Family man Michael Einnolf gets big chance at PSPC
The PokerStars Platinum Madness promotion offered 21 Platinum Passes for the €22,500 PokerStars Players NL Hold’em Championship (PSPC), three of which went to German players. That’s nine in total for players from one of poker’s great strongholds.
One of the most recent winners was 43-year-old Michael Einnolf from the tranquil town of Wittmund in beautiful East Frisia. Einnolf found his pass in a PSPC chest and, like his countryman Amel Husnic, was taken by surprise by his win.
Einnolf spoke to PokerStars Blog about his poker career and of course the upcoming major event, originally planned for Barcelona and now set for the Bahamas.
PS Blog: Hello Michael. Congratulations on your Platinum Pass. You say that you’re a recreational player, but can you describe your poker experience.
Michael Einnolf: I am a member of a small private group — there are about eight of us — that meets about every three to four weeks and plays a little cash game. That’s about it. I play tournaments every now and then in the casino in Bad Zwischenahn, but a maximum of three or four times per year. We can’t really remember the precise time that we started the group, but it must have been in 2007 or early 2008. We used to organise tournaments with around 100 players, but regulations made that difficult. So we prefer now to keep it smaller and the core group from back then is still together.
Let’s get to the Platinum Pass. You found it in a chest during the Platinum Madness Promotion, right?
Yes, and I really didn’t know anything about the promotion beforehand. I typically play heads-up or hyper tournaments at PokerStars, just so that it’s quick. But I hadn’t actually played online for months. This time I played a few Spin & Go’s and got a chest after two hours. I did notice it, but I was on my phone and the next tournament was just starting, so I didn’t really pay attention to it. A little later I received the first email from Melanie Moser [from the Player Engagement Team at PokerStars], which I dismissed as advertising. It was only when Melanie called me later and said “Please do not hang up” that I checked the email again. I was just surprised and shocked.
Did you know about the PSPC?
No not at all. I had to call a buddy who was a little more active in the scene, and he explained it all to me.
MORE ABOUT THE PSPC:
ALL PSPC COVERAGE | WINNERS SO FAR | NEXT PLATINUM PASS TOURNAMENTS
And now you get a unique chance in the Bahamas to play for prize money in the millions. How will you prepare?
This is a huge opportunity. Of course, I’m not at all experienced in such big tournaments. I say I’ve mastered poker over the years, but I don’t know what the structure of this tournament will be, for example. I assume that it will be a slow structure and being patient is the big challenge for me. In our home games we increase the blinds every 10 minutes, in most casinos it is 20 or 30 minutes in day tournaments.
I will now go to the boot camp with Felix Schneiders in Cologne for the first time and will certainly learn a lot more about the whole event. After that I will probably go to the Czech Republic with a few buddies or visit some other major tournaments. At the end of the day I want to try to stay the same. I am self-employed, have a family and many other hobbies, and I do not have much time to play poker.
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