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Match Poker Championship will take place in Fritzlar. Our picture shows the winners of the 1st championship in 2022.”/>The 2nd German Match Poker Championship will take place in Fritzlar. Our picture shows the winners of the 1st championship in 2022. © German Poker Sports Association
The 2nd German Match Poker Championship will take place in Fritzlar. Martin Schwarz from the German Poker Sports Association explains what it’s all about.
What is currently going on in the house on the Eder in Fritzlar? The 2nd German Match Poker Championship, organized by the German Poker Sports Association, will take place there from today to Sunday. Anyone who thinks “Oh, I know poker” is not entirely correct in this case. Because “Match Poker is not comparable to backroom poker,” says Martin Schwarz from the German Poker Sports Association. He helped organize the German championship. Match Poker is the only variant that has been recognized as a sport – a game of skill and a brain teaser. “The Olympic Committee is already monitoring the sport, so we naturally hope that match poker will soon become an Olympic sport,” says Schwarz.
Match poker is a team sport. There are six players on each team. “It’s an exciting, tactical game,” says Schwarz, who has been interested in poker for 16 years. He has been playing match poker for four years. He got into the sport through friends and “has stuck with it ever since.”
Here’s how it works: There are six tables where players from all teams are spread out. At the end, each table is occupied by one player from each team. The players on a team sit in different positions from table to table. All players start with the same amount of chips. You have your cards on a mobile device such as a cell phone or tablet. The same cards are played at all tables. Each team’s combined chips are compared after each hand, which are a player’s best five cards, and points are distributed among the teams accordingly. The chips are then reset and a new round begins. Rounds of usually 60 hands are played. The team with the most points at the end of nine rounds wins. “The mix of playing live on site and online is just fun,” says Schwarz.
There are six teams taking part in the championship in Fritzlar. “We had hoped there would be more, but unfortunately the sport is not that popular yet,” he reports. There were also only six teams at the 1st Match Poker Championship in the Czech Republic in 2022. But Black is motivated. After third place in the first championship, he now wants to win with his team. “I really want to, but I’m also really excited,” he says.
Six teams are taking part in the championship in Fritzlar
The six teams come from all over Germany – from Hamburg to Düsseldorf to Bavaria. Fritzlar is therefore ideal as a venue. “It’s pretty centrally located and a friend of mine lives there, so that’s how it happened,” says Schwarz, who comes from Bretzfeld (Baden-Württemberg). In addition, the match poker players deliberately do not want to play their championship in the casino, hence the house on the Eder.
It starts this afternoon. First, Fritzlar’s mayor Hartmut Spogat will welcome the participants and there will also be a welcome video message from Patrick Nally, President of the International Federation of Poker, the umbrella organization of all national poker associations worldwide.
The awards ceremony will take place on Sunday afternoon. “The best individual player also receives a prize,” says Schwarz. And there will be a raffle, the proceeds of which will go to the maternity ward in Fritzlar. Spectators are warmly welcome. “There will be a public space for them where they can follow everything on a screen. The championship will also be broadcast live on Twitch,” says Schwarz. (Lea Beckmann)
