The 22-year-old professional poker player from Cologne stunned the poker world by becoming the first player in history from Germany to win poker’s most prestigious title. Heinz pulled off a masterful performance during the two-day final table session, which began on Sunday afternoon inside the Penn and Teller Theatre at the Rio in Las Vegas and ended late Tuesday night on a confetti-splattered stage accustomed to acts of magic.

With his stunning comeback victory, Heinz collected a whopping US$8,715,638.00 in prize money – the third-highest payout for any poker champion in history. He was also presented with the game’s most coveted prize, the WSOP gold and diamond bracelet – which symbolises poker’s supreme achievement.

The odds were stacked against Heinz from the start. First, he had to overcome the third-largest live tournament field in history, battling 6,865 players from 85 different nations who flooded into the Rio last summer in what was the first hurdle for all aspiring champions. Then, Heinz had to outlast an increasingly tougher field over the initial eight days of play, en route to inclusion in poker’s famed “November Nine” – which refers to the final nine players who ultimately make it to poker’s biggest game. Next came a nearly four-month wait during the interim between July and November, after which Heinz returned to Las Vegas hoping to write the latest chapter of poker history.

Indeed, Heinz’s biggest test was still to come. He arrived at the finale against eight formidable opponents with one of the lowest chip stacks — ranking seventh in chips out of nine players.

But if ever there was a fairy-tale ending to what was one of the biggest and richest poker tournaments of all time, Heinz was perfectly cast in the unlikely role of this year’s poker Cinderella.

During Sunday’s exciting final table session — which included nearly eight hours of thrilling poker action and the elimination of six players — Heinz enjoyed the poker rush of a lifetime. He began play ranked seventh in chips. By the time it was over, the German poker pro ended the night as chip leader.

That left just three players still alive in the quest for the world championship – Heinz, along with Ben Lamb and Martin Staszko.

Play resumed on Tuesday night and from the very first hand dealt, the results were stunning. During the opening moments of the final table’s last stages, Ben Lamb, widely-regarded as the world’s top tournament poker player at the moment, and winner of the 2011 WSOP “Player of the Year” title, busted out in shocking fashion.

His elimination was not as stunning as the manner in which it occurred, which many observers would have thought unthinkable.

On the first hand dealt during the three-handed session, Lamb made a baffling move, trying to steal from opponent Martin Staszko in what can best be described as a highly-risky decision. Facing a strong pre-flop raise from his Czech opponent, Lamb re-raised again holding king-jack – quite a marginal hand. Staszko, holding pocket sevens, shoved all-in which left Lamb shaking his head pondering a bad situation. Pot-committed to the hand, Lamb reluctantly called. Staszko was all-in for his tournament life.

Lamb found himself only a slight dog to the underpair. But he knew he’d played the hand way too strongly. When five blanks hit the board, Lamb was left with a severely short stack. He was eliminated just ten minutes later.

Accordingly, Lamb joined the ranks of all those before who were eliminated and are now forced to look forward to next year, and beyond.

Nonetheless, Lamb could certainly take great pride in what was a remarkable accomplishment. He collected his biggest poker payout ever, US$4,021,138.00 for third place. He also became this year’s undisputed “Player of the Year.” The former gold bracelet winner’s summer accomplishments were so strong that he had the title locked up no matter where he finished at the Main Event final table. As it stands now, Lamb ended up with a gold bracelet, a third-place finish in the Main Event, a runner-up finish in another event, and five top-12 finishes. Even more remarkably, Lamb only entered a dozen or so events this year.

With Lamb’s stunning departure, two Europeans were left to battle for the world championship. Staszko (Czech Republic) began heads-up play holding a slight chip lead over Heinz (Germany).

Heads-up play lasted for more than six hours, falling somewhat short of the longest duel in history set 28 years ago by Tom McEvoy and Rod Peate in the 1983 finale (which lasted about 7.5 hours). During this final duel, the two Europeans battled back and forth, exchanging the chip lead several times. With an ongoing chorus of chants and songs in the packed gallery normally heard in a World Cup soccer match, the two finalists in poker’s world championship were serenaded to play the best poker of their lives. And that’s exactly what happened. Both players burrowed in, neither giving the other an inch.

After Heinz regained the chip lead on what was the ninth and final chip-lead change of the duel, a short time later he began to pull away and was ahead by about a 5 to 1 margin. The final hand was dealt when Heinz bested Staszko holding ace-king. Neither player made a pair, which meant Heinz’s ace-high played as the winning hand.

As runner up, Martin Staszko became the richest Czech poker player in history. He earned a mammoth, if temporarily unsatisfying, consolation prize amounting to US$5,433,086.00. Incredibly, Staszko came into the finale as the player with the least live poker experience. A chess master, Staszko used his expert gamesmanship to learn a new trade and will be a player to watch for many years ahead.

Heinz’s championship victory was memorable for other reasons, too. The final table was watched in more countries and in a live format than ever before. For the first time in history, poker players and fans everywhere tuned in and watched all the action via a live stream as well as on the ESPN network. Comprehensive coverage included expert analysis and player hole cards being shown to viewers – a WSOP first.

No doubt, just as the sun was rising back in Europe, many blurry-eyed Germans were awakening to the big news that one of their own had done what only 36 others have done in history. Heinz will return to his native Germany in a new role – as poker ambassador and the reigning world champion.

PIUS HEINZ FACT SHEET
-The winner of $10,000 buy-in WSOP Main Event Championship was Pius Heinz, from Cologne, Germany.
-Heinz is a 22-year-old professional poker player. He has been playing full-time for about four years.
-Heinz was born in Euskirchen, Germany.
-Heinz’s parents are divorced. His mother works as a civil servant. She accompanied him to Las Vegas and cheered his victory.
-Heinz is single.
-Heinz attended a university for two semesters, but did not complete his college degree. He decided to focus on poker and put himself to the test at this year’s WSOP. Prior to making it to the final table, Heinz stated that he was going to re-evaluate his career decision and perhaps return to school or take another job at some point.
-This was the first year that Heinz attended and played in the WSOP.
-This was Heinz’s second time to cash in a WSOP event. He finished seventh in a $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em tournament (Event #48), which paid US$83,286.00.
-With this victory, Heinz now has one win, two final table appearances, and two cashes at the WSOP. Heinz’s career WSOP earnings now total $8,798,924 in prize money.
-Heinz is to be classified as a professional poker player, since he has been playing full time for about four years. He has played much more online poker than live poker during his lifetime.
-Prior to playing at the final table, Heinz was asked if he would hypothetically take second place if it were offered to him (he started play at the final table ranked in seventh place). Heinz conveyed that he would have accepted the runner up position, which paid US$5.4 million.
-This is only the second time in history that a player from mainland Europe has won poker’s world title. The only previous mainland European winner was Peter Eastgate (2008). However, players from Great Britain (Mansour Matloubi — 1990) and Ireland (Noel Furlong — 1999) have also won.
-Heinz is the first WSOP Main Event champion in history from Germany.
-Heinz is the seventh German player in WSOP history to win a gold bracelet, which is the eighth WSOP victory for a player from Germany (Eddy Scharf has two wins). The other German players with WSOP victories include – Matthias Rohnacher, Thomas Bihl, Michael Keiner, Sebastian Ruthenberg, and Katja Thater.
-Young players have done exceptionally well in the WSOP Main Event. With Heinz’s win, the last four world champions were aged 23, 21, 21, and 22 respectfully at the time of their victories.
-Heinz collected US$8,715,638.00 in prize money. He was also presented with the game’s most coveted prize — the custom-designed WSOP gold and diamond bracelet.
-Heinz was presented the gold bracelet by defending world poker champion Jonathan Duhamel, who won his title on the same stage one year ago.
-As the WSOP Main Event Champion, Heinz achieves instant fame, fortune and immortality. Heinz is now universally acknowledged as the reigning world poker champion.

PIUS HEINZ INTERVIEWS
Note: The following interview took place prior to the start of the final table on November 6th:
Question: Did Sunday go as planned?
Heinz: No. This day went much better than planned, obviously. I came in seventh and after the first break which was 30 minutes into the action, I had the least amount of chips of anyone. When I first sat down, I was really nervous. But then during the break, I realised that I still had 20 big blinds left and I was determined to play as good as I can and see what happens.
Question: The final table atmosphere, with all the lights, cameras, and big crowds was very different from back in July. How did that affect you?
Heinz: I honestly enjolyed it. It didn’t make me nervous. The reason I was nervous during the first 30 minutes was not the crowd I don’t think. It was just that I was finally sitting at the final table. But I enjoyed what happened. It was a lot of fun.
Question: You came into the final table as one of the shortest stacks. Now, you enter Tuesday’s session as the chip leader, which is a complete reversal. How does that change the way you approach the finale?
Heinz: Obviously, being the chip leader is really, really good. It gives me the ability to be more creative. When you are playing with 25 big blinds, you are kind of handcuffed as to what you can do. You can’t do as much, especially post-flop. Now with many more chips, you have a lot more room to manuever and can do a lot more creative things.
Question: When you are playing at this level, with so much deep thinking and pressure of everyone watching every move, is it fun?
Heinz: Yeah, it is. This is what makes it so much fun. The final table is really tough. Each player was very good and I respected each one of them. When you are playing against those kinds of players, it gets to be really fun. Obviously, it also gets a lot tougher. The mind game is a much bigger part of it than the cards actually are. Of course, it helps to have good cards. But the mental game is a big part of it.
Question: The mental part of poker seems to have taken a new twist this year because of the live coverage and the break. There is a whole lot more information out there. Is that something that was noticable to you as you played on Sunday?
Heinz: Yeah, definitely. You have to think about it. But I don’t think it’s the most important factor because whenever you play a pot you have a decent opinion about your opponent and his range (of hands). It really doesn’t matter what particular (past results you consider) because you already have an idea of the range of hands he will play in that situation. You can always go back and see — did he bluff me in that situation or not? But that can also mess with your confidence, as well. If you think the guy is never bluffing and he bluffed you on a hand (you find out later), that affects your confidence. On the other hand, if you think he always has the nuts here and he in fact had the nuts, you feel a lot better about your fold. So, this influences the decisions you make, but it’s not the most important thing.
Question: What did you think of Ben Lamb’s play, on Sunday?
Heinz: He played good — as always. But today, I think I got the better of him because I just got better cards than he did. I respect his game a lot and respect him as a person, as well. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens (on Tuesday).
Question: What about Martin Staszko’s play, on Sunday?
Heinz: I think Martin was really card dead today. But the hands he played, he did not make any big mistakes. So, he is going to be tough to play against as well. I guess Ben and I are the favourites to play heads up. But you should definitely know that Martin will make it tough on us.
Question: What do you expect to happen on Tuesday night, playing the final session of poker’s world championship?
Heinz: When I sat down to play today, like I said before — I was really nervous. It was the only time in the entire three months we were off that I felt that way. I might feel the same way again when I first sit down on Tuesday. But when we start playing again and I get into my game, I am hoping things will go my way. All I can do is play the best I can, and hope for the best.

Note: The following interview took place a few moments following his victory on November 9th:
On his feelings immediately after winning a WSOP gold bracelet: “This is the happiest day of my life, obviously. I really am speechless right now. I could not imagine this would ever happen to me.”
On what he expects the reaction to be in Germany to becoming the first-ever German world poker champion: “They are going to be very excited. I think this does a lot of poker back in Germany. It is very big already there, especially with people my age. But I really can’t imagine what’s happening right now. I am just so happy to come here and win. It’s really a dream for me.”
On what was going through his mind during the final hand: “I knew I had Martin because I was dealt ace-king. It would be difficult for him to have a better hand than me. So, I was just hoping to not get unlucky on the last hand. It was like a dream, really. It’s hard for me to think about what was going through my mind because it was like I was dizzy. I was a little nervous again when the final table started back (Tuesday). But when the last hand was played, I was just thinking to myself not to get unlucky. When I heard all the cheering for me, I just could not believe it.”
On having his mother and sister and many friends supporting him: “They were cheering for me the entire time and they were very loud. I tried to focus on the game, but they were cheering the whole time. I could hear the others too in the crowd who were cheering for the others. But I was able to focus really good. I was so happy that my family came to Las Vegas to be here. My mother went to the hotel room because she was so nervous. She could not watch the final.
On Martin Staszko’s play: “I thought he played really great. He was very tough for me because we played such a long time heads up.”
On what he plans to do during the days and weeks ahead: “I am not sure right now. All I can think about is this moment. It’s like once in a lifetime I will get to have this. So, I want to enjoy it while I can. I have not really even thought about tomorrow. All I can think about is right now and what happened tonight. It’s really unbelievable.”

By Nolan Dalla

IT took the best part of 14 hours on a dramatic Day 2 to get there but the final table of the 2011 Sydney Championships Main Event is set and ready to go.

A total of 121 players returned to the Star City poker room yesterday – every one of them hoping to reach the last nine – but in the end only a handful survived to take their shot at the $119,542 first prize.

Among those on the final table are local regulars Kamyar Ekrami and Graham Hounsell, John Donohue who ran deep in the same event last year and 2010 ANZPT Sydney final fourth-place finisher Michael O’Grady who is looking to put a run of near misses behind him with his first major live victory.
O’Grady currently sits second in chips behind chip leader and tournament veteran Tom Motherwell – the only player to currently crack the million chip mark.

Play began with a rush yesterday as the short stacks looked to double up or head home with the 121 surviving players slashed to less than 60 within only a few hours but play tightened up considerably as the money bubble approached.

The top 33 finishers at this year’s event were guaranteed a minimum of $2,835 with those to make the money including Connie Lai (26th), Sheldon Mayer (25th), Justin Cohen ($4,725) and Jackie Glazier ($5,198).

Mayer now holds the rare distinction of having reached the money in all three Sydney Championships Main Events since the tournament was first held in 2009.

The final table kicks off at 2pm today with the chip counts as follows:

Seat 1: Tom Motherwell – 1,222,000
Seat 2: Hang Nhan – 703,000
Seat 3: Nick Polias – 406,000
Seat 4: Graham Hounsell – 555,000
Seat 5: Errolyn Strang – 548,000
Seat 6: Kamyar Ekrami – 915,000
Seat 7: Michael OGrady – 978,000
Seat 8: John Donohue – 599,000
Seat 9: Narbeh Horsepian – 401,000

The final table payouts will be:

1st: $119,542
2nd: $75,600
3rd: $42,525
4th: $33,075
5th: $27,169
6th: $22,207
7th: $17,483
8th: $13,703
9th: $9,923

By Ben Blaschke
Sponsored by Star City Big Game Poker

In poker there are players that are well liked and there are those that can talk the hind leg off a donkey. Not many can bring those two qualties together and still play winning poker, Fintan Gavin is one of the few. Now, finally, the Irishman has that major title he’s been chasing since his runner-up finish at the 2008 EPT Barcelona final table, beating a 519 strong field to claim the UKIPT trophy. Although the £61,500 prize money will be valued, Gavin’s already said he’s chasing double winner Nick Abou Risk for a second title.

Before we go into the rest of the day’s play lets set the scene. Settle back, kick off your shoes and pour yourself a drink. A mighty 519 players satellited or bought their way into this £500 main event contributing to a £251,715 prize pool. After two full days of play – three, if you include both Day 1′s – we had 12 players left and Fintan Gavin in the chip lead with 1,900,000. Three players had to go before the final nine could converge on one single table. The players to walk were George Devine (12th, £2,750), Alan Kirk (11th, £3,150) and Alexander Wanner (10th, £3,150), all three of whom were knocked out by George Clyde-Smith, who himself had started the day painfully short.

The story of the final table was quickly set with Jamie Dale and Fintan Gavin clashing.

“You’re a sicko, a total adrenaline junkie,” the Irishman told Dale after Gavin check-raised Dale off a 4♦6♠T♣4♥. It pushed Gavin towards the two million mark making the possibility of the Irishman steamrolling the table that much more real. It was just the beginning of the Gavin double-talk, telling his opponents one thing before doing the other and happily acting out the role of the old live rock outwardly – “Pick on someone else. I’m too old for that craic” – but showing he was more than happy to gamble and take the young guns on at their own game. He performed a number of live mis-clicks, they seemed genuine but only Gavin knows for sure.

It took the best part of three hours before anyone else was knocked out and it was Kevin Letham who was the fall guy, A♦7♥ no good against Craig Brown’s A♣K♠. Maths teacher Rob Swindells was the next to go, falling foul in the same way, a dominated ace failing to suck out. Thomas Ward was the recipient of his chips and shortly after he won a huge pot to all but eliminate Antonis Poulengeris who had made, as he admitted, a ‘bad move.’ He wasn’t the only player chipping up, Dale had won a flip against Gavin for around a third of the chips in play to claim the chip lead just a few hands earlier.

Craig Brown was next to go, unfortunately finding the shove button with 6♥5♥ in the small blind when big stack Dale had A♦K♦ in the big blind. He may count himself a little unlucky to have busted before George Clyde-Smith who was frequently all-in without a caller, often surviving on stolen blinds and antes alone. Clyde-Smith went the very next hand with K♦9♠ into Jamie Dale’s 8♣8♦ leaving just four players.

Those two bust outs had padded Dale’s stack out to bursting point. He hadn’t put a foot wrong throughout the final table, exerting pressure when he should and fading into the background when it was necessary. He hadn’t panicked and he certainly hadn’t smiled. Ever.

Dale looked unstoppable, the other three players crippled by the money jumps and aggression of the massive chip leader. Then the pressure boiler blew. Dale clashed with Andrew Hawksby in a huge pot at the wrong time, floating the A♠8♥T♦ flop with king-high when Hawksby was betting a set of aces. It resulted in a 3,000,000 pot going to Hawksby and when he knocked out Thomas Ward moments later with A♣Q♠ trumping Q♥J♠ Hawksby found himself with two-thirds of the chips in play.

Dale wasn’t likely to sit around and play for second and it wasn’t long before he got involved in a flip situation with Hawksby. Gavin, only marginally larger stacked than Dale, walked from the table into his rail of supporters, knowing he was heavily invested in this flip too, a guaranteed £14,500 uptick in the balance. Hawksby won to take a three-to-one lead into the heads-up.

Gavin, a key partner of the UKIPT in Ireland, looked thrilled to be heads up and relieved not to be facing Dale, he later said: “He (Dale) put me on uber-tilt. I couldn’t have played him heads up, he would have crucified me.” Lucky for Gavin not only was he facing Hawksby but he won a huge flip to all but level the playing field on just the second hand. Hawksby played a great game but Gavin, a rail thick with his supporters, was not to be beaten and after just an hour of heads up play, during which he found some premium hands, the Irishman landed the killing blow, completing a stoic comeback. Both players held top pair on a nine-high flop, Gavin the larger kicker. The board blanked and the rail erupted.

The payouts
1st: Fintan Gavin, Ireland, PokerStars player, £61,500
2nd: Andrew Hawksby, United Kingdom, £37,400
3rd Jamie Dale, United Kingdom, PokerStars qualifier, £22,900
4th: Thomas Ward, United Kingdom, PokerStars player, £16,850
5th: George Clyde-Smith, United Kingdom, PokerStars player, £13,100
6th: Craig Brown, United Kingdom, PokerStars qualifier, £10,500
7th Antonis Poulengeris, United Kingdom, PokerStars player £8,050
8th: Rob Swindells, United Kingdom, PokerStars player, £6,300

By Rick Dacey

Ronny Kaiser arrived in Tallinn this week as the Prince ready to claim his inheritance. After a mouth-watering display at the final table, he claimed just that; Kaiser, the King of EPT Tallinn, the first champion of the EPT’s eighth season.

The 21-year-old’s coronation was witnessed by a packed rail that had watched a captivating and turbo-charged finale, wrapped up in four-and-a-half hours, bringing a memorable week in Tallinn to a close. If this is a sign of things to come, the next ten months on the tour should prove to be a vintage season.

Kaiser leaves Estonia floating on the acclaim of fellow players and the plaudits of those of us watching from the rail, stalking the leaders until the moment he burst to the front.

Kaiser’s primary adversary through three days of play was the Polish player Grzegorz Cichocki, who he would finally meet, and destroy, heads-up.

“It’s very nice to win. I’ve been the chip leader for three days but I’ve got deep before and always finished 20th. This time I thought, ‘I should win this.’”

“It was funny,” said Kaiser when asked about having Cichocki on his left for the last two days. “We were next to each other for two days but the first big pot that we played was when were heads-up. It wasn’t deliberate; we just busted all the other guys. It wasn’t a conscious decision to avoid him, I wasn’t scared.”

The speed with which the final was concluded speaks volumes for Kaiser’s mastery. He dominated the heads up, which proved nothing short of a battering for the Pole who could only watch as Kaiser took what was rightfully his. The only player since Day 2 to have more chips than Kaiser was Cichocki. It was right that these two met heads-up but ultimately the right man won.

Kaiser played down his achievement, particularly the steam-rollering of his final opponent. “It’s strange because we were really deep, but I just won every hand,” he said. “I wasn’t really bluffing, I just had it every time.”

Kaiser had taken the advantage from Day 3 and from there he had no reason to look back, the view from his gilded perch on top of a stack of chips giving him complete command. Instead he used his remarkable focus to hunt down his prize, with a now familiar sleep-till-noon expression and his left hand holding his hood across his neck, presumably to hide any pulsing giveaways.

For Cichocki this was all an agonizing near-miss. Having put in a tireless and almost perfect performance, he just happened to run into Kaiser at his most powerful. Against anyone else we may well have been writing about new Polish records – in fact his runner-up spot makes him the highest finishing Pole in EPT history. Alas, the story lies elsewhere.

The day started with a line-up to rival any final table in the world, with Kaiser and Cichocki, Sami Kelopuro and Jani Sointula starting as heavyweights.

Arvi Vainionkulma was first to go. Still bruised from a hand against Cichocki at the bell the night before, he got his short stack into the middle in only the second hand of the day, running it into Kaiser, with predictable results.

Kelopuro would follow an hour later, seemingly nonplussed when Kaiser made a straight on the turn to deny ‘LarsLuzak’ from converting online success into a bricks and mortar foundation.

Kelopuro’s exit caught everyone by surprise, not least Erlend Melsom, who got a €10,000 bump before he departed in sixth place.

While Melsom was grateful to Kelopuro, Stuart Fox felt the same way towards Melsom. The Norwegian PokerStars Qualifier busted when his ace-king was rivered by Jani Sointula’s ace-queen, all while Fox looked on with two big blinds to his name. Fox had Sointula to thank for his bump in prize money, up to €55,000, which he collected after the very next hand, drawing dead against Kaiser’s trip kings.

With four left it seemed Kaiser and Sointula were trying a two-pronged pincer move on the Pole, first Kaiser landing a few jabs, then Sointula. To a certain extent it worked. The unshakable Cichocki was beginning to lose pots, his impressive armoury of orange chips slowly retreating to a rear-guard of blue.

But Cichocki weathered the storm, and began firing back, Sointula taking the full force of it when in what proved a decisive hand, he unlocked Sointula’s tournament hopes with a flopped straight. Sointula was watching from the rail within half an hour.

That left three, including arguably the happiest man in Tallinn. While Kaiser and Cichocki were setting records for Switzerland and Poland, Aasmaa was doing the same for his country, becoming the first Estonian to reach an EPT final. When he departed in third he looked like a man delighted to have won €110,000; his last ditch king-ten was flattened to Cichocki’s aces.

That cleared the way for Kaiser and Cichocki, the result perhaps a foregone conclusion. They may have begun heads up almost even but Kaiser had all the momentum and soon made it pay.

The European Poker Tour now heads for Barcelona for the second event of the new eighth season, starting on 27 August.

By Stephen Bartley
photos ©Neil Stoddart/PokerStars.