One of the fast rising young poker players in the game today is Germany’s Dominik Nitsche, who achieved his greatest tournament success before earning his high school diploma.
Calling Minden, Germany home, Dominik weaned himself on poker through the 21st century equivalent of “fading the white stripe” – online poker. Using the names “JustLuck1337,” “TJCookier” and “Bounatirou” across the spectrum of online poker sites, Nitsche seemed to be a prodigy of sorts in online tournament poker. His first online tournament success came in 2007, a 192nd place finish in a June running of PokerStars’ Daily Fifteen Grand NLHE tournament. For his $11 buy in, Dominik picked up $20.50, with even more success coming since that inaugural tournament cash.
In 2009, Dominik would earn his biggest cash ever for his online career during the February running of the Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS). He finished in second place in a $200 NLHE event during that online tournament schedule, earning his best online cash to date of $63,098. For his online tournament career, Nitsche has earned a stellar $2.46 million according to PocketFives.com, with a substantial amount of those winnings coming before he had graduated high school.
For all of his online success, the live tournament world – and any adjustments that needed to be made – didn’t seem to faze Dominik. His first ever live tournament cash also earned Nitsche a place in poker history. In April 2009, Dominik was a part of the field for the Latin American Poker Tour’s stop in Mar de Plata, Argentina. With top pros such as Costa Rica’s Humberto Brenes, former World Champions Chris Moneymaker and Joe Hachem and tennis champion/poker player Boris Becker in attendance, it all could have been a bit overwhelming for an eighteen year old, but it wasn’t.
Working his way through the 291 player field to the final table, Dominik demolished his opposition, taking less than four hours to work through the final table. In what was his first ever live event, Nitsche – still attending high school in Germany at the time – took home the championship (becoming the youngest ever LAPT champion as of 2011) and captured his largest ever payday as of July 2011 of $381,030.
While many would have sat back on their success, Dominik has continued to perform at a high level since that championship. He has cashed in tournaments in fourteen different countries, including Ireland, Australia and much of Europe, with two cashes each on the European Poker Tour and the European events on the World Poker Tour. Not old enough yet to venture to the United States for the World Series of Poker, Dominik instead went to Kyrenia, Cyprus in June 2011 and won the $2500 NLHE Main Event of the Merit Summer Open for a $123,366 bounty.
When 2012 came about – and he turned 21 – Nitsche made his impact known on the international poker circuit with a breakout season. At the World Series of Poker, Nitsche took down one of the final preliminary events on the schedule, a $1000 No Limit Hold’em event, for a score of $654,797. Later in 2012, Nitsche would pull down the second leg of poker’s Triple Crown, winning the World Poker Tour’s event held in Johannesburg, South Africa. With those two victories, Nitsche only needs a victory on the European Poker Tour to become a Triple Crown member.
Along with those tournament championships has also come a sizeable bankroll. As of April 2013, Nitsche has earned almost $2.4 million in a short time span. He has neatly broken that success between the United States (winning slightly over a million dollars) and the rest of the world. Along with his success in the online poker world, the 21 year old from Germany has over $4.5 million in earnings from live and online tournament poker.
