Eddy Scharf plays online at Full Tilt Poker.

Sometimes you don’t know when you’re about to make one of the most important decisions of your life. For Eddy Scharf, picking a flight school seemed like a toss-up. He could’ve taken classes in his native Germany, but he went to Arizona instead. Now, because of that one coin flip, he’s Germany’s most accomplished poker player.

Scharf came to the U.S. to learn how to fly jumbo passenger planes. While in Arizona, he went on weekend trips to Las Vegas. A card player his whole life, Scharf always considered poker a game of luck. That changed when he noticed that the same guys kept winning. Upon realizing that poker is a skill game, Eddy set out to learn all he could about the game.

Scharf’s poker education took many years as his primary focus remained on his family and his aviation career. But while he took care of business, he was always reading poker books and squeezing in table time. The latter mostly happened when he’d travel to the U.S. for work.

In 1995, Scharf’s professional pendulum stated swinging the other way. Poker’s popularity was on the rise across Europe. Now, instead of traveling across the world, he could play locally. He began playing Stud and Omaha cash games near his home and started winning consistently.

For five years, Scharf was a final table regular in tournaments all over Europe. Then in 2001, he went back to where it all started – Las Vegas. He entered the WSOP’s $1,500 Limit Omaha event and bested players like Allen Cunningham and David Sklansky, whose book he had read, to win a gold bracelet. In 2003, he reclaimed his title and in 2004, he finished 15th at the Main Event and flew himself home with an extra $275,000 in his pilot’s flight bag.

As his country’s top poker player, Scharf is a regular commentator on German sports TV. When he’s not flying around the world or barnstorming live tournaments, he touches down online at Full Tilt Poker.