Nino Dreger’s competitive spirit is what fuelled his passion for poker. “I always enjoyed card games of all sorts and started dabbling around online and live poker rooms and found the games extremely fun… I like competing in sports, so the competition to be the best and the constant drive to improve my game is what got me hooked.” That was four years ago. Now the bank teller’s favourite games are Pot Limit Omaha, No Limit Texas Holdem, Limit Holdem and Limit Omaha Hi/Lo. He spends the majority of his time playing poker online and favours ring games over tournaments. Winning a $12,500 Aussie Millions Freeroll is by far Nino’s biggest win to date but he also enjoyed some success when he finished third out of 200 runners in a live tournament in 2006. When he received the good news, Nino admits “it took a couple of hours to completely sink in, but I haven’t stopped smiling since… I woke up half the friends I have saved in my phone to tell them about the win.” Nino was born in Germany but recently moved to the United States after completing his Bachelor of Science degree. When not playing poker, he also enjoys “running with my dog, going out partying with friends and playing video games.” This will be Nino’s first visit to Australia. We look forward to watching him and the rest of Team PokerNews battle it out at the 2008 Aussie Millions in Melbourne.