With our new Sortable Rankings, PocketFives gives you the ability to see just how close you are to the top of the competition in your country, state, or city. Crossing the Atlantic Ocean this week in our Closer Look article, we visit the home of the greatest beer festival in the world, Germany. Within the German top 10, we have big finishes in major tournaments, as well as some high PLB scores. <READMORE>

At the number one spot, hailing from Frankfurt Am Main, goodvibe (pictured left) has many cashes online. Since May of this year, he has seen four 1st place finishes between Full Tilt, Party, Bodog, and Stars. Taking first in Full Tilt’s $55k Guaranteed, he cashed for close to $17k, and nine days later he won the Party Super Thursday for over $8k. Some of his best cashes include a $69k 3rd place in the Stars Sunday Million and a $36k 2nd place in their Sunday Warm up. In the last three months, he has cashes totaling over $200k.

I was able to catch up with goodvibe to talk about the current poker boom in Germany, and he had this to say: “The poker boom started way earlier in other European countries (Scandinavia and the UK), so we are a bit late if you will, but now it’s great. The main reason for the poker boom in Germany is IMO the presence of poker on TV. We have two main sports channels who broadcast a lot of poker, including the WSOP, EPT, Superstars of Poker, Poker After Dark, Poker Den, UK Open, etc. There are also TV shows that feature poker from time to time. Now that there is an EPT Tour stop in Germany, it gets even more exciting. The growing number of online players is a result of all this. I think sooner or later we will see a couple German players in the top 100 of PocketFives, so watch out!”

Not too far behind him with 3620 PLB points is bastet from Wiehl, Germany. Unlike many of the other top players, one of his biggest online cashes was in a tournament that was not no limit Hold’em. He took 6th in the PL Omaha WCOOP event in 2006 for over $29k. In 2007 alone, he has picked up ten 5-figure cashes online including a 3rd place showing in the Stars $100k Guaranteed for over $18k and a win in the Party $50k Guaranteed for $15k. Bastet has managed to make more than 25 final tables this year, including 18 cashes within the top five.

P5s newcomer Morgoth comes in at #3 with 2,071 points. The 24 year-old has many successful finishes in Stars $100 Rebuys, including two wins that combined were worth over $40k and a 2nd for another $26k. Morgoth has 10 other final table appearances under his belt for the year and has cashed 10 times in the first half of August.

Karl Marx from Wattenscheid sits fourth on the German top 10 list and is about 150 points behind Morgoth. He has a couple of wins in Full Tilt’s $100 freezeout for a total of $14k, in addition to 15 final tables and 1921 PLB points, putting him in the 96.46th percentile amongst PocketFives members. RaSZi is only 181 points behind and is presently ranked 5th in his country with help from two wins last year in Stars $150 and $300 buy ins totaling $48k. Although only showing two cashes since late April, RaSZi was putting up results in high volume early on this year, cashing over 65 times for more than $47k.

Sixth place Sebastian “miamivice” Ruthenberg looks to have only cashed nine times this year, but had a big 2nd place finish in one of the Sunday $200's on Stars this year for over $31k. In 2006 he took 2nd in the Bodog $100k Guaranteed for a payday of $14k. Ruthenberg may have taken a little time off of tournament poker, as he didn't cash for a few months, but he's come back in a big way recently, grabbing a 2nd place in the Party Poker $300k Guaranteed for over $33k.

In seventh place is eeric, a native of Berlin and winner of a Stars $50 buy in for $13k back in 2006. He has surpassed the money bubble over 25 times so far this year and has picked off 2nd and 3rd place finishs on Stars in the same $50 buy in for close to $12k combined. ShariVegas takes his spot at the eighth ranking and has recently won a Bodog $40k Guaranteed, pocketing $10k. The resident of Bayern’s total 2007 cashes thus far are over $25k, as he has averaged over $1k per cash. Miamivice, eeric, and ShariVegas are only about 50 points from one another and look to be very hungry to gain momentum.

Luke “Fluketastic” Creigh recently jumped into the top 10 and is presently at 9th. Fluketastic has made his way to 11 final tables this year including a recent 2nd place in Full Tilt’s $40k Guaranteed and 1st place in their $17.5 Guaranteed for a total of over $13k. Nico “behlinho” Behling is just a hair behind with his 10th ranking and about 23 points away from Fluketastic. His big scores include a win and two second place finishes on Stars.

Congrats, to all of the top 10 ranked P5ers in Germany. We look forward to your future success and wish you the best of luck. Stay tuned in for next week’s article, and maybe you can see yourself on the front page of PocketFives.com. Be sure to check out where you stand in the ranks of your country, state, or city at P5s Sortable Rankings.
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