Pius Heinz is a professional poker player. He was born in May 4, 1989 in Cologne Germany and is best known as the winner of the Main Event at the 2011 World Series of Poker. He is the first German player to capture the Main Event bracelet and the second youngest WSOP Champion taking home the $8,715,638 First Place pay out.
He defeated Czech player Martin Staszko to win the event. On the final hand, Heinz's A♠ K♣ defeated Staszko's 10♣ 7♣, which did not improve on a board of 5♣ 2♦ 9♠ J♥ 4♦. The heads up competition between him and Staszko lasted more than 6 hours with the chip lead exchanging nine times before Pius finally overpowered Martin and took the WSOP 2011 Championship with an A-K high.
Heinz started playing poker after watching the Main Event and High Stakes Poker on German TV. After playing a few games with his friends, he decided that poker was a game of skill and immersed himself in studying the subject. He proceeded to win over $700,000 online.
Heinz won a Full Tilt Poker Sunday Mulligan in 2010 and a PokerStars $150K tournament in 2011.
Having developed his style online, he soon discovered that he did not have a lot of experience playing live. He cashed once during his first 15 WSOP events, finishing in 7th place in the $1,500 No Limit Hold ‘em event, which garnered him $83,286. Because of the size of the field, the first day of the WSOP Main Event is split over a four-day period. Heinz registered for day 1-A so that he "could get out of there and go home as soon as possible" if he was eliminated. It soon became obvious that he wasn't going home anytime to soon.
