Dominik Nitsche Gives Away 5% of Main Event Action

Just 1%? Dominik Nitsche and Markus Prinz thought they could do much better in giving away a piece of his World Series of Poker Main Event action. Many players have offered to “pay it forward” through the years by giving away a percent or two to social media followers or through other contests. The pair behind the DTO Poker Training platform are hoping their own Twitter contest can garner plenty of interest and hopefully some nice cash for one lucky winner.

“All these giveaways with people just giving away 1%, we always thought that was kind of boring,” Nitsche says. “We always joke about how people just give away like $10 on the Internet, so we said it would be fun if we gave away a real amount.”

With the Main Event now setting records, some have predicted that a first-place payout could reward $12 million or more. To Nitsche that only adds to the possibilities of really rewarding someone with a life-changing sum. Prinz wasn’t able to play this year, so Nitsche is the only horse in the race for the eventual winner.

“We thought 2% or 3% might be fun, but let's just make it 5%,” he says. “Because if I somehow win this thing, we could give away half a million dollars and that would be kind of fun. Now it looks like it could hopefully be a really big giveaway. I really hope we can keep this up to the final table. That would be so crazy.”

Don’t rule out a big run. The German poker pro has four four bracelets including taking down the €111,111 High Roller for One Drop in 2017 for $3.5 million. He now has $19.6 million live tournament winnings.

The contest winner will be determined via software at random after he’s eliminated from the tournament, and those interested still have a shot. Anyone can enter just by following Nitsche and Prinz then liking or retweeting their original post about the contest.

“So if you want to get in, you can still get in,” he says. “Best of luck to everyone. I'm just imagining if I make a real deep run … that would be the dream. Hopefully someone gets a nice payday if I don't screw it up.”

Markus and i are giving away 5% of my @WSOP mainevent
-like and retweet this tweet.
- must follow @DTOPoker @PrinzOfDTO and me (@DominikNitsche)

Potentially giving away 500k🏌‍♂️

— Dominik Nitsche (@DominikNitsche) July 3, 2023

After playing Day 1 on Monday and finishing with 149,600 chips, Nitsche was pleased with his start to Day 2 and had stretched that total to 160,000. 

“It was awesome, I can’t complain,” he says of Day 1. “Anytime you bag more than one and a half stacks in Main Event Day 1, you’re happy. And I bagged two and a half, so no complaints.”

That first day brought some crazy hands, however. He described one where a possible flush draw missed on the river and four-straight developed. One player deciding not to use his glasses may have led to a nice pot for Nitsche.

“My opponent in the hand is an older gentleman who was having difficulties reading the board,” he says. “He immediately bet, but did not realize what the card was because he wasn't wearing his glasses, which he had previously used to read the board. I'm not really believing that he understands the river is an eight for a four-straight, but the diamonds did brick. So he probably did not see that he did not hit the flush if he had a diamond draw.

“I ended up calling and he showed the Ace of diamonds for a bluff. So I called someone because they didn't put on their glasses. That was a pretty funny one.”

Nitsche came back with a nice stack for Day 2 but underwent a big change since then. He shaved off the beard he’s had for years. His girlfriend suggested the trim and Nitsche complied with the request. He wasn’t quite sure how the clean-shaven look might affect his skills at the table.

“I was just thinking about this,” he said laughing. “I think I still had the beard, so maybe it goes downhill from here.”

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