Pius Heinz (born 4 May 1989) is a German professional

poker Poker is a family of Card game#Comparing games, comparing card games in which Card player, players betting (poker), wager over which poker hand, hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, with varying rules i ...

player from

Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...

, best known as the winner of the

Main Event In sports, a card lists the matches taking place in a title match combat-sport event. Cards include a main event match and the undercard listing the rest of the matches. The undercard may be divided into a midcard and a lower card, according to ...

at the

2011 World Series of Poker The 2011 World Series of Poker was the 42nd annual World Series of Poker (WSOP). The WSOP is the most prestigious poker tournament in the world with the winner of the Main Event considered to be the World Champion. It was held at the Rio All Suit ...

. He is the first German player to capture the Main Event

bracelet A bracelet is an article of jewellery that is worn around the wrist. Bracelets may serve different uses, such as being worn as an ornament. When worn as ornaments, bracelets may have a supportive function to hold other items of decoration, ...

. He defeated Czech player Martin Staszko to win the event. On the final hand, Heinz's defeated Staszko's , which did not improve on a board of . Heinz was a member of Team PokerStars.

Personal life

Heinz was born in

and raised in the village of Odendorf, Germany. He studied Business Psychology at the Hochschule Fresenius college in

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

, which he put on hold in August 2011 to pursue his poker career as a part of Team Pokerstars. He is currently living in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

Poker

Heinz started playing poker after watching the Main Event and ''

High Stakes Poker ''High Stakes Poker'' is an American cash game poker television program. The poker variant played on the show is no limit Texas hold 'em. The first four seasons ran from January 16, 2006 to December 17, 2007 on GSN. The next three seasons ran f ...

'' on German television. After playing a few games with his friends, he decided that poker was a game of skill and immersed himself in studying the subject. He proceeded to win over $700,000 online. Heinz won a

Full Tilt Poker Full Tilt Poker is an Irish online poker card room and online casino that opened in June 2004. Formerly privately owned by Tiltware, LLC and later by the Rational Entertainment Group, the site was acquired by The Stars Group (then known as Amaya ...

Sunday Mulligan in 2010 and a

PokerStars PokerStars is an online poker cardroom. It is the largest real money online poker site in the world, controlling over two-thirds of the total online poker market, and can be accessed through downloadable poker clients for Windows, macOS, Androi ...

$150,000 tournament in 2011. Having developed his style online, he discovered that he "did not have a lot of experience playing live ... The live game is pretty boring and you need a lot of patience." He cashed once during his first 15 WSOP events, finishing in 7th place in the $1,500 No Limit Hold‘em event, which garnered him $83,286. That was his first ever live tournament cash. Because of the size of the field, the first day of the WSOP Main Event is split over a four-day period. Heinz registered for day 1-A so that he "could get out of there and go home as soon as possible" if he was eliminated. During the final table, his mother, who was watching the event, had left the Penn & Teller Theater because she found the tournament too stressful.

References

External links

Card Player profileHendon Mob profilePocketFives profilePokerNews profileWSOP profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Heinz, Pius 1989 births German poker players World Series of Poker Main Event winners World Series of Poker bracelet winners People from Rhein-Sieg-Kreis Sportspeople from Cologne (region) Living people