Nowadays, poker is one of those games that is played all over the world. Germany has become one of the top markets, holding hundreds of tournaments every year, while constantly bringing talented new high rollers into the industry.
And these talented punters are also crushing tournaments all over the world. For instance, Hossein Ensan won the 2019 WSOP Main Event, scooping $10 million and the golden bracelet. This is just another proof that Germany can boast outstanding professional poker players, and so we’d like to introduce you to them now. That is the reason we have compiled a list of the top 5 German poker players, whose names are known all over the globe!
Table of Contents
Fedor Holz
This young 26-year-old professional is the number one on the German All-Time Money list with his staggering $32,556,379 fortune. This outstanding player has shown his skill both in live tournaments and online poker. Under the nickname of CrownUpGuy, he managed to win the World Championship of Online Poker, cashing out $1,3 million. He became the richest German high roller ever after winning the 47th World Series of Poker $111,111 High Roller for One Drop event, taking home $4,981,777 along with his very first bracelet.
He is a frequent guest at the high roller tournaments; one of his last appearances was at the 2018 WSOP Big One for Drop event, where he managed to bag $6 million. He claimed that he was going to retire, but he never really left the game. He also founded a startup called Prime Group. This delivers special systems that enable people to expand their creative potential. Some of them work as coaching apps for novice poker players. For instance, Prime Mind is a system designed especially for these purposes.
Rainer Kempe
This man became popular after his famous win at the SHRB’s in 2016. There he managed to cash out $5 million. Before that, he had been participating in various live tournaments like the European Poker Tour No-Limit Hold’em Main Event in 2015, where he snagged €320,400. The same year, he won the EPT12 Prague Single Day High Roller, taking home more than €500,000.
In 2019, Kempe participated in $50,000 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, cashing out $908,100. A month later he won AU$831,465 at the Aussie Millions AU$25,000 event.
He is one of those rare players in our world today who prefer live tournaments to online poker. He doesn’t have a nickname, and he is the second player on the German All-Time Money List with over $20 million fortune.
Christoph Vogelsang
Any list of German poker stars would be incomplete without this name. Christoph Vogelsang is an LSE and Witten Herdecke University graduate in economics, who now resides in London. He is the third one on the German All-Time Money List, with over $20 million in tournament winnings.
This top poker player started his career from the small $10 bet online back in 2010. Four weeks later, he was participating in $5000 No-Limit Hold’em. His first big live tournament was in London in 2013. It was the EPT London Super High Roller, where he took the third place, cashing out $621,321. However, the real fame came after the Big One For One Drop event in 2014, when he won $4,4 million.
In 2017, Christoph Vogelsang won his biggest live cash event with $6 million as a prize. This took place at the Super High Roller Bowl tournament. His online poker achievements are also stunning, as he has earned $1,9 with Full Tilt Poker and more than $600,000 playing on PokerStars. He used alias Tight-Man1 on the first one and alias 26071985 on the other one. His 9-year carrier is an amazing example of how an online amateur became a real pro.
Dominik Nitsche
Number four on the German All-Time Money List, this player has more than $18 million in poker tournament winnings. Back in 2006, this ruthless young punter took online poker by storm. He hadn’t even been playing for real money for that long when he managed to scoop $3 million. He is also known under the nicknames of Bounatirou or JustLuck1337.
His adventure with live tournaments started in 2009 with the Latin American Poker Tour event in Argentina. He managed to cash out $381,000. After this victory, he decided to focus more on live events.
In 2012, he won his first WSOP bracelet and bagged $654,979 at the $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em. The next two bracelets were gained in WSOP National Championship and No-Limit Hold’em in 2014. He snagged $352,8000 and $335,659 respectively. By that time he was the youngest player to win three bracelets. Comparing to 26-year-old Phil Ivey, who also had three bracelets, Dominik Nitsche was 23 years old.
He scored his biggest lifetime win in 2017 during the WSOPE, when he got the fourth bracelet and cashed out €3,484,463 at the High Roller For One Drop No-Limit Hold’em.
Ole Schemion
This outstanding German player is number five on the German All-Time Money List with more than $16 million in tournaments’ profits. The first time Ole participated in live tournaments was back in 2011. He won the EPT tournament, held in Berlin, cashing out $54,200. He has won more than 17 tournaments since then, and there is no sign of his winning streak ending any time soon!
When he was a schoolboy, Ole Schemion came up with the “wizowizo” nickname. Since he hadn’t reached the legal age to play at the time, he entered the world of online poker using his older friends’ accounts.
His major wins happened in 2012 when he won the NHL tournament, getting €68,900 and $90,000. That same year he managed to win the Main Event Partouche Poker Tour Grand Final in Cannes, getting more than €1 million. In 2014 he had his biggest win, which was the €1.5 million cashout at the €100,000 Super Stakes High Roller.
Ole Schemion got some international recognition by becoming the first in the Global Poker Index in 2015, and in 2014, he got a “Player of the Year” award from the “European Poker Awards.” He is one of the best live tournament performers, and he has his own unique style and a bright future ahead of him.
There are many other talented punters in Germany, who are having extraordinary results both online and at the live tournaments. Of course, such young talented poker players, as Fedor Holz or Ole Schemion have a lot to contribute to the game, not less than Justin Bonomo or Daniel Negreanu.
FAQ
Here are the answers to some of the most asked questions about poker in Germany. There’s no need to surf the web, as we’ve got everything covered here.
Is poker legal in Germany?
As for online poker, there is a ban on Internet casinos under the 2008 act. However, it’s allowed to play in brick-and-mortar casinos or at the low buy-in events outside them. In 2014, one of the court rulings established that the buy-in money should be used only to maintain the event, but should not be divided among the players.
How much is Fedor Holz worth?
Fedor Holz is number one on the German All-Time money list, holding $32,556,379 in live cash. He also invests in different projects and runs his own startup.
Is gambling legal in Germany?
For a long time, the status of gambling in Germany was unsettled. In the 2008-2012 period, all gambling was illegal, except for the state of Schleswig-Holstein. Nowadays, there is a Treaty on Gambling regarding the types of gambling permitted by the federal government and federal states. Nevertheless, online casinos are still forbidden.
