The poker world has lost the two-time European Poker Tour Main Event runner-up, Max Heinzelmann after passing away of natural causes, aged just 26.

I have very few poker friends.

I don’t spend enough time in the throng to connect deeply enough to make them. But I do have plenty of acquaintances; people I like and seem to like me, who share a smile and a pleasantry every once in a while, more often than not, connected to a request for an interview.

One of these passing flings was with the German pro Max Heinzelmann. I met him in 2011, in San Remo, where he played superbly to finish runner-up to Rupert Elder in the European Poker Tour (EPT) Main Event, three weeks after finishing in the same position at the EPT Main Event in Berlin.