Karl Mahrenholz Poker Player

Unlike many who go on to enjoy a high flying future poker career, Karl Mahrenholtz seems to have started off frighteningly sensible. After graduating from the University of Bath in 2003, he started working at Deutsche Bank, pursuing a career in mergers and acquisitions. He did not start playing poker until 18 years of age, when he was on a family holiday in Greece.

By 2005 he has begun to play more intensely, travelling around London in order to participate, when his gruelling work schedule allowed. While playing at the Gunshot Club, he met the group of men who would later become his Hitsquad friends, and immediately began learning and discussing poker with them.

Growing tired of his day job (which required input from him 7 days a week, from 9 in the morning until late), Mahrenholz decided to take a year out from work. Able to focus more on his game during his new found leisure time, he promptly won a bankroll boosting $60,000 in an online MTT.

In 2007 Mahrenholz made his first impression on the UK live tournament circuit, coming in 2nd at the inaugural Grosvenor UK Poker Tour. This banked him a tidy $70,000.

Realising he had an aptitude for the cards, he began participating in events internationally; earning himself $105,000 from his various cash wins. He also won the Springfest in Luton, taking $32,000 for first place. A man of many talents, Karl soon tried his hand at Pot Limit Omaha. It was not long before he began to emerge as one of the UK’s top players of the game, cashing in numerous PLO games around the world and earning himself over $200,000.

Mahrenholz took his first major title in September 2009, when he won the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour in Cardiff. He managed to beat what has since become regarded as one of the toughest final tables ever to appear in the Tour’s three year history. For his victory he took home over $63,000. He bid farewell to 2009 with a bang, taking two victories at the GUKPT London Festival. One was in the No Limit Hold’em Event, and the other in Pot limit Omaha. Combined, he took a total of $45,000.

Since then Mahrenholz has cashed a further three times in the GUKPT, as well as in the 2010 Evian Poker Open, the World Series of Poker Europe, and the Black Belt London Live. He has banked $846,712 in total tournament winnings, and looks to become a very proud ambassador for UK poker, on an international level.

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