Anton Morgenstern had the distinction of being the last remaining PokerStars qualifier in the 2013 World Series of Poker Main Event, earning that title late on Day 4 when Marcel Luske was eliminated in 261st place. Although very young, the 22-year-old from Berlin, Germany has already been clicking away online for several years, though for him, that came with a price. “I’ve been sitting in my room for years grinding. I miss talking to people. I miss just experiencing everything else that goes on in this world, basically,” he told the folks at the PokerStars blog.

“It used to be what I did every day and what I loved,” he said. “Starting two years ago, I started to drift off a little bit.”

Now, he tries to find a balance between poker and just simply living his life. He still loves the game, but he isn’t letting it dominate his life anymore.

Morgenstern, looking to become the second German to win the Main Event in three years (Pius Heinz won in 2011), stuck to mostly $5,000 buy-in and higher events at the 2013 WSOP, cashing in a $5,000 No Limit Hold’em tournament. That was his third career WSOP cash to go along with two more on the European Poker Tour.

Morgenstern ran pretty poorly on Day 7 of the Main Event, running trip aces with a jack kicker into the full houseof Mark Newhouse, and then ran A-J into aces on his final hand to go out in 20th place at the hands of Fabian Ortiz.

Those five ventures into the money plus one more in a preliminary event at EPT San Remo make up the entirety of his live tournament winnings, which total $88,272. Of course, with this deep run in the Main Event, Morgenstern added a healthy number to that figure.

In discussing his approach at the poker table, Morgenstern told the PokerStars blog, “When I play live, I just try to immediately let everybody know that I’m going to own the table. I open every pot. People put their chips ready for a call, then look at me and think ‘not against this guy.’ That’s what I’ve been doing for the first three days.”