Next Fedor? This German 22-Year-Old is Taking the 2023 WSOP by Sturm

Copy link Share on Twitter Share on Facebook

Jun 12, 2023 3 min read

Few poker players ever find themselves taking home seven-figure tournament scores, and hardly any get to experience multiple million-dollar scores in the same week.

Germany's Leon Sturm is one of them as the 22-year-old German prodigy won Event #23: $50,000 High Roller at the 2023 World Series of Poker (WSOP) for $1,546,024 this week just days after taking down GGPoker's Super MILLION$ $10,000 buy-in Super High Roller for $1,518,400.

Primarily an online grinder, the young Sturm is now breaking onto the live high roller scene and hopes to use his online reps and theoretical knowledge to put the live pros to the test.

Echos of Fedor

Sturm's early success on the live felt is reminiscent of that of Fedor Holz, Germany's all-time money leader who rose to poker fame when he won the 2014 WCOOP Main Event for $1.3 million at age 21.

Like Sturm, Holz followed his online score with a strong World Series, finishing third in 2015's $10,000 Six-Handed Championship for $268,463 and 25th in the Main Event the same year for $262,574. The next year, Holz won his first bracelet when he took down the $111,111 High Roller for One Drop for $5 million.

But "Rumukulus," who with his WSOP High Roller victory now has $2.1 million in live tournament earnings, has his work cut out for him if he wants to catch up to "CrownUpGuy" with his two bracelets and $38.8 million in earnings.

The now 29-year-old Holz has yet to make an appearance at the 2023 WSOP but will likely be around for some of the bigger buy-in events. Holz finished seventh in last year's Event #83: $50,000 High Roller for $203,107 and tenth in the 2021 $100,000 High Roller for $167,869.

Besting the American Live Pros

Sturm made his WSOP final table debut in the $50,000 High Roller an unforgettable one as he eliminated all four of his opponents who returned for Day 3. That included a pair of the best live high-stakes poker players in the world in Alex Foxen and Seth Davies, as well as PokerGO Studio regular Bill Klein.

The only other non-American on Day 3 was third-place finisher Jans Arends, who like Sturm is primarily an online player who recently started playing more live. In March, the Dutchman earned his largest live cash of $921,178 by taking down a $30,000 High Roller at the Triton Super High Roller Series in Vietnam.

While Sturm told PokerNews he believes he may be "even better theoretically" than live crushers like Foxen and Davies that "don’t play that much online and don’t get that much hands in," he acknowledged that their discipline and table presence make them incredibly tough opponents on the live felt.

“When I am (at) a live stop I do so much wrong, I wake up way too late or go to bed too late and don’t eat clean or don’t get breakfast … don’t go to the gym regularly, and they do all of that kind of stuff," Sturm said. "And that’s really impressive.”

Sturm's previous biggest live cash came from a fourth-place finish in the 2022 World Poker (WPT) $5,000 Venetian Main Event for $327,000, while he also finished sixth in the 2023 Lucky Hearts Poker Open $25,500 High Roller for $83,100.

If Sturm continues to make a splash on the live high roller scene, he may be Germany's new Young Prince.

Leon Sturms' Top Five Live Cashes

Connor Richards is a Senior Editor U.S. for PokerNews and host of the Life Outside Poker podcast. Connor has been nominated for three Global Poker Awards for his writing.

Follow on

• Tags Fedor Holz Leon Sturm WSOP23 WSOP
• Related Tournaments World Series of Poker
• Related Players Fedor HolzLeon Sturm

In this Series