Poker - A good start at WSOP for George Danzer

July 8, 2015

LAS VEGAS -- George Danzer has no problem getting noticed in most any crowd -- his mohawk pretty much guarantees that.

But after Monday, when his 2014 WSOP Player of the Year banner was unveiled in the Brasilia Room at the Rio and he gave the traditional “Shuffle Up and Deal” proclamation to kick off Day 1B of the Main Event, it made it even more impossible to go incognito -- even in a crowded poker room.

His play again helped him stand out as he increased his starting stack of 30,000 in chips to 96,300 by the end of Monday’s action. He has the 96th-largest stack of the 1,624 players from Sunday and Monday’s Day 1A and 1B that will resume play on Day 2a at noon PT Wednesday.

“It was a pretty good day,” Danzer said on his day off Tuesday. “I usually come in 5 minutes before play starts or even a little late, but I was there early and thought about what I would say on the microphone.

“When they uncovered the banner, that moment was [pause] . . . it’s hard to put into words [pause] . . . it was a once-in-a-lifetime moment and you realize that it will be there forever.

“And then I went to my table and was just another player.”

Well, that’s not exactly true, but it does show how humble the 31-year-old poker pro from Salzburg, Germany, has remained. He was already considered a top player with several near-misses over the previous 10 years in trying to win a WSOP event, but then he won his first two WSOP bracelets ($10,000 Seven Card Razz and $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo Split 8-or-better) last summer at the Rio. He didn’t quite go to the ends of the Earth to top Brandon Shack-Harris in the POY race, but he did go to WSOP Asia-Pacific in Melbourne, Australia, and won the $5,000 Eight Game Mix event for his third bracelet of the year as well as five final tables and 10 total cashes.

He hasn’t had as much success this year, cashing in just three events so far.

“Poker does keep you humble,” Danzer said. “I’ve been playing the World Series a long time and you’re going to have good summers and bad summers. It’s hard for even top players to break even some years. I haven’t gotten back to even yet this summer, but it hasn’t been a disaster.”

Danzer said he’s grateful that he’s been able to earn a living as a poker pro. It’s proven to be a more lucrative career path than the one he was on. He was a chess prodigy in his youth, winning the Portugal under-10 championship and having an ELO rating of 2310 at age 15.

“It was while I was playing chess tournaments in Germany around age 16 or 17 years old that me and my chess buddies would play cards at night,” Danzer said. “I wasn’t good at poker at first but kept practicing and learning. When the poker boom hit, I decided to give poker a try. The very top chess players can make good money, but it’s nothing like poker and what it’s grown into. Now I suck at chess.”

I would bet that’s another thing he’s being humble about.

Danzer said that the poker boom obviously led to him playing No-Limit Texas Hold ‘em (NLHE) just like everyone else, but he realized he could have more success playing other variants. Almost all of his success has been in non-NLHE tournaments and, in fact, he says NLHE is his sixth or seventh best game.

His best finish in the Main Event was 305th in 2006 (though Danzer is quick to point out that was the year of the record 8,773-player field) and he’s looking to improve on it, but things didn’t start too well Monday as he was below the 30,000 starting stack for most of the first four hours of play. But then, after getting back to even and beyond, he won a critical hand.

“I flopped a flush and the other player had pocket aces,” Danzer said. “That will usually get some action.”

His flush held up and he improved to 83,000. He later topped 123,000 before giving back some chips late in the day to dip just below six figures.

“I won some big hands and dodged some outs,” he said. “I’m happy to be where I’m at, but the main event is so long that you really want to survive the first few days. The tournament really starts on Day 4 so I hope to still be in good position by then.”

If he sticks around until the weekend, there’s no doubt that a lot of eyes (and the ESPN cameras, too) will be on him.
And not just because of his mohawk.