Metro

He’s a flippin’ champion

The man plays a mean pinball.

Native New Yorker Steve Zahler is a pinball wizard — beating players with years of experience to become the metropolitan area’s first-place flipper.

Now he’s facing the ultimate test as he prepares for the game’s world championships in Germany beginning Friday, where 64 hot shots will vie for the coin-operated crown.

“I’m not there to beat anyone down. This is between me and the machine,” said Zahler, 44, a father of two from Elberon, NJ, who owns a Web-development firm.

Contenders from 19 countries will score from dusk until dawn next weekend — all for a chance at the title, $1,000 cash and a brand-new, $9,000 pinball machine.

The tournament, run by the International Flipper Pinball Association, features more than 100 machines including the brand-new Metallica game and Lord of the Rings.

But Zahler says he won’t be there to win. He just wants to keep the silver sphere rolling.

“It’s amazing to see that whatever I’m doing is working,” said Zahler, whose longest single game was 90 minutes. “We’re all looking for that super long zen-like game of pinball,” he added. “Sometimes you can have two horrible balls go down the drain. That third ball can be magic.”

Zahler first learned the game as a first-grader in Westchester, hitting up convenience stores to play Gorgar, the first talking machine, and Harlem Globetrotters.

As a teen, he tooled around Brooklyn billiard halls and shabby stores to master Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Then he grew up, got married and forgot about pinball. Until he moved to the Jersey Shore and his wife got him the beloved Star Trek machine for his birthday.

Zahler became an arcade king after signing up for a December 2010 tournament at the Silverball Museum in Asbury Park and coming in second.

Nearly three years and 70 competitions later, he’s become the 15th best player in the U.S. and ranks 30th in the world. He even competed at a playoff at retired NBA star Todd MacCulloch’s home on Bainbridge Island, Wash.

A day before the world championship, Zahler will also compete in the inaugural Epstein Cup, or the Ryder Cup of pinball.

“Steve is just fearless,” said Josh Sharpe, president of the International Flipper Pinball Association. “Players better than he is fold under pressure. But if he’s having a good day, he could take the whole [tournament] without a doubt.”

Zahler’s children, Maxine, 5, and Jason, 8, are also bumper buffs. Jason is already a force to be reckoned with — scoring 6 million on Star Trek and beating players 30 to 40 years his senior.

“Pinball isn’t just about pinball. It’s a mirror on life,” Zahler said. “You need a lot of patience . . . and when you lose the ball, you get right back up and keep fighting.”