Dutch Tennis Coach Arrested for Murder Over Possible Poker Debts

M ark de Jong, the tennis coach of world number 59 Robin Haase, has been arrested on suspicion of murder by Dutch police, with reports linking the death to de Jong’s huge poker debts.

The victim, millionaire businessman Koen Everink, was found dead on March 4th, the morning after de Jong had visited him to watch football at his home in Bilthoven, near Utrecht in the Netherlands.

Everink had been stabbed to death and de Jong had gone to police and given a witness statement that he had seen “suspicious people” hanging around Everink’s home the previous evening.

Initially the Dutch police allowed de Jong to travel to Miami along with Haase for the APT Masters in Miami, but the 29-year old coach was arrested upon his return to the Netherlands, at Schiphol Airport.

According to poker sources in the Netherlands, de Jong was a ‘notoriously bad poker player’ who owed thousands of euros to Everink, who had bailed de Jong out of previous gambling debts.

According to pokernews.nl, Koen Everink loaned De Jong €80,000 to help with his poker debts, but wanted the money returned. He allegedly threatened to expose de Jong’s gambling debts to the media, which sources say may have led to his own murder.

Everink had previously been violently attacked by the super-heavyweight kick-boxing champion Badr Hari, an assault which led to a prison sentence for the Moroccan-Dutch fighter. Everink suffered a broken nose and eye socket in the assault, and a broken ankle which required several surgical procedures.

De Jong’s protégé, Robin Haase, recently said of Everink’s murder:

The poker life of de Jong has come under scrutiny since the debt rumors began to spread, with Pokernews.nl dismissing claims that he was a high-stakes online regular. They report that he mainly played PLO at $0/25/0.50 full ring, still managing to lose an incredible $62,839 over just 72,900 hands.

De Jong has been described as “a very bad player” by those who knew him in the poker community according to Katie Barlowe on Casino.org, adding that he apparently “approached poker as a ‘pure gamble’ and failed to show up to a single appearance at the recent Australian Open, because he was waylaid playing the Aussie Millions at the Crown Casino where he was badly stuck in cash games.”

The two men had known each other for several years with Everink having a keen interest in tennis, often traveling to tournaments with professional players – including Haase.

The tennis coach, who played on the Challenger circuit himself before starting as Haase’s coach in 2014, was arraigned on Saturday and remanded back into custody for another 14 days, according to Dutch newspaper the Telegraaf.