November 10 2011, Donnie Peters

On Tuesday night, the newest member of Team PokerStars Pro, Pius Heinz, had his name ringing aloud in the confines of the Penn & Teller Theater at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino after he shipped the World Series of Poker Main Event and $8,715,638. We all know winners like to party, but Heinz was right back to work the following day answering the many of questions from the media. PokerNews was able to sit down with Heinz to discuss his run to glory. Here’s part one of the interview.

Pius, first off, have you slept yet?

Ah. [Laughs]. I did sleep, three hours, about.

Well that seems good enough. First off, let’s discuss the hiatus between July and November. We know you won a side event at EPT Barcelona. Could you talk us through how you felt the hiatus went, if you played a lot of poker and how you were preparing?

Yeah. For the most part, I just tried to relax and not think about it too much. I went to Barcelona and had a bit of fun there. I won a side event, which is always nice, and it’s always good for your confidence to win an event.

Other than that, I honestly didn’t do too much to prepare. I did a couple coaching sessions with Mike McDonald ["Timex"], who basically helped me about the ICM part of the game and the math aspect at a huge final table like that. But this is almost all I did when it came to strategy because I was so confident in my game and knew I could play really, really well and really good poker. I just thought that I was going to keep doing what I’ve been doing and it worked out.

It took you a little bit to finally win a hand on Sunday. Were you getting nervous or worried at all about things not going your way at the beginning?

I didn’t get nervous. I just got frustrated because I never made a hand, basically. I rarely had a hand. I did have aces two times, but other than that, I never made a hand. Especially post flop, I just could not flop top pair – ever.

And Martin [Staszko], I think, flopped good hands a lot of the time. So this was really, really tough for me. I just tried to not worry about it and play my game; play as well as I can and hope the cards eventually go my way.

Were you surprised at the pace of the final table or was it something you expected?

Yeah, kind of. It went reasonably fast. Once we got to 400K/800K, we had, I think, four or five stacks that were 20 big [blinds] or less. So then it’s almost like a turbo at this point. So then you’re going to expect people to bust really fast because people are going to have to start open-jamming and all these things. Overall, it went pretty quick. Especially three-handed play obviously went really, really quickly.

Did you use the 15-minute delay at all during the final table? Were your friends watching it and relaying you information?

Yeah, yeah they did.

What are some big moments that stick out in your mind? 

On Sunday, definitely the queens hand against Eoghan [O'Dea] where he put me in a really tough spot, I thought. I’ve read some about people giving their opinions on the hand, and I think that everybody’s basically dead wrong about it because I don’t think queens is an easy get in there. If you think about what his value range is, I’m crushed by that. It’s not a spot where you usually expect a player to barrel you a lot because my hand kind of looks face up and a lot of people don’t ever expect you to ever fold a hand like two queens there.

When you moved in with those two queens, did you expect him to call?

No. Well, I was hoping he would not call. Let’s just say I just cannot call the turn, and evaluate the river. That’s just not an option at this point because there’s way too much money in there. But yeah, I know that if he were to say ‘call’ immediately I would be crushed, so I was really happy when he did not snap-call.

Has everything sunk in yet?

[Laughs] No.

Not only are you are the first player from Germany to win the WSOP Main Event, you were the first player from Germany to make the Main Event final table. What was the reaction of your country leading up to the final table?

People were definitely interested in me. I had a lot of media requests, interview requests and all of that. I think now that I won, people are just going crazy over there. I’ve heard from friends who are getting called up by the media wanting to talk about me and all of that, so I think it’s going to be crazy.

Do you think this could ignite a poker boom in Germany?

I think the chance that this is going to start a poker boom in Germany is pretty good.

Winning the WSOP Main Event, you obviously have big shoes to fill by taking the title and becoming poker’s ambassador. Last year, Jonathan Duhamel, who is a fellow Team Pro at PokerStars, did a great job with all of that. How do you think you’re going to be able to handle everything?

I’m just going to wait and see how it goes. This is all really knew for me. I’m not used to that. It’s definitely going to take me a while to get used to everything. I’m just going to try to represent poker and PokerStars, who I’m really proud to be part of the team, as well as I can, and just be a great ambassador for poker for the most part.

Speaking of PokerStars, before the final table you signed as a Team Pro for Germany and you joined the likes of fellow Team Pros Chris Moneymaker, Joe Hachem, Joe Cada and Jonathan Duhamel as recent WSOP Main Event champions. Also, Daniel Negreanu and Barry Greenstein. How does it feel to be in this sort of company?

I’m really honored to be part of PokerStars, of the PokerStars team. I just think PokerStars is the best company in the industry by far, the most reliable, the most safe, the best people working there. I’m really, really happy to be working with the best.

What are you most looking forward to for the future? What are your plans?

Honestly, the thing I’m looking forward to the most right now is just going to EPT Prague and playing poker again. Also, not doing too much media as I consider myself a poker player and not a famous guy or anything. I’m just looking forward to playing again, basically.

The big question on everyone’s mind is how you’re going to reward yourself with the money.

I don’t know yet. I haven’t made too many plans about it because leading up to the event, I didn’t want to think about it too much, because I didn’t even know how much I was going to win anyways.

It’s better not to get ahead of yourself.

Yeah, just tried not to worry about it. I don’t know yet, especially for my family. They have a couple wishes where I can maybe help with some, so this is something I’m definitely going to do. For myself, I’m honestly not sure yet. I’m definitely not going to buy something ridiculous.

Do you plan on playing bigger buy-in tournaments like the $100,000 and $250,000 events around the world? Are those up your alley at all or are you going to stick to the $10,000 ones?

I don’t know yet. I think $10Ks seem about right for now. I mean $250K on one tournament is just pretty sick.

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Follow Donnie Peters on Twitter – @Donnie_Peters

November 09 2011, Brett Collson

The World Series of Poker Main Event is officially behind us, but that damn Pius Heinz rail song will be stuck in our head for at least the next week. While we all recover from the WSOP hangover, the Nightly Turbo brings you Jen Tilly’s recent appearance on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, a look at the upcoming final table of the Partouche Poker Tour, and more.

In Case You Missed It

Poker has a new world champion. Find out how Pius Heinz won $8.7 million in our World Series of Poker Main Event final table recap.

Nevada legislators have approved plans to renovate and reopen The Sahara on the Las Vegas Strip. Read about that and more in the latest edition of Inside Gaming.

Have you been feeling discouraged at the poker table lately? PokerNews’ Lynn Gilmartin has some tips to increase your motivation in her latest Stay Stacked piece.

The PokerNews Podcast crew got together for one last show at the Rio before the end of the WSOP Main Event. Tournament Director Jack Effel joined the show to preview the final day of the tournament.

Jen Tilly Folding?

Jen Tilly has enjoyed a decent amount of success in poker since winning a ladies event at the World Series of Poker in 2005. However, she says her days at the felt may be coming to an end.

Tilly made an appearance on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on Tuesday and said the stress that goes along with being a poker player makes her want to quit the game. “Poker is an ongoing session of never-ending agony,” she joked with Ferguson.

Tilly, whose boyfriend is poker pro Phil Laak, has been the subject of a lot of jokes around the poker community, particularly after one interesting play she made against Patrik Antonius on NBC’s Poker After Dark. But she’s always been a good sport and has never claimed to be the best player in the world. We’d certainly be sad to see her go.

However, something tells us she’ll be tagging along with Phil to the Bellagio poker room in the near future.

Watch the full interview with Jen at CBS.com. She begins talking about poker at 23:45.

Partouche Poker Tour Final Table Begins Nov. 12

With that other tournament in Vegas now out of the way, the Partouche Poker Tour Main Event comes to the center of the live tournament spotlight. A final table of nine players was reached back in September but, much like the WSOP Main Event, a champion isn’t crowned until November.

When the players reconvene in Cannes on Nov. 12, Sam Trickett will sit down with the chip lead and a shot at another seven-figure payday in 2011. The winner of the Main Event in Cannes will collect “1,000,000 (approximately $1.4 million). You may recall Trickett catching fire in January and taking down two High Roller events at the Aussie Millions for more than $3 million.

Other notables at the Partouche Poker Tour Main Event final table include Mads Wissing, Roger Hairabedian, and 2011 WSOP bracelet winner Oleksii Kovalchuk. Here’s a look at the full lineup and chip counts for Saturday’s final table:

Get more info at the Partouche Poker Tour’s website.

Jamie Gold Reveals His Secrets

While the poker community watched Pius Heinz become the newest world champion on Wednesday morning, another former World Series of Poker Main Event winner is set to reveal his winning secrets to the public.

2006 World Series of Poker Main Event champ Jamie Gold will be hosting a “Secrets of Winning” seminar at the Heartland Poker Tour stop in Reno, Nev. on Dec. 2, 2011. According to the HPT website, Gold will be teaching “the secrets of winning tournament play at every level as well as being a consistent winner in cash games.” The seminar will run from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Dec. 2, one day before the HTP Reno Main Event begins.

Gold’s unorthodox tactics at the poker table helped him earn $12 million for his Main Event victory in 2006. He used tireless table talk to put his opponents in awkward spots, and we imagine that will be a main focus of Gold’s teachings.

More information on the seminar can be found at the Heartland Poker Tour’s website.

Congress to Discuss Online Poker Again This Month

According to gambling expert Chris Krafcik, there will be a pair of hearings on Internet poker in Congress this month. On Nov. 17, the Senate Indian Affairs Committee will hold an oversight hearing titled Future of Internet Gaming: What’s at Stake for Tribes? One day later, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee will supposedly hold another hearing regarding online poker.

Details on both of the hearings are limited, but Kafcik says he learned about the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee hearing from a lobbying source. It would take place less than a month after the same committee discussed online poker on Capitol Hill in front of a panel of expert witnesses. The title of that hearing on Oct. 25 was Internet Gaming: Is There a Safe Bet?

Brief details on the Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearing can be found at www.indian.senate.gov.

Meet Your World Champion

After an exhausting heads-up match, German pro Pius Heinz defeated Martin Staszko to win the 2011 WSOP Main Event. PokerNews’ Kristy Arnett spoke with Heinz after his monumental victory.

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Follow Brett Collson on Twitter – @brettcollson