Railbird Report: Name a Better Poker Playing Country than Germany

November 02, 2017

The all-time live tournament money leader is a Canadian (Daniel Negreanu, $34,333,815), HighStakesDB's overall money winner is an American account (Phil Ivey, $19,242,744), and the guy with the most WSOP bracelets is American too (Phil Hellmuth, 14). PocketFives' currently highest ranked player is a Swede ("C Darwin2") and a Brit leads their all-time money leaderboard (Chris Moorman, $14,367,841).

German Domination

But, undeniably, the Germans are momentarily the greatest force in high stakes live poker. And they have been for quite some time. Players like Benny Spindler, Marvin Rettenmaier, and Tobias Reinkemeier dominated the live scene before Ole Schemion reigned supreme for some years. Then, Fedor Holz crushed everyone and "retired," and now the likes of Stefan Schillhabel, Steffen Sontheimer, and Rainer Kempe rule the live tables — flanked by players like Dietrich Fast, Christian Christner, Manig Loeser, Jan Eric Schwippert and many more. And let's not forget about Martin Finger, Christoph Vogelsang, Niklas Heinecker, Koray Aldemir, Max Altergott, Dominik Nitsche, Fabian Quoss — there are just too many to name who crush or have crushed in the past. Germany has some incredibly talented poker players; "Ze Germans" are not just coming, they've been here for some time now, dominating.

Leading the German all-time money list is Fedor Holz who earned $26,548,871 in a relatively short live poker career, with his biggest cash coming from a win in the $111,000 One Drop at the 2016 World Series of Poker ($4,981,775). Besides winning live, Holz has racked up a big slate of cashes online playing as "CrownUpGuy". Amongst other big wins, he triumphed in the 2014 WCOOP Main Event, taking home $1.3 million. And even in high stakes cash games, he's a winner, according to HSDB. He's in the black $15,335 over a small tracked sample of 15,818 hands.

The biggest German online cash game player is Christoph Vogelsang, having won $615,733 on PokerStars since 2011 playing under the moniker "26071985". On Full Tilt Poker, playing as "Tight-Man1", he's won a massive $2,056,099. On partypoker, Vogelsang plays as "l0ve2playu". Vogelsang is ranked second on the all-time money list with $14,314,469 in earnings. He hit his biggest live cash last May, coming out on top in the $300,000 buy-in Aria Super High Roller Bowl.

When people talk about "The Germans" when the topic is high stakes poker, these days Rainer Kempe, Stefan Schillhabel, and Steffen Sontheimer come first to mind. About their online activities not too much is known. Kempe plays as "bluetom" on PokerStars and "PartyRainer" on partypoker. For both Schillhabel and Sontheimer, no online nicknames are in the open. But they're all ranked high on PokerShares' WSOPE One Drop sale, which should tell you enough.

Follow along with a battalion of Germans playing in the €25,000 High Roller at the World Series of Poker Europe, right now. Tomorrow, the WSOPE €111 One Drop commences, and PokerNews will be on the ground for high stakes coverage of that tournament as well.

Don't agree? Who would your money be on?

Catching Up on High Stakes Action: Three Biggest Pots Online

While the Germans dominate live, they're mostly absent from the highest stakes cash games online. The biggest pot this week was won by fan-favorite Viktor Blom, beating Dutch pro "Cobus83". The two other big pots this week both went to "ActionFreak".

1) Viktor "Isildur1" Blom Wins a $65,532 Pot (164 Big Blinds) from "Cobus83"
^{($200/$400 PLO Heads Up)}

Blom opened the button for $1,200 and it didn't take long for "Cobus83" to three-bet to $3,600. Blom answered with a four-bet to $10,800. "Cobus83" called to see a flop.

The flop came K♣8♦7♠ and "Cobus83" pot for $21,600, leaving himself $400 behind. Blom pushed and "Cobus83" called it off.

What had been a 70% hand pre, was now a 13% hand for Blom. "Cobus83" had hit a miracle king to be the heavy favorite going to the turn and river.

The two only ran it once, and it came Q♣, A♣ to hand Blom the pot. The ace on the river gave Blom the higher set and the 164-big blind pot went his way.

2) "ActionFreak" Wins a $54,622 Pot (546 Big Blinds) from "JayP-AA"
^{($50/$100 PLO 3-handed)}

"JayP-AA" opened the button in this 3-handed game, making it $410. Small blind "ActionFreak" three-bet to $1,390 and big blind Gavin "gavz101" Cochrane folded. "JayP-AA" called to see a flop with $3,000 in the middle.

The flop came 8♦5♥K♦ and "ActionFreak" checked. "JayP-AA" bet $1,950 and "ActionFreak" called.

As the A♠ hit the turn, "ActionFreak" lead for $5,811 into the $6,900 pot. "JayP-AA" called in position, growing the pot to $18,523.

The Q♣ completed the board and "ActionFreak" pushed for pot. "JayP-AA" had just under that behind ($18,049) and called.

"ActionFreak" tabled 3♠A♥A♣3♥ for top set. "JayP-AA" showed K♠5♠10♥5♦ for bottom set and mucked.

3) "ActionFreak" Wins a $54,622 Pot (546 Big Blinds) from Sami "Lrslzk" Kelopuro
^{($100/$200 PLO Heads Up)}

"ActionFreak" opened the button for $600 and Kelopuro three-bet to $1,800. "ActionFreak" called to see a flop in a $3,600-pot.

With the flop coming Q♦9♠2♦, Kelopuro bet $2,877. "ActionFreak" called in position.

On the 6♦ turn, Kelopuro bet $3,400 into $9,355 and "ActionFreak" called again.

As the pot was now $16,155, the A♠ completed the board and Kelopuro checked. "ActionFreak" potted to put Kelopuro to the rest for his last $14,290. The Fin called, only to be shown the nuts. "ActionFreak" tabled 10♣A♦9♦6♥ for the nut flush and Kelopuro could toss his 5♥5♣9♥A♣ into the muck.

This Week's Online High-Stakes Biggest Winners and Losers

"ActionFreak" won two of the biggest pots this weeks, and ends up on top of the list of biggest winners. Blom, who won the the biggest hand, banked another $150,000 to grow his profit for the year to almost $1.4 million. "JayP-AA" and Joni "bustoville" Jouhkimainen, who finished up top last week, are the two biggest losing players.

The 2017 Leaderboard

The leaderboard is unchanged compared to last week. It's the same line-up for both the winning podium as well as the losing top three.

The above top winning and losing players in online poker for 2017 only takes into consideration PokerStars accounts. All public data courtesy of HighStakesDB.com. If you want to opt out of being listed in this PokerNews update on the high-stakes action, send an email with your username to [email protected].

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  Fedor Holz Stefan Schillhabel Steffen Sontheimer Germany Viktor Blom Sami Kelopuro

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  Viktor BlomSami KelopuroFedor HolzSteffen SontheimerStefan Schillhabel