Records and more
The
European Poker Tour event in Dortmund was a tournament of records. Never before, a bigger field attended an
EPT tournament. Never before, more German-speaking players took part in a high-stakes tournament. And never before, a nice little game of poker got more media attention in Europe. But the real sensation took place behind the scenes, nearly unnoticed by the public. For the first time in German history, a public casino and a big, privately owned online cardroom worked together for the benefit of all. The effective cooperation of both groups produced an outstanding event, and as soon as the festival was over, they started negotiations about a revival in the midterm future.
The poker star of Dortmund was a 23-year-old German, Sebastian Ruthenberg from Hamburg. Already known as the winner of the TV invitational
German Open, produced in November 2006 in London, where he tried to prove that his self-chosen nickname "luckbox" is absolutely correct, he displayed some world-class poker in Dortmund. He was always focused on his game, found the right timing, and made his well-deserved way to the final table. His performance there caught the attention of half of the nation, and when he finally ended up in the third spot, you could hear some voices that Sebastian was the real champion. Some guys compared his style to the young Phil Ivey, and only time will tell if they are right.
From Dortmund, I went to Vienna, as the Concord Card Casino organized a big festival. The main event, formerly known as the
World Series of Poker Trial, had to change its name to
European Poker Challenge after Harrah's Entertainment insisted on its name rights. Even though the
EPT event in Warszawa took some traffic away, 206 players showed up in Vienna. The structure of the tournament is similar to the
EPT final in Monte Carlo, which is something for deep-stack specialists. Andreas Krause proved that he is in very good form again, finishing second only two weeks after his fourth-place finish in the Bregenz main event. Vienna treated me nicely, as well. A third, sixth, and eight place in the side events gave me second place in the overall championship, which was topped with some sweet extra prize money. Immediately after Vienna, the poker circuit headed to Hamburg, as the Casino Schenefeld hosted the
Pokerolymp Open, a series of four tournaments presented by the German poker info website pokerolymp.de. The website offers a very good mixture of poker-related material, it is completely independent, and the quality of its content is rewarded by increasing numbers of visitors. With Rino Matthis (Switzerland), Martin Pollak, Erich Kollmann, Sigi Stockinger (all Austria), and Andreas Krause (Germany), they established a high-profile poker team, with every single player able to win a big international event. If you watch our market closely enough, you will see a growing number of world-class tournament players showing up, as we are recognized as the third force in Europe besides the British and Scandinavians, and are willing and capable to stop the Scandinavian domination of the tournament circuit. Some readers might remember the special sentence used in international ads of a leading German car manufacturer: "Vorsprung durch Technik!"
Michael Keiner is a German poker pro sponsored by 888.com. You can find him playing online at www.pacificpoker.com.
