Eduard Scharf

Eduard Scharf
Personal information
Date of birth	November 7, 1953
place of birth	Cologne
place of residence	Cologne
Live Poker Tournament Achievements
Highest prize money	at least 0.$ 275,000
Total prize money	At least $ 1,398,793
World Series of Poker
Bracelets	2
Cashes	19th
Best main event	15th ( 2004 )
Last updated: February 6, 2020

Eduard "Ed / Eddy" Scharf (born November 7, 1953 in Cologne ) is a German poker player . He is two-time bracelet winner of the World Series of Poker .

Poker career

Career

Scharf has been a pilot at Lufthansa since 1980 and decided to become a hobby poker player in 1995. The pot-limit Omaha specialist won a bracelet at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Las Vegas in 2001 and 2003 . His biggest win at the WSOP Main Event was 15th place in 2004 . In total, he won around $ 1.4 million in official poker events.

In addition to his work as a poker player, Scharf also worked as an expert at the television station Sport1 . In February 2007 the DSF Poker School was released on DVD.

In 2012, Scharf made headlines when he sued the Cologne-Mitte tax office. The tax officials wanted back tax payments from him. Scharf argued that poker was a game of chance and casino and was therefore not subject to taxation. The Cologne-Mitte tax office saw the connection differently and assumed a commercial activity because of the alleged amount of Scharf's profits. At the end of October 2012, the Cologne Finance Court followed the authority's argument. Result: Eduard Scharf should pay taxes later. The judgment is admitted for revision at the Federal Fiscal Court. Scharf wants to appeal on the advice of his lawyer Robert Kazemi . In its judgment, the Federal Fiscal Court agreed with the arguments of the Finance Court. Since other courts do not regard poker as a game of chance, the judgment may result in inconsistent case law. A constitutional complaint was filed against this, which is also financed by other poker players.

Bracelet overview

year	Buy-in (in $ )	competition	Attendees	Prize money (in $)
2001	1500	Limit Omaha	144	83,810
2003	1500	Limit Omaha	120	63,600

Web links

• Eduard Scharf in the World Series of Poker database : 2001–2013 , 2017 E (English)
• Eduard Scharf in the pokernews.com database

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Eduard Scharf ( memento from June 15, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) in the Hendon Mob Poker Database, accessed on June 14, 2018 (English).
2. ↑ Are poker winnings taxable? at investment-alternativen.de, accessed on March 7, 2016.
3. ↑ Poker process: The tax authorities are not bluffing on spiegel.de, accessed on March 7, 2016.
4. ↑ Are poker winnings taxable? on n-tv.de, accessed on March 7, 2016.
5. ↑ Prize money from tournament poker games may be subject to income tax , blogs.pwc.de, accessed June 4, 2017.