Over 200 German poker players from throughout Germany participated in the first German Poker Tour, sponsored by Everest Poker and the German Poker Player Association, during September and October 2005.

Everest Poker, the first online poker room fully translated into German, sponsored 5 live tournaments across Germany featuring prizes worth over 4,000 Euros. The finale was held in the Kalsruhe area on October 9, 2005 awarding the top 5 winners with prizes.

Everest Poker was the first online poker room sponsor for the land-based German Poker Tour, organized by the founder of the GPPA, Horst Koch. The GPPA was founded in 1996 and is the only poker association in Germany. The qualifying tournaments took place throughout September 2005 in four selected German cities: Munich, Landau (Karlsruhe), St. Augustin (Cologne), and Berlin, with 16 players qualifying for the finale, also held in Landau.

"No distance is too far for a poker finale with Horst Koch and Everest Poker" comments Dr. hc. Fischer, who drove cross-country from Berlin to Landau to attend the German Poker Tour finale: "it's totally worth it for an exciting game and good prizes!"

Each qualifying tournament was played in "shootout" style, with the winner of each table advancing to the final table of the night. Up to 12 of these shootout rounds were played in each tournament, resulting in play throughout the night. The winners of each qualifying tournament received not only a seat in the final, but also prizes courtesy of Everest Poker.

Michael Thielting found himself the winner of the exciting final match "The Everest Poker finale was especially fun for me because it was my first tournament win." said Thielting. His plans for the Everest Poker prize money include going out to "...a really nice restaurant." With that thought, Mr. Thielting took his trophy and prize money into the Landau night.

Players enjoyed the excitement of live poker tournaments and were enthusiastic about the sponsorship of Everest Poker.

"It's awesome that Everest Poker gets involved in live tournament sponsoring in Germany," commented finalist Andreas Kleber on the poker tour. "It's also a great opportunity for us players to talk to someone from Everest Poker directly."

Everest Poker was represented by Karin Schmidt, Everest Poker's German Marketing Manager, who flew in especially for the event. Horst Koch, who was also enthusiastic about the German poker tour, reflected on the positive conclusion of the tour:

"The unique cooperation of on- and offline poker in the German language markets has been very successful for both sides." Koch concludes: "Everest Poker has chosen the right way by being the first poker room to sponsor offline tournaments in Germany." In his opinion "It's the best way to guarantee that players are getting the most out of the game and will play poker for a long time to come."

Everest Poker sees the interaction between itself, the GPPA, and German poker players as a valuable step for future growth in the popularity of poker in German-language countries. Everest Poker is very excited about the sponsorship opportunity and is looking forward to future cooperation with the GPPA.