At this time there were no tournaments outside of casinos but this seemed to be to be an attractive idea. I tested the idea at the Echterdinger Ratsstube. I had no access to a data bank but kindly one of the regional weekly newspapers supported me and with their help I succeeded in finding a whole range of sponsors. At that time I began with two tables on which qualification tournaments were played for seven days. The finals, for which 100 players had qualified, took place on the eighth day. The tournament created quite a stir in the region and was something like an initial spark for the development of GPPA in the subsequent years.

 

As a player I went as usual to the casinos mainly in Wiesbaden and Baden-Baden. In Wiesbaden I mostly took part in their Monday tournaments, which I had personally initiated. The starting fee was always between100 and 300 marks and Seven Card Stud spread limit was played. Fridays to Sundays I spent in Baden-Baden played cash game and attended to the organization of tournaments.

In this year Sat1 approached me for the series “24 hours”, in which they would accompany me for a whole day, edit it into an episode and broadcast it at prime time.

I was also a guest at the opening of the Concord Card Casino in Graz. At the end of the year I had the same honour at the Circle Club Louis XIV in Kitzbühl.