“Mad” Marvin Rettenmaier

Marvin Rettenmaier spent all of last year hopping from tournament to tournament, grinding extremely long hours at the live felt. In this time he became well-known in poker circles from one side of the world to the other. But Marvin wasn’t chasing money or trophies, it was the Card Player Player Of The Year (POY) title he was pulling out all the stops for.

The young German started 2011 with a bang finishing third in a $1,000 buy-in six-max tournament at the PCA, second in a €1,000 event at the European Poker Tour Deauville, and third in a World Poker Tour Venice €1,000 side event. This was all building up to his biggest win to date — €244,036 for taking down the French Poker Series main event. But just when he achieved victory, things took a turn for the worse.

“I had a non-cashing streak of 35 or so, which is pretty hard to do in live poker,” says Rettenmaier. “There was not much I could do, but I think after a while it also affects your game a little bit.

“Right after EPT Madrid I went back to my city of glory; Paris, and I managed to achieve two really deep runs without making too much of a profit. But it felt really good to end that streak. I managed to win a tournament during the World Series, but sadly it was not in the Rio and I only got a “fake” bracelet for it. I had two deep runs in the prelims where I had a top five stack when I busted, and I had a deep run in the main event as well, losing a pot worth 1.1 million in chips with 150,000 or so behind when the average was less than 300,000. That was a big disappointment. I won another smallish tournament in Cyprus in August for around €50k; sadly that one didn’t meet the criteria to qualify for the POY.”

In Good Company

Rettenmaier ended the year in fourth place on the POY leader board with 5,056 points, just three spots away from eventual winner Ben Lamb, and two away from Brit poker star Chris Moorman. With players such as Sam Stein, Jason Mercier, and Eugene Katchalov for company, the reasonably new poker pro was making a big impact, and fast. He says, “I really made it my goal to win this ranking before the year had even started, which is kind of a weird goal. I mean other people try to win money and stuff, but I just wanted to win this ranking. And I did put a lot of effort into it, travelled a lot and lost a lot of EV (expected value) by playing tired lots of times. I even played some situations more aggressively because I knew that if it didn’t go my way I could catch a plane a couple of hours later and play another tournament somewhere else. I was not happy at all that I didn’t reach my goal. Then again I tried my best and I am proud that I managed to keep up with all the stress I went through last year. And if I would have binked one more of those deep runs I had I could have won it as well!”

There is a positivity to most things Rettenmaier talks about, even when discussing his downswing last year. “I have very mixed feelings about the year. I had a great first two months and I obviously didn’t expect to keep that up forever, but I ran pretty bad for the rest of the year. I feel like I shouldn’t seriously complain about being able to play cards for a living and after all I did make a nice profit in 2011. Still, I feel like I ran below expectation having had a stack in so many major tournaments without getting in that big, big score.” When talking to Rettenmaier, it’s hard to believe those closest to him on the circuit give him a hard time for whinging. “Despite being a positive person I manage to be a big whiner as well,” he says candidly. “I do like to complain about only taking 95 percent of my opponent’s chips because the river was whatever card, but I’m rarely serious about it. Friends of mine even set up the FMLMarvin twitter account exaggerating my comments, which I actually do find quite amusing.”

To All The Girls I’ve Loved Before

It is clear that most people who meet the Titan-sponsored pro take an instant liking to him, whether it’s down to his sense of humour and penchant for mischief, or his general laid-back friendliness. He always seems to be in the middle of all the fun and has friends everywhere he goes. Seen strumming his guitar almost as often as he is shuffling chips, the German is known for his spontaneous sing-songs and flirtatious serenades. “I like to play the guitar or piano and sing,” says the Justin Bieber-haired crooner. “I always try to take my guitar on poker trips. It helps me to relax before or after I play.

“I was always very much into music. My parents sadly aren’t. They bought me a keyboard when I was in elementary school — I wish I would have started with the piano though and not with a 70-year-old teacher. I started singing when I was on a one-year high school exchange in Wisconsin and my host Dad would play the guitar by the fire and I’d sing along. He told me that my voice is pretty good and I actually took three months of vocal lessons. Then I taught myself to play the guitar during my semester abroad at UC San Diego just because it’s easier to carry a guitar around. After high school I never really had a band again due to the fact that I was moving so much. But maybe someday, I might do something in that department. Till then it’s just to impress the ladies.”

Luck Be A Lady Tonight

From the outside, you might think Marvin is just another young upstart taking his shot with the big boys and enjoying the lifestyle and freedom, but look a little closer and you may be surprised to find a deep thinker with a mature sense of focus and a willingness to keep improving.

Rettenmaier has no qualms in stating just how big a role luck played in his rise to poker’s international stage. After getting a taste for the game during a year of high school in the U.S., it was the poker boom that really grasped the German, and he soon found himself carving out a new home at the virtual felt. His speedy journey to where he is now almost seems too good to be true, but Rettenmaier is happy to admit that.

“Obviously poker is a lot about experience and strategy, which you don’t have in the beginning when you start playing, so I got extremely lucky and built up my bankroll from the $50 I put in to $25k in a month and then just took it from there,” he says. “Looking back and thinking about it, if I had of just lost some hand at some point of one big tournament at the beginning of my poker career, I maybe wouldn’t be sitting here with you. It’s crazy!”

That being said, Rettenmaier knows his limits. When he first hit the circuit he spent weeks at the felt in Vegas brushing up on his live game. He knew where his weaknesses where and was determined to change them. He also knew he had to be careful in his tournament selection. “In 2010 I didn’t pick that many EPTs because there were other tournaments that I thought were higher value but right now I’m choosing EPTs because there are more tournaments that I can play, like I can basically play every day. I’d rather that than to have to fly somewhere for a main event or one side event and a main event. If I bust I don’t have to fly somewhere else the next day just to play in another tournament.”

Reality Shock

Rettenmaier noticed that playing live tournaments one after the other wasn’t what it was all cracked up to be. “When I started, I don’t want to say I didn’t have that much fun, it was fun for like two or three days and then after a week it got really boring. It was also really hard on the mind, it was really difficult to concentrate for a whole day — 10 to 12 hours of live play is really, really exhausting if you focus on everything, but obviously you get better at it, you can concentrate for longer and on more detailed stuff like reading people. After a while (three or four months) I got better at it and I was having more fun as well. But before, if I was on a two-week live trip, at the end I would just want to go clicking the mouse again. Right now I feel like I have no idea how I did that, just sitting in front of the computer for hours.”

He also knows something not many young up-and-comers often do — making a name for yourself and creating a career in poker doesn’t mean you have to play the biggest games with the most famous names. “I got really, really lucky so I don’t know what it’s like to really steadily grow your bankroll to the point where you can play the limits I’m playing right now,” he says, “but if you do, you should select your tournaments, you don’t have to play the super high rollers. In my opinion it’s just not worth it, I don’t want to risk a certain amount of my bankroll just to win some tournament that Ivey is playing or something like that. I don’t need to play the best players, so tournament selection is important and table selection if you play cash games. And don’t play tired, don’t play when you’re drunk or on other drugs,” he says, laughing. “That’s actually the main thing. I almost crushed my bankroll once when I was at an internship and I was studying, and I would come home at 8 p.m. and start playing online and then I’d have to get up the next morning at 7 so I’d already be tired. After two hours I would kind of want to quit or sometimes I fell asleep.” These are all lessons Rettenmaier had to learn on his quick ascent to title-hunting and champagne-swilling.

The German also attributes much of his early success to playing online at European poker sites, which he says helped strengthen his live game. “I’ve played a lot at the Euro sites which are a lot tougher than the U.S. sites, and you can also relate that to the live play as well. It’s a different game. You have a lot of strategy possibilities that you don’t have on the U.S. sites — you can let out a lot of plus EV plays just because you will find way better spots a couple hands later.”

To Infinity, And Beyond!

Marvin Rettenmaier never thought he was going to make it professionally until the beginning of 2010, at this stage he had been playing online recreationally for five or six years. He was at school and contemplating doing something with his business management degree. The entrepreneurial way of life came about in a different guise however. After being invited to a live tournament, Rettenmaier made the final table and although he got knocked out in eighth place, his disappointment was replaced by delight when he was offered a sponsorship deal. After this, there was no looking back, and Rettenmaier quickly made the transition from online to live.

“I used to play at lot of tables at the same time and right now, whenever I do play online, which isn’t too often, I only put up a couple of tables and I focus way more on one table and how people play etc..” The young pro, who began in the online world, now classifies himself as a live player, and the dream now for him is winning a big title, or best of all, a bracelet.

“I’m a very positive person and I’m looking forward to a great year ahead. I really feel that this is going to be my year. I will try to have a better work-life balance, play destinations where I have more than poker, not play tired anymore and therefore play my absolute A-game a lot more often. I would really like to win a major tournament, maybe a bracelet this summer, and I’m very confident in my game. I’ve been in so many spots where I was very close to it, so I feel like it’s only a matter of time.”

And with that Marvin runs off to play tennis with Titan team mate Sam Trickett on the Crowne Casino’s rooftop while he is in Australia for the Aussie Millions. Living the dream and determined to stay there, this could once again be the year of the Germans. Either way, this down-to-earth poker pro is sure to end the year smiling. ♠