One of the most famous German poker players is Katja Thater “Miss Slick”, who is the most known female player in Germany, due to televised events featuring wins by her. Thater belongs to Team PokerStars and cashed twice at the 2006 WSOP and won a bracelet playing Razz in the 2007 WSOP. Another well-known German player is Michael Keiner, who won a WSOP bracelet in 2007 playing 7 Card Stud and has been a European champion since 1995. Germany’s Thomas “Buzzer” Bihl became the first WSOP bracelet winner in the WSOP Europe, defeating Jennifer Harman in a HORSE event.

One of the younger Germans with more of a fan base is Sebastian Ruthenberg, who cashed twice at the WSOP 2008, beating Chris Ferguson for a 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo bracelet and finishing 68th in the No Limit Hold ‘em event. He has also had success in the EPT with four wins and taking 1st place at the 2008 PokerStars EPT Barcelona Open, winning almost $2 million. His total lifetime tournament winnings run close to $3 million.

As more and more Germans are hitting the poker tables, and poker rooms are popping up all over Germany, we have seen a growing number of poker professionals emerge from Germany. There is a growing fascination with poker in Germany, as there is in other parts of the world, according to poker commentator, Michael Körner, who works for Germany’s leading sports channel, DSF. Körner attributes the poker craze in Germany to money, suspense, and the colorful player personalities that people relate to. He says these personalities include players such as “the poker lout, the nice guy, the parvenu or the young wild one.”

Many of the poker fans in Germany come from a background in chess or other strategic games and attend poker schools like Rhinepoker in Hilden. Poker has really turned into a spectator sport in Germany recently with more and more televised events taking place and EPT’s recent stop in Germany. Jo Mainz, head of poker at Casino Hohensyburg, says, “We have really experienced a tsunami of poker here since it started showing on television.” DSF reportedly broadcasted more than 800 hours of poker in 2008, reaching 200,000 viewers each time a tournament aired.

The German Poker Players Association reported hundreds of thousands of active poker players in Germany in 2007, which is a major reason for the January 2008 ban of online poker by the German government. Though the European Union has worked to fight the ban, it looks as if German players will have to travel if they wish to play poker.