It is just about the last word dream, proper? Take a break from work, journey the world, and play poker nearly wherever you are feeling like.
For leisure participant Koen Roos, that dream grew to become a actuality in 2025.
The Dutchman racked up an astonishing 50 flags in a single calendar 12 months to high The Hendon Mob’s annual Flag Hunter race, and now he hopes to have it formally acknowledged as a brand new world report after surpassing Dominick French’s depend of 48 in 2024.
With cashes stretching from Cambodia to Ecuador, and in every single place in between, it naturally begs the questions: What? Why? And simply how is that even potential?
Nicely, PokerNews needed to search out out, so we sat down with Roos to find how on earth he managed it and whether or not card-inspired globetrotting is absolutely as enjoyable because it sounds.
A Probability Assembly With a Legend
To find how a leisure poker participant turns into a full-time flag hunter, it is smart to return to the beginning. In a narrative that can be acquainted to many, Roos explains that he fell in love with the sport after his pals grew to become involved about his barely unhealthy obsession with on-line gaming.
“I used to be at a pal’s, we had been gaming on a regular basis, and his sister and brother-in-law mentioned, ‘We have to get you from behind the display.’ So we began taking part in poker for very small stakes. It developed into a house sport group. We had been taking part in €5 tournaments till seven within the morning as a result of we had been simply having fun with it a lot.”
After months of crushing dwelling video games, it was time to tackle the broader Dutch poker fraternity, the place Roos found his kitchen-table training had stood him in fairly good stead. “There was a restaurant close by that ran €10 and €20 tournaments, and after we entered, we had been like, ‘We’re beating these guys fairly onerous,’” he laughs.
The subsequent step was the Holland On line casino, the place Roos completed third in his first-ever official event and gained €3,300 after a three-way deal, describing it as “enormous cash as a result of I used to be nonetheless in highschool.” It is protected to say he’d caught the poker bug.
After years of taking part in and having fun with the sport in his homeland, Roos says the concept of flag searching “developed regularly,” however actually began to take maintain after an opportunity encounter with the late poker legend Casey Kastle.
“I met him by coincidence in Austria,” says Roos, referring to the revered Slovenian professional who grew to become the primary participant in poker historical past to report 50 cashes throughout 50 totally different international locations earlier than his passing in 2024.
From that second, a brand new interest took form. “I made a decision to go for area of interest international locations. I bought Monaco and Norway in 2024, after which I deliberate a trip to New Zealand and thought, whereas I’m there, I ought to get New Zealand and Australia too.”
Chasing the File
Together with his ambition now set, Roos, an IT advisor in his on a regular basis life, recognized 2025 because the 12 months to have a full tilt on the report.
He explains, “I’m in IT consultancy, and usually January could be very dry in case your undertaking ends in December. My supervisor mentioned, ‘In order for you, you’ll be able to simply take January off.’ I’m single and I don’t have a pet, so if I’m going to do it, I’m going to do it now.”
With the logistics of such a problem nearly as troublesome because the feat itself, Roos says, “I created a tier record for international locations I needed to prioritize. Monaco and Norway solely occur every year, so it’s important to put these forward of someplace just like the UK.”
Whereas sure stops are penciled in nicely prematurely, many occasions, particularly the smaller ones, will solely announce tournaments “one or two months prematurely, not half a 12 months.”
With that in thoughts, and January booked off, Roos’s solely possibility was to “go all in early and simply see the place it could take me,” he says as we focus on the 12 months’s first stops in East Asia.
“Once you money, most individuals fall asleep. I’m in my resort room looking out flights and determining the place I can go subsequent.”
Early momentum got here shortly, with cashes in Japan, Cambodia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and South Korea, alongside event victories in Vietnam and Taiwan, all packed right into a exceptional 20-day interval.
“In Japan, I deliberate three days, however it took 5. Then Cambodia diminished its beginning days, so plans modified once more. You must adapt continually,” he says with a surgical precision. “Once you money, most individuals fall asleep. I’m in my resort room looking out flights and determining the place I can go subsequent.”
Firmly on target after a robust begin, Costa Rica quickly adopted, alongside a relentless stream of cashes throughout Europe within the first half of the 12 months. Reflecting on the day-to-day actuality of flag searching and the way it match round work commitments, Roos explains, “My undertaking solely required me to be within the workplace on Mondays, so I’d fly out Monday or Tuesday night, play evenings and weekends, and work from the resort room.”
Nevertheless, by the 12 months’s halfway mark, and nonetheless on tempo for the report, Roos determined to completely commit and took a three-month sabbatical earlier than embarking on a visit to South America.
The Relentless Grind
Not like cigarettes, which carry a well being warning, no event buy-in ever got here labeled ‘Warning: this sport could critically injury your psychological well being,’ but it’s a sense each poker participant is aware of all too nicely.
When requested concerning the psychological and bodily toll that comes from such a relentless schedule of travelling and event poker, Roos admits, “It’s very tiring, however I’ve had an excellent run, in order that helps. Outdoors Europe, I solely missed three international locations. You’re dedicated, so that you don’t actually have an possibility. If there are two extra days of tournaments, you’re simply going to play.”
“You’re dedicated, so that you don’t actually have an possibility.”
The stress of jetting off to a far-flung land, time and assets not limitless, and realizing it’s important to money is one which can be understood by solely a choose group of gamers.
Reflecting on his South American tour, Roos says, “Paraguay was such a trouble. 5 hours by taxi to get there and eight hours by bus to depart. The stress is actual in locations like that. After effervescent as soon as and gentle effervescent twice, getting the flag within the final occasion was such a reduction.”
A 12 months Nicely Spent
Total, nevertheless, Roos could be very upbeat about his record-breaking 12 months and beams as he shares a number of the highlights from his jet-setting exploits.
After 50 cashes, and taking part in in additional tournaments in addition to, he says, “Monaco [EPT Monte Carlo] and the Bahamas [WSOP Paradise] are enormous occasions and really nicely put collectively, however Iceland was six tables and wonderful vibes. Individuals had been simply completely happy you had been there.”
“Typically the nation itself is the spotlight. I really like New Zealand,” he says, having cashed there late in 2024 alongside Australia. Since each fell inside a 12-month interval relatively than a single calendar 12 months, they might doubtlessly be added to the official Guinness World Data, bringing his complete to 52.
It is also a buzz bumping into different members of the small however deeply passionate flag-hunting group. “Working into different flag hunters is all the time enjoyable. I bumped into Dominick [French] in Ecuador with out even realizing he was taking part in there,” provides Roos.
So, what’s subsequent? Extra of the identical? Form of, says Roos, however not precisely.
“My long-term purpose is to get to 100 complete flags over the subsequent ten years, largely throughout my trip.” If 2025 was something to go by, you would not guess towards him.
Koen Roos’s File-Breaking 2025 in Cashes
Images courtesy of Koen Roos.
Eliot Thomas
Editor, Poker & On line casino
