22-year-old German Player wins WSOP Main Event

The biggest poker event of the year was just won by Pius Heinz, 22 years old player from Cologne Germany that took home the top prize of $8.72 million.

The last day of play started with only 3 players remaining; Martin Staszko from the Czech Republic, Ben Lamb from the United States of America, and of course Pius Heinz.

The final 9 players had to play thousands of other players back in July until only they qualified as the last 9 for the final table.

Play at the final table started on Sunday 6 November. When the final 9 returned to the Rio Casino Resort last week, Heinz had one of the lowest chip stacks and was placed 7th with only 2 other players behind him in amount of chips.

All the odds were stacked against Heinz who managed to overcome all obstacles by winning some spectacular hands and taking huge risks. It all paid off in the end when late on Tuesday night, after almost 3 days of poker playing at the highest level possible, he won a staggering $8,715,638.

After the tournament Heinz seemed surprised and delighted with his win. He told reporters that only earlier this year he doubted his future as a professional poker player and was not sure he would continue playing.

When asked what he is planning to do with all the money he won, Heinz said “honestly I’m not sure what I’m going to do with the money… probably my family is going to get a couple of gifts.”

Martin Staszko finished second and took home $5,433,086 and seemed really happy with his win. Ben Lamb finished third and took home $4,021,138.