Long before the likes of Fedor Holz, Dietrich Fast* and a million other top-class German poker players became the German🛡 Crew, there was another German Crew; the original German Crew.
Philipp Gruissem.
Nicklas Heinecker
Tobias Reinkemeier.
Fabian Quoss.
Igor Kurganov*
*Not only were the two groups,🛡 German. They both had a Russian masquerading as a German.
But what became of the original crew?
Gruissem plies his trade with🛡 partypoker. Kurganov does the same with PokerStars, but the rest are long gone.
Nicklas Heinecker
Tobias Reinkemeier.
Fabian Quoss.
Three top, top players who🛡 bowed at of the game while at the peak of their powers, and on August 22 (yes, I know I🛡 am a tad slow), we heard from one of them.
Fabian Quoss ‘Exits’ Poker
I only spoke to Fabian Quoss once. It🛡 was six or seven years ago during a poker tournament in Prague, a World Poker Tour (WPT) event, I think.🛡 I remember he had a beard a dwarf would have been proud of, and the best Christmas jumper I had🛡 ever seen.
A handsome man, one for the ladies, I waltzed up to him at the break to ask him for🛡 an interview.
“Sorry, Lee, I don’t do interviews.”
And so I never spoke to him again.
Reading his exit interview, I feel like🛡 I have missed out.
During his tenure with the original German Crew, Quoss won close toR$10m competing in the most significant🛡 buy-in events around the world. Quoss won nine tournaments during his time in the game, including theR$100,000 Super High Roller🛡 at the 2014 PokerStars Carribean Adventure (PCA) forR$1.6m, and another million dollar score for winning the AUD 100,000 NLHE Challenge🛡 at the 2024 Aussie Millions.
After winningR$2.8m in 2024, Quoss dropped off the map, only to surface on Instagram, surprisingly; sharing🛡 his globe-trotting exploits accompanied by a smattering of profound and meaningful quotes.
And his decision to begin spending more time on🛡 social media prompted the once silent Quoss to open up about his absence from the game, and it’s terrible news🛡 for his fans because I’m not sure he’s coming back.
In a long, well thought out speech accompanying shots of his🛡 poker highlights, Quoss spoke of the laser-like focus he needed to apply to become one of the best players in🛡 the game, and how that focus took him away from other vital areas in his life.
Quoss played for the freedom🛡 poker provided, and because of his success, he continues to have that freedom without having to play a game that🛡 no longer holds the allure it once did.
“The reason why I loved playing poker professionally wasn’t that I thought poker🛡 was especially interesting or rewarding of an activity (though, at times, it really can be both), but more because of🛡 the freedom it provided me.” Quoss wrote before continuing. “There‘s an infinite amount of things we can choose to focus🛡 on, but for most of us, the majority of our lives revolves around a small number of things. We basically🛡 only exist in our own little bubbles, completely ignoring the infinite variety of other bubbles all around us.”
Ironically, after spending🛡 much of his life trying to avoid bubbles, Quoss was about to leave the game so he could find more.
“Spending🛡 most my time on poker just isn’t an option anymore,” said Quoss.
So what will Quoss do next?
“Poker gave me the🛡 incredible opportunity to make conscious choices about what to spend my time on,” said Quoss. “I’m so lucky and blessed—🛡 I know this is something most people won’t ever have. I feel responsible, now, to make use of that gift,🛡 and to live my life in a conscious way.”
How does he plan to do that?
I won’t know unless I ask🛡 him, and as he’s no longer in the business, he may be kind enough to break that ‘I don’t do🛡 interviews’ rule?
I hope he does.
