German Poker Superstars Profile: Florian Langmann
Any frustrated student of the game of poker would be wise to avoid listening to the story of Florian Langmann’s career. The talented young German took to poker like a fish in the water. After getting a bit of a late start compared to others who have enjoyed his degree of success, Langmann began tearing up the poker world almost immediately.
He started playing in 2005, and by 2006 won the German Poker Open for nearly €40,000. Florian began traveling the world playing poker tournaments shortly following that win. After recording several modestly sized cashes, he finally caught his big break in the 2007 EPT London Main Event. He finished 2nd in that event and collected a massive £346,528 payday.
Although 2008 was probably a bit of a disappointment for Langmann (even though most of us would have traded places with his results in a heartbeat!), he has already gotten off to a great start this year. At the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in the Bahamas, Langmann got knocked out of the Main Event and joined 272 others in a $5,000 buy-in “second chance” tournament. He notched another big second place finish in that event collecting a healthy $184,000 to get his year off on the right footing. The only player who could stop Langmann from winning the whole thing was none other than reigning world champion Peter Eastgate.
This young man clearly does a lot of traveling. Less than a week after that nice finish in the Bahamas, he showed up in Mississippi for a World Poker Tour event with 283 players. Of course, the finish was probably a disappointing one for Florian: 18th place. *Yawn* just another money routine finish in a $10,000 buy-in tournament!
Perhaps no other German poker player is as dedicated to traveling the live poker tournament circuit as is Florian. For that reason, it’s hard not to expect him to be considered the best German player in a year or two, if he isn’t considered that already.
On a personal note, I played with Florian in the WSOP Europe event. At the time, I had no idea who he was, but it quickly became apparent that he was quite possibly the best player at the table which is really saying something since Barry Greenstein and Nenad Medic were among us. His stone-faced demeanor and endlessly aggressive betting style make him a serious force to be reckoned with in the poker world.
