Pius Heinz is a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 poker

Poker

Poker is a family of card games that share betting rules and usually hand rankings. Poker games differ in how the cards are dealt, how hands may be formed, whether the high or low hand wins the pot in a showdown , limits on bet sizes, and how many rounds of betting are allowed.In most modern poker...

 professional from Cologne

Cologne

Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...

, best known as the winner of the Main Event at the 2011 World Series of Poker

2011 World Series of Poker

The 2011 World Series of Poker was the 42nd annual World Series of Poker . 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 Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada between May...

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

World Series of Poker bracelet

The World Series of Poker bracelet is considered the most coveted non-monetary prize a poker player can win. Since 1976, a bracelet has been awarded to the winner of every event at the annual WSOP. Even if the victory occurred before 1976, WSOP championships are now counted as "bracelets". ...

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He defeated Czech player Martin Staszko

Martin Staszko

Martin Staszko is a Czech poker player from Třinec, best known as the runner-up of the Main Event at the 2011 World Series of Poker, where he finished second to Pius Heinz.- Life :...

 to win the event. On the final hand, Heinz's defeated Staszko's , which did not improve on a board of .

Heinz is a member of Team PokerStars.

Poker

Heinz started playing poker after watching the Main Event and High Stakes Poker on German TV. After playing a few games with his friends, he decided that poker was a game of skill and immersed himself in studying the subject. His efforts paid off as he won over $700,000 online.

Heinz won a Full Tilt Poker Sunday Mulligan in 2010 and a PokerStars $150K 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 winning $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 Penn & Teller Theater because she found the tournament too stressful.

World Series of Poker bracelet

Year	Tournament	Prize (US$)
2011 2011 World Series of Poker The 2011 World Series of Poker was the 42nd annual World Series of Poker . 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 Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada between May...	$10,000 No Limit Hold'em World Championship	$8,715,638