Viva Las Vegas: Timo Rerach from Landau/Germany travels to most important poker tournament in the world
ESPELKAMP. Bluff, raise, fold – all these words form part of the vocabulary used by poker players. And this is exactly what the “1st MERKUR-SPIELOTHEK International German Poker Championship 2006/2007“ was all about that was sponsored by Merkur-Spielothek – the successful arcade chain of the Gauselmann Group. The tournament series was organized by the German Poker Players Association “Deutsche Poker Liga” (DPL). At the final table in Nuremberg in mid-April contestants played for a prize pool worth € 50,000.
In order to successfully qualify for the final table the participants had to be among the ten best players of the qualification tournaments in the 15 selected Merkur-Spielothek arcades in the time from November 2006 to April 2007. Due to the overwhelmingly large number of contestants several hotels served as additional venues. The last qualifying for the much coveted entries for the big finals broke all records: on this day 500 poker aficionados played uncounted rounds until late at night the definite finalists were found.
In total, more than 11,000 poker fans were interested in the first Merkur-Spielothek tournament, among them participants from neighboring countries Luxemburg and Belgium.
“This is hardly surprising considering that the winner of the tournament series was to win a 6-day trip to gaming paradise Las Vegas including a buy-in of USD 10,000 to the biggest and most import poker tournament in the world, the World Series of Poker (WSOP)”, explains Henrik Langhorst, project manager Poker in the marketing department of Merkur-Spielothek. Every poker fan, continues Langhorst, is dreaming of “some when sitting at a table with the big stars of the scene and play for 100 million Dollars prize money!“
But the second prize is also nothing to sneeze at: a Harley Davidson Sportster 883. Prizes 3-10 were 6 day trips to Las Vegas plus buy-ins of USD 1,500 for a WSOP tournament each.
In total, 195 finalists played for the sought-after prizes at the exciting and captivating final tournament in Nuremberg. For 11 hours players were chasing each others chips. At 9:15 p.m. the winner was found. On this day, 19 year old Timo Rerach from Landau/Germany had the right touch, the strongest nerves, and above all the necessary ounce of luck. This means for him “Viva Las Vegas“. Klaus Binder could take a “cool“ trip back home on his new Harley Davidson. Michel Grubert from Filderstadt came in third.
