WSOP 2011 Leader Pius Heinz A Step Closer To Poker Glory

Last night, after around 10 hours of play between 3:30pm ET and 1:47am ET, this year’s November Nine was thinned down to just three players, who will return on Tuesday at 9 p.m. EST to decide the ultimate winner.
Leading the remaining players is the 22-year-old German pro Pius Heinz, who will resume on a 107,800,000 stack, ahead of nearest rivals Ben Lamb (USA) on 55,400,000, and Martin Stszko (Cze) on 42,700,000.
Pius Heinz began the day lying in 7th place with 16.475m in chips, and looked like he was about to be left behind after sinking to 9th place and a short-stack.
However, when the blinds reached 300K/600K with a 75K ante, Heinz managed to chip up nicely after making a 2.3 million bet on the river against Eoghan O’Dea to take down an uncontested pot worth 6 million.
Pius Heinz then got Eoghan O’Dea to bet 8 million chips on the river into a 20 million pot before shoving for his remaining 15 million chips, to once again win the pot uncontested and propel himself into the chip lead.
Next, Pius Heinz with pocket nines proceeded to eliminate Anton Makiievskyi (K-Q) in 8th, before tweeting:
“Just won a coinflip with 99 x KQ – now more than 60 k 😉 and 7 left.”
With the same pocket pair, Pius Heinz then eliminated US pro Phil Collins (A-7) in 5th to firmly consolidate his position as the table leader, and later tweeted:
“I herby proudly announce that i made it to the last 3 players remaining. Guess who is the chipleader ;-)”
Pius Heinz has the honour of being the first ever German player to reach the Main Event final table, and was given a further boost to his confidence after being signed by Team PokerStars just before the final table got started.
 
So far, Pius Heinz’ career live tournament cashes consist of a 7th place finish at this year’s WSOP $1,500 NL for $83,286, and recently a 1st place finish at the €1,000 EPT Barcelona for €17,450 ($25,140).
With three players left in the Main Event, Heinz is guaranteed a minimum of $4,021,138 but will now be aiming to go all the way and take down the coveted WSOP gold bracelet, and pocket the $8,715,636 top prize.