It’s not easy being Pascal Hartmann (pictured), who is known as paeffchenhere on PocketFives. The member of the Germany pokercommunity made the final table of the PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up in 2011 for $76,000 before ultimately taking it down last month for $94,000. The tournament was not chopped and he defeated a field of over 3,000 entrants. We caught up with him amid a potentially busy travel season to talk about his monumental Sunday Major victory.

“I’m pretty happy that I won it,” Hartmann told PocketFives in an exclusive interview. “I hadn’t been running that hot over the last year, so it feels amazing.” The Warm-Up he took down doled out over $600,000 in prize money and he said he “was running pretty smoothly the whole tournament, winning my flips and holding when I was all-in as a favorite.” For most of the tournament, he sat on a short stack of between 10 and 20 big blinds.

When 25 players remained in the Sunday Warm-Up, he said that he moved from 10 big blinds to 40 without having to show down a hand. He said, “I was just running good, picking my spots, and winning some hands.”

Now, let’s get to his hectic travel schedule. He is from Germanyand, when we talked to him, he was considering heading to fabulous Las Vegas for the World Series of Poker Main Event, which started on July 6 with Day 1A. He added, “I was thinking about flying to Japanwith a friend, but we will see. I’ll probably just go to Barcelonain August again.” Sounds like lovely weather.

Sixth place in the Warm-Up went to PocketFiver ApesAreFun, who cashed for $19,000. We asked for a scouting report on his game: “It seems like he was card dead for a pretty long time. He was super short before the final table and also when we reached the final table. Just when I thought he was getting back into the game, his A-9 ran into the A-J of the chip leader.” Hartmann and ApesAreFun have played together before, so this wasn’t their first run-in.

Hartmann got his start in poker like many members of the community did: playing home games with friends. He explained, “I started playing online, but also had to deposit a couple of times before it went the right way. After some time, I won some smaller tournaments, which really boosted my bankroll, and just kept playing sit and gos and tournaments. The key point was when I got third in the Sunday 500 back in 2009.”

His Sunday 500 third place finish was worth $56,000. In 2011, he took third in the Full Tilt $750,000 Guaranteed for $66,000. His second place in the Warm-Up occurred two months after that. He noted, “The first Warm-Up cash was super important. I came home from a live tournament, which didn’t run out well, and was down a lot and close to quitting the game. I bought a Warm-Up ticket with my FPPs and ended up getting second. That was the point where I really focused on bankroll management, not playing too high, and grinding smaller during downswings.”

He just passed $2 million in tracked cashes in his PocketFives profile and, at the time of writing, was #5 in Germany and #158 worldwide in the PocketFives Poker Rankings. He has been part of our community since 2011.

When we think of German online poker players, Pius MastaP89Heinz (pictured) comes to mind. The winner of the 2011 WSOP Main Event, Heinz helped ignite interest in poker in his homeland. Hartmann commented, “I think Pius Heinz winning the WSOP Main Event changed poker a lot in Germany, which is pretty good for players. There are some live casinos, but not too many. I am lucky living close to Austria, where all of the casinos are located.”

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