World of Poker: Germany

Gambling has deep roots in Germany. The roulette wheel itself was developed by Francois and Louis Blanc and introduced in Germany. When the laws turned against gambling in the late 1800s, Louis Blanc took the wheel to Monaco, which led to the creation of Monte Carlo.

Poker itself was likely derived from similar games in Germany and France. In 1440, Johann Gutenberg, of the famous Gutenberg printing press, printed the first entire deck of cards. Of course, traditional playing cards in Germany look quite different than the French counterpart that the general public knows about - German cards use hearts, leaves, bells and acorns as suits.

After several months of planning, Germany just added a new stop on the PokerStars European Poker Tour - the first EPT tournament in the country. The EPT Dortmund will be held at the Casino Hohensyburg in Dortmund, March 8-11. (This casino has 9 poker tables when not running special events.) The buy-in is €5,000 and the fourday, TV event has a cap of 500 people. Like all the other events on the EPT the game is No-Limit Texas Hold'em. With the way the EPT events have been going in the past, this event will fill up fast. Players that don't have a PokerStars package have to buy a casino VIP package, which is €60 per day, but covers the casino entrance, a buffet, and drinks. German beer!

This event has a total prize pool of €2.35 million, and the winner gets €700,000 - over $900,000!

There are also three other events as part of the Hohensyburg Open. There's a €300 buy-in super satellite to the main event with one €300 rebuy and one €300 add-on. Also, a €1,000 freezeout and a €500 freezeout.

The EPT Dortmund is one of those events that require a jacket, which might put a dent in some of the hotshot American players that make the trip. Remember when U.S. casinos had such a requirement? Yeah, me neither. Though this is the first EPT foray into the country, it's not the first major tournament. Back in 2005, the online site Everest Poker sponsored the German Poker Tour, which was a series of five tournaments across Germany. The GPT was organized by a player's group calling itself the German Poker Player Association. The final was held in Kalsruhe on Oct. 9, and won by Michael Thielting. It doesn't appear that there's been another German Poker Tour since '05 - a likely reason that the EPT stepped in.

However, the German Poker Player Association lives on, and is associated with the German Poker League, which started back up in January. The DPL (Deutsche Poker Liga) is attempting to get Merkur-Spielothek as sponsors - a major arcade game operator in Germany.

Following the sponsorship of this and a similar tour in France, Everest Poker decided to run a championship series of their own - the Everest Poker European Championship. The site ran live events in 7 countries, including Germany, over March to June '06. The finale took place on September 9, with a €50,000 prize pool - won by Sweden's Peter Lindström.

One of the most famous German poker players is a woman - Katja "Miss Slick" Thater. According to Wikipedia, she's the most well-known female poker player in Germany, due to television exposure on the 888.com Poker Nations Cup (where she took second place) and the Woman's Poker Open. Thater is a member of Team PokerStars and had two cashes at the 2006 World Series of Poker. Thater is also infamous for bubbling out of the money in five straight events at the World Poker Open in Tunica in 2005 - earning her a second nickname of "Bubble Girl". The 2006 Tunica event is almost here - let's hope this is one performance she doesn't repeat.

Then there's Roland "Mr. Cool" Specht, who also plays for Team Germany at the aforementioned Poker Nations Cup. Specht specializes in cash games; specifically potlimit Omaha, from €250 to €2,000 buy-in. Omaha is even more popular overseas than in the states, so finding a game is not difficult.

There's also Thomas "Buzzer" Bihl, a sit-and-go expert, who took 16th in the Caribbean Poker Classic in December '05 and made a final table at a rare tournament format - PLO8 - at the EPT London, and veteran player Eddy Scharf, who was born in Cologne, Germany, and has 31 cashes since 2001, including three cashes in the 2005 World Series and Omaha bracelets in the 2001 and 2003 Series.

"Seven Card Stud, Texas Hold'em, Omaha, Five Card Draw," says Kerstin Peterson of Spielbank Wiesbaden, when asked about the types of games the casino offers. Spielbank Wiesbaden only plays up to pot-limit, a European tradition still held on to by many casinos, despite the no-limit craze.

Tournament buy-ins range from €75 for rookie events up to €600, according to Peterson. The tournament days are Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 5 p.m. to 3:30 a.m. and Wednesday and Friday from 7:30 p.m. to 3:30 a.m. "Business is growing fast; on tournament days [we are] constantly at our capacity limit," says Peterson. "Many more tournaments (four per week); many more cash games (three to four tables on tournament days), many more younger people. [We run] 4 tournaments every week and a four day Christmas special," he says.

Peterson believes the market for poker in Germany is changing for the better. "Only for Germany: More and more poker in the casinos," he says. "Maybe sometime, when the market is possibly liberalized, poker rooms outside the casinos."