media Manager for PokerListings, the occasion sometimes arises to be able to interview people which I’m going way back with. I first came in touch with Tom when he was still crushing the lower stakes of online poker, trying to build a steady bankroll to fulfil his dream of becoming a professional poker player. Everybody who knew Tom back then, was perhaps a bit critical about his confidence that he would meet up with his ambitions at some point soon, but at the same time was convinced that his raw poker talent would bring him a lot of glory on the way.

Ever since he moved away from The Netherlands, mainly because of the bad ecosystem for online poker streamers and online poker players in general, he had the ambition to pursue a sponsor deal with one of the greater online poker operators. When I got the news that he finally was railed in by Coinpoker, it came to no surprise at first, and made me even do a firm fist pump of happiness. Not only has Coinpoker started collaborating with guys like Benjamin ‘BenCB’ Rolle and Mario Mosböck, they also give young poker talent a chance to develop!

Enjoy reading this interview with Tom Talboom- Rising poker star of The Netherlands and ambassador of Coinpoker!

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What inspired you to start playing poker, and how did you transition from being a casual player to a professional?

“I get asked what got me into playing poker more often, but unfortunately I don’t really know the answer to this. When I turned 16, I bought my first laptop. For some reason, I started downloading some poker websites and never looked back. I started playing freerolls and watched a lot of free poker content on YouTube and Twitch. Jaime Staples and JCarver were two of the channels I watched a lot, together with a lot of free training videos all over the internet.

I have always been very competitive. In the sports that I played (football & tennis), but also with video games. For me, the fun part of playing a game/sport is becoming as good as possible and winning as much as you can. So for me, poker was a great game to dive into to turn this mindset into something that could actually earn me money.

It didn’t take long for me to realize poker was really something I wanted to do on a more serious level. However, the transition from being a casual player to a professional player was not a smooth ride for me. It took me many years to get rid of bad habits, and I busted my bankroll a lot of times. Starting a stream was a great decision for me. It helped me with staying disciplined because I felt a form of responsibility towards my audience.”

What do you consider your most memorable moment at the poker table, whether online or live? Moreover, you have known incredible swings in your career. How do you cope with those situations?

“There are so many stories and memories that come to mind. Especially in the past, my way-too-aggressive bankroll management put me in a lot of ridiculous situations. When I was 22, I went to Cyprus for the first time to play a tournament series. I had $30,000 in my bank account and fired multiple bullets in the $3K Main Event without selling any action. I probably don’t have to explain that this eventually went wrong, and not just once. I’ve got myself in a lot of bad situations but after making a lot of mistakes, I started learning and became a bit more responsible. I don’t think you will ever be able to take the degen out of me, but luckily I am at least a bit older and wiser now.

One of my most memorable moments happened when I got my biggest online score ever. I was deep in a $300 Main Event and was streaming the whole thing. There were 32 players left and I picked up Aces not once, not twice, but three times in a row. They held up every time and put me up to eventually get 3rd for $132,000. That’s a moment I will never forget, just like a lot of my viewers back then. The clip is still on my YouTube.”

You’ve amassed over $780,000 in live earnings. What was the most challenging tournament you’ve played, and how did you overcome those challenges?

“I struggle to come up with one tournament that was the most challenging. Something that immediately pops up, however, is the fact that I played three $10K buy-in tournaments live and bluffed it all off in every single one of them. The feeling after you get called after your opponent tanks for 2 minutes is devastating. Online you can shake it off pretty easily because you play a lot of tournaments and it’s just one of many. But live poker sometimes takes days and 9 out of 10 times the result won’t be as you hoped for. Luckily, this is also something you get more used to after it happens more often. But it will always feel terrible busting a big live tournament.

Another challenging tournament series was my first European Poker Tour (EPT) of Barcelona in 2022. I was very excited to go and booked for the whole series. Thus far, I ran very well in live tournaments so I was ready to play the massive EPT fields. The first week I experienced how tough live poker can actually be. Being card-dead for days and not being able to even hit a pair. I was completely done and wanted to go home a couple of days before the end. I searched for flights back home but couldn’t find one so I ended up staying till the end. Three days later I won the last EPT event, the €2,200 Deep Stack for €126K. So for the rest of my life, I will try to remember this when a trip is not going my way. Never give up!”

What’s your approach to balancing aggression and patience in high-stakes tournaments?

“I think no matter what kind of tournament you play, whether it’s low or high-stakes, there should be thought to every move you make. You never want to be aggressive for the sake of being aggressive. You should always be able to logically explain why you make a certain move. If you think your action through before you make it and come to the conclusion that you have to make the bluff, you can never regret it in hindsight, even though it will lead to sometimes busting a huge tournament.

Sometimes I hear people with a game plan for their live tournaments, especially when they made a big Day 2. You often hear them say: “I want to play very aggressive today,” and they are usually super excited and have high expectations. Something I learned is that you should be very careful with being excited for big tournaments. Not only will excitement lead to being extremely disappointed when it doesn’t go as you hoped for, it also makes you impatient and sometimes makes you force things.

So personally I always try to go in with low expectations and I certainly don’t go in thinking “I’m going to be aggressive today.” Just like the other players, I will get dealt two cards each hand, and based on these cards, my stack, my image, and all the other variables, I will make the best decision I possibly can. And if I think the best decision is the aggressive one, I will go with it and be okay with the outcome, whatever happens.”

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Do you have a particular mindset or routine you follow before sitting down at a poker table and/or preparing for your online streaming sessions?

“I don’t have a particular mindset or routine that I follow every session. In general, I try to make sure I don’t have any unfinished work before going into a session. I want to start my session with 100% focus and don’t want to have an unfinished to-do list stuck in the back of my head.

I also try to stay active and either go to the gym, go for a walk, or go snowboarding every day. But if I’m being honest, I of course also have days where I wake up way too late, play a video game, and then start my session and play until deep in the night. Creating some better routines/structure is something I actively try to work on nowadays, and it’s one of the goals for 2025.”

How did your partnership with CoinPoker come about, and what excites you most about being an ambassador for the platform?

“The partnership with CoinPoker came to life through mutual connections. I was approached to become part of their ambassador team, and after learning more about their vision and platform, it felt like a great fit. CoinPoker is innovative and focuses on integrating blockchain technology into online poker, which is something I believe can enhance transparency and fairness in the industry. What excites me the most is being part of this innovation and helping to grow a platform that has the potential to shape the future of online poker. I’m looking forward to engaging with players and building a strong community together.”

Can you share more about your ‘Road to a Million’ journey and what it has taught you so far?

“‘Road to a Million’ is my project/challenge I started in July 2024. I started with $10,000 and the ultimate goal is to turn this into a million. Every game of poker that I play counts towards this challenge, and every game is either streamed on Twitch or documented on Instagram/YouTube. The bankroll will be updated every single day, so it’s a great way for my audience to keep exact track of how it’s going. This is also one of the hardest parts about doing this all publicly. When you’re going up everything is great and everyone thinks you’re a great player. But as soon as you get into a downswing there are suddenly a bunch of viewers that you have never seen before giving their opinion about what is going wrong.

So far it taught me that I definitely need this in my life. I have always had massive bankroll swings and busted my bankroll numerous times. Doing this challenge all publicly keeps me disciplined and keeps me on the right track.

It also taught me how important it is to stay consistent. My stream is growing a lot because of the consistency, but also mentally it’s great to have this consistent grind. In the end, this challenge is not necessarily about making a million. It’s about ‘the road to a million’ and all the ups-and-downs that come along with it. The journey is the destination.”

The poker scene is constantly evolving. How do you stay ahead of the curve and adapt to new trends or strategies? Which specific software tools/courses are you using to optimize your gameplay?

“Personally, I don’t have any magic tools/courses that I use to keep me ahead of the curve. What keeps me ahead and profitable is the fact that I structured my whole life around poker and gave up a lot of other things. From the moment I wake up till the moment I go to bed I am working on poker-related things. Whether it’s playing poker, studying poker, watching poker content, reading poker discords, or listening to poker podcasts, I am almost always thinking about the game and finding ways to get better.

Of course, I also actually study regularly. I mainly use GTO-Wizard and HRC. GTO-Wizard for most of the pre- and post-flop sims. And HRC for the more ICM-heavy preflop spots.”

What do you think about the role of social media and content creation in growing the poker community? You surely have experienced that it consumes a lot of your time. What can followers and yet-to-be followers expect from Tom Talboom in 2025 in this regard?

“Consistency and transparency are key for me. I won’t promise any ground-breaking/revolutionary content and I also can’t guarantee to complete my ‘Road to a Million’ within any given timeframe. But I will for sure do everything I can to complete it. And I will be very consistent with the grind and documenting it all through streams and videos. No matter how tough it gets, I will show up and always show the ups and downs and the real emotions that come along with it.”

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Your journey took you from The Netherlands to Austria to fulfill your ambitions. One of these was to collaborate with a top online operator. What makes CoinPoker so special in your opinion, and how has it influenced your poker career?

“Moving to Austria has been a big step for me. I wanted to grow my stream and take it to the next level. In The Netherlands, I was not allowed to have any kind of partnerships so I decided to go for it and move. I was very happy when the CoinPoker team reached out to me. They clearly seemed ready to invest a lot of time and money in me, but also into their platform in general. This makes it very exciting. Even in my first few weeks with CoinPoker I have seen numerous ideas and plans being brought up and also being executed. The Cash Game World Championship is a great example. You can see the site growing every day, and I am very curious and excited to see what will happen in the future.”

Are we going to see you more in live circuits worldwide now you started up a collaboration with one of the leading brands in the industry? Or will you keep mainly focused on the online poker industry and your own community?

“I will definitely play some big live circuits this year. Combining the live and online grind is something I really like. My main grind will be on the online tables while streaming, but I will also attend some big live tournaments.”

Collaborations with online as well as live poker operators is what both worlds make going round. Can you tell us more about what such collaboration includes? For example, are there any goals set from CoinPoker’s perspective to make this collaboration a fruitful one and to improve you as a person/player? Or do they give you a lot of flexibility to make sure you keep on being you, and doing what you are good at?

“For the most part, CoinPoker gave me a lot of flexibility. There is a lot of room for me to bring up new ideas and at the same time I can just focus on what I do best: grinding. Of course, we have a certain set of deliverables for both parties. For example, I have to make X amount of Twitch content each month and CoinPoker will provide editors to turn this content into YouTube/Instagram videos.

For me, a partnership like this will help me to take things to the next level. Make my content bigger and better while still being able to put in a lot of hours at the tables. At the end of the day, partnerships like this have to be a win-win situation. I will try my best to contribute to the growth of CoinPoker, while CoinPoker will try their best to contribute to the growth of me, as a person, and also as the poker player/streamer Tom_Poker_NL.”