Today at the Open: Germany's "Loesing" Streak

The 2019 U.S. Poker Open is officially underway. From February 13-23, the world’s best will compete across ten high stakes events for the USPO Championship. The USPO trophy, $100,000, and the first High Roller Triple Crown title of 2019 is up for grabs and each day, “Today at the Open” will recap the action and prepare fans for PokerGO‘s final table streams. 

When the inaugural U.S. Poker Open began on February 1, 2018, the High Roller Triple Crown was born. Three of the world’s biggest and most prestigious high stakes events would play out every year inside the PokerGO Studio. While Las Vegas hosted, Germany seemed to have the home court advantage.

At the start of the 2018 USPO, Germany held the Poker Masters Purple Jacket and two of three Super High Roller Bowl Championship Rings. Rainer Kempe won the 2016 Super High Roller Bowl and Germany went back-to-back the next year with Christoph Vogelsang. Then, Steffen Sontheimer capped his stellar 2017 Poker Masters with a win in the $100,000 Main Event.

That final table featured four German players, including former Super High Roller Bowl podium finishers Fedor Holz and Stefan Schillhabel. It was another massive German conquest, but has since started to feel more like Germany’s last stand.

Germany hasn’t won a High Roller Triple Crown event since, meaning their losing streak sits at 513 days as Manig Loeser enters Friday’s Event #2 final table. Lucky for Germany, he might be just the man for the job.

Loeser is coming off his most complete year as a live high stakes professional. He opened 2018 with a $100,000 Aussie Millions Challenge runner-up finish and went on to recorded five more podium finishes in $25,000 buy-in or bigger events. He ended the year with a $25,000 Bellagio High Roller win, which pushed his 2018 earnings over $3 million. His career earnings sit just over $9 million, good for 10th all-time on the German money list.

The top of Germany’s money list is hallowed ground and if Loeser continues to do things like this, he’ll continue to pass some of the best high stakes players in history. An Event #2 victory won’t shake up Germany’s all-time rankings, but it will shake up the 2019 U.S. Poker Open.

Subscribe to PokerGO now to watch the 2019 USPO live. All ten final tables and early access streams are available exclusively on PokerGO. Follow along, get in the game, and visit PokerGO.com for information.