Player Focus: "Buzzer"

2 January 2007

By James Eastham

Buzzer made it to the top through study, study and more study - he soaked up information from every available source

Betfair-sponsored pro Thomas Bihl aka "Buzzer" is making a helluva noise in the world of online poker...

German player Thomas Bihl aka "Buzzer" is one of the hottest properties in online poker who has graduated from a novice to a highly sought-after player in the space of just two years.

Read our "Buzzer" interview here

With a background in finance, specialising in stock trading, Frankfurt-based Buzzer took up online poker in May 2004 shortly after starting a career in sports betting and arbitrage. He wasn’t so successful at first – “I thought K-5 offsuit was a good starting hand” – and suffered many losses along the way before eventually becoming an accomplished player.

Buzzer made it to the top through study, study and more study – he read books, watched televised games and soaked up information from every available source. Six weeks after starting to take the game seriously, he made his big breakthrough – he won a 1,600-player online tournament that made him a name to be taken seriously on the online circuit.

Buzzer’s speciality is six-player sit ‘n’ gos (SNGs) – that’s where he makes most of his money, and he’s one of the most feared players in the world in this arena. However, he’s a skilled player in bigger fields, too. As if to prove his initial 1,600-player event success was no one-off, Buzzer followed up with a $215,000 win in another 1,600-player tournament in summer 2005.

2006 was the year where Buzzer became an established personality in the online game. He became one of Betfair Poker's sponsored players, joining emerging stars Ben ‘Milkybarkid’ Grundy and Bengt ‘pkrbt’ Sonnert, and was nominated to the advisory board of the World Federation of Poker. He also featured on the Playstation 2 game “All In, alongside the likes of Howard Lederer, Annie Duke and Greg Raymer.

In 2007, Buzzer will represent Betfair Poker in a number of live tournaments throughout Europe as well as advise players on single-table tournament play via video streaming on the Betfair Poker website.

Don’t rule him out when he’s playing in major tournaments, either – he may be an online specialist but has cashed in several big offline tournaments and is chasing that elusive first major win.

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