Over the better part of the last decade, Germany has emerged as a literal breeding ground for poker players of the highest caliber. From their dominance in all things High Roller, including, most recently Steffen Sontheimer’s Poker Masters victory, to producing some of the most recognized names in the game like Fedor Holz, Rainer Kepme, and 2017 Super High Roller Bowl winner Christoph Vogelsang. This excellence is not limited to the live arena as German players can be found crushing in every area of the online landscape. With that in mind, here is a closer look at the current Top 10 of the German Online Poker Rankings.

Sitting atop the German leaderboard is current Top 20-ranked Worldwide online professional ‘nilsef‘. ‘nilsef’, the child chess player turned online phenom, is a two-time World Championship of Online Poker winner with over $5.7 million in lifetime earnings. His recent results were bolstered by multiple deep runs during PokerStars’ 2017 WCOOP including his largest score of over $80,000 for his fourth place finish in Event #26 High ($1,050 Sunday Warm-Up). In fact, during the September series, ‘nilsef’ cashed 38 times between the High and Low events and found himself at five final tables while he also bubbled a sixth.

When it comes to the German Top 10, there’s a wide gap between first and second place – nearly 3,000 PLB points – but the emerging talent of ‘SmilleThHero’ is looking to close the distance. ‘SmilleThHero’ had a monster few days in September during the partypoker Powerfest with a victory in Event #210 ($75,000 Freezeout) for over $16,000, a career-high score for the grinder, and two additional four-figure scores in the next 24 hours.

Germany’s current #3-ranked player is currently enjoying the peak of his online career. Sitting as a top-300 Worldwide ranked player, ‘gopu’ is rapidly approaching $1.5 million in lifetime earnings. His recent steady stream of recent cashes have been highlighted by a pair of $15,000 scores. The first was an outright victory in the PokerStars Hot $215 and the follow-up was in the 2017 WCOOP Main Event ($5,200 $10M GTD NLHE).

Well-known tournament crusher Phillipp ‘philbort’ Gruissem is currently ranked #4 in his homeland. Gruissem, who also sits in the Top 50 on the Hendon Mob’s All-Time Money List, overpowered the competition as he took the title in WCOOP Event #45 High ($215+R Six Max NLHE) for over $75,000, pushing his lifetime online earnings up over $3.5 million. That was just one of three paydays of over $25,000 over the past three weeks, one of which came on the first day of October with his runner-up finish in the PokerStars $700 Super-Sized Sunday Progressive KO for $29,137.80.

Munster’s ‘T0X16’ finds himself in Germany’s top-five after capturing a monster career-high score of $71,584 when he finished in second place during partypoker’s Powerfest Event #223 ($500K Guaranteed Two-Day Event). The cash, along with a pair of low five-figure scores in the month prior, has elevated ‘T0X16’ into the top 300 in the Worldwide rankings, where he currently sits at #288.

Right behind ‘T0X16’ is one of the most popular German players on the planet, 888poker ambassador and regular high-roller, Dominik ‘bounatirouIMO’ Nitsche. At #7, ‘Grozzorg’ eclipsed $500,000 in lifetime earnings.‘Polecatrider’ (#8), former #11-ranked Worldwide grinder Jonas ‘Jownz’ Lauck (#9) and ‘staanemer’ complete the current crop of top online German players.

Germany’s Current Top 10