New details have emerged from the autopsy of the late poker player Johannes Strassmann (pictured) that might shed some light on the circumstances behind the German poker pro’s death in Slovenia last month.

—

PocketFives’ news coverage is brought to you by Betsafe, one of the leading suppliers of online gaming products worldwide and a major sponsor of Gumball 3000. Sign up now for great bonuses, €3,000,000 guaranteed monthly, and plenty of live events!

—

Natasa Pucko, a spokeswoman for the Slovenian police force, told journalists at the German web publication Bild.dethat chemicals commonly seen in “prohibited drugs” were found in Strassmann’s bodily fluids.

The police failed to elaborate on which drugs they had detected, but Bild spoke to an eyewitness who claimed to have observed Strassmann taking hallucinogenic mushrooms on the night he disappeared. “He was with three Slovenians. One of the men was a good friend of [Johannes], but the other two he didn’t know very well,” he told Bild. “One of them was a notorious drug dealer. The group had been eating magic mushrooms.”

It was around 10:00pm, he continued, that Strassmann “suddenly jumped from the table of the pub that they were in, left his cell phone, and ran.” Soon after, the 29-year-old was reported missing and a large-scale search operation was organized. Friends and family hired a private investigator and a reward fund of €10,000 was offered for information leading his whereabouts.

Friends took to social media, creating a Facebook page called “Missing Johannes Strassmann” (pictured), and some went to Ljubljana personally to search the surrounding marsh close to where the pro had disappeared. According to locals, there had been a storm in recent days, making the area difficult to search.

After a few days combing the forest, the search intensified after friends had thought they heard someone calling out to them from deep inside the forest. Police dogs and helicopters were brought in to focus on the area, but nothing was found.

On June 29, police reported that DNA results from a body found in the Ljubljanica River matched those of Strassmann. Duc Ngo, a friend of the poker pro and his family, released a statement confirming that Strassmann had died around Midnight on the Saturday he went missing. “There was no indication of violence,” he said. “The cause of death is drowning; it was a terrible accident.”

According to reports, Strassmann was in Slovenia to visit some local poker students whom he had been coaching. Police stated that he had planned to make a quick stop in the country before heading to the Croatian coast.

Strassmann was a well-liked high-stakes pro who specialized in heads-up No Limit Hold’em and PLO. A former member of Team PokerStars, the 29-year-old had created the poker training school CardCoaches and had coached tennis star Boris Becker (pictured) in the game. Recently, he had begun to turn his focus to live games, spending much of his time at King’s Casino in the Czech Republic.

He was also a formidable tournament player, officially winning $1,558,402 in his career according to Hendon Mob. In an interview with PokerListings, though, he spoke about moving away from the lifestyle that many tournament circuit pros lead. “All of your thoughts revolve around tournament poker and that’s just not for me,” he said. “I’m looking into other things like sports, my friends, my family, and spending a lot of quality time at home working at self-development.”

To that end, he had begun attending classes at the self-help university ChoiceCenterand become interested in meditation. “There are a couple of different meditation techniques that I’m practicing every day that help me be in the present moment, to play better poker, and be happier,” he told PokerNews.

According to friend Robin Scherr, he was hoping to “win a really big tournament” to make it possible to quit playing poker and move on to other interests. “I have no doubt that, given more time, his dream of a big title would’ve come true.”

Want the latest poker headlines and interviews? Follow PocketFives on Twitterand Like PocketFives on Facebook. You can also subscribe to our RSS feed.