Pius Heinz, Poker Biography

by Jennifer Newell

Pius Heinz was one of the least known players at the 2011 World Series of Poker, but his run in the Main Event put him on the poker map in a way that not only put him in contention for $8.7 million but garnered a sponsorship from PokerStars in the meantime.

Pius Heinz's Profile

Pius Heinz was born and raised in Germany, calling Cologne home. He focused on his education, which took him to a university where he studied business psychology with a personal focus on history. Math was certainly not his strong suit, as he later admitted, but he took his studies seriously.

Heinz and friends saw poker on television courtesy of the World Series of Poker and High Stakes Poker, both which aired on German television. They decided to start their own games and played cash games and sit-n-gos at home whenever time allowed. With studies taking up a fair amount of his time, however, he decided to take his game online.

It was on sites like PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker that Heinz truly honed his hold'em game. He knew that skill was involved, so he played more to understand the game while also participating in poker forums to share ideas and learn from more skilled players. He claimed that he learned the fundamentals there and developed an aggressive style.

During his time online, Heinz played as MastaP89 and racked up impressive tournament scores, like winning the Sunday Mulligan on Full Tilt, the $150K Guarantee on PokerStars, and the $60K Guarantee on Full Tilt. Overall, he won more than $700K in online poker tournaments.

All the while, one of the most important lessons the young poker player learned was bankroll management. He knew that the money was important, not only to him but to his parents and siblings, who he was able to help support with poker winnings.

It was in the summer of 2011 that Heinz decided to try his hand at live tournament poker by flying from Germany to the United States, Las Vegas to be exact, for the WSOP. Though he spent some of his time in the cash games, he played several events as well. He played a $1,500 NLHE tournament and made the final table, finishing seventh out of 2,713 players for $83,286. He then took his shot at the $10,000 NLHE World Championship Main Event. Out of that large field, he fought his way through eight days of grueling poker and ended up at the final table as a member of the November Nine.

Guaranteed a minimum payout of $782,115, Heinz then played more tournaments, one of which was the EPT Barcelona series. And there, he took home his first poker tournament title by winning the €1K NLHE Turbo Bounty event for €17,450.

When he returned to Las Vegas for the playdown of the WSOP Main Event final table, he had a sponsorship deal on his side. Days before, it was announced that he signed a deal with PokerStars, the largest online poker site in the world. He joined a team of German pros that included Sebastian Ruthenberg and Sandra Naujoks.

On November 6, he played the first portion of the November Nine final table and made it through to the final three, which resumed play on November 8. He had the lead of the three players, and he then got to heads-up play with Martin Staszko. The two battled for hours and more than 100 hands, until Heinz found a position to double up and take a significant lead in the match. A few hands later, the two got into the final hand, and Heinz emerged victorious.

Pius Heinz became the 2011 WSOP Main Event champion, with the gold bracelet and $8,715,638. Germany celebrated, and Heinz was launched into what was destined to be the biggest year of his young life at only 22 years old.

Read Pius Heinz's Profile for more information including his tournament results and total winnings.

More Poker Biographies | Player Profiles

Jennifer Newell is a freelance writer, originally from St. Louis but now living in Los Angeles. She fell in love with poker while working at WPT and began writing about it in 2005.