Back again in Germany I went more often to the Stuttgart casino and applied myself, for a change, to Black Jack and Baccara. It was during this time that an association began with Everest Poker. The business, together with GPPA, organized a number of tournament series, including the GPPA Poker Tour in which non-cash prizes worth more than several thousand euros as well as buy-ins for tournaments in Las Vegas and Germany were played for. The interest in poker way growing practically daily, then and we were almost overwhelmed by players. In Leverkusen, 700 players appeared for a tournament. The queue stretched to in front of the building and just for the preliminary rounds we had 130 tables.

 

Everest also sponsored me privately, so that I was in the position to participate in more tournaments than I had actually planned. A successful partnership developed with a sponsor who meant for me a new dimension.

In October I was again invited to appear on Günter Jauch on SternTV. In front of running cameras I sat at a table with the actor Claude-Oliver Rudolph and the expert on mental calculation, Dr. Gert Mittring. Both tried hard but they were not particularly gifted. Dr. Mittring was outwardly shocked that he had lost with an ace and queen to my ace and nine. After all he had the better hand! “I was just lucky” I chuckled. All in all both played enthusiastically and we had a lot of fun. Although I already knew the surroundings, I must say that again this time we were very well looked after by RTL. They were model hosts and the catering was not to be underestimated.