Rainer Kempe (born 24 July 1989) is a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

professional

poker Poker is a family of Card game#Comparing games, comparing card games in which Card player, players betting (poker), wager over which poker hand, hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, with varying rules i ...

player from

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Poker career

Kempe began playing live poker tournaments in 2011. Kempe made small profits from 2011 to 2014. In 2015, Kempe finished 5th at the

European Poker Tour The European Poker Tour (EPT) is a series of poker Poker tournament, tournaments created by John Duthie (poker player), John Duthie, winner of the inaugural Poker Million tournament. It began in 2004 as part of the worldwide explosion in Texas ...

€5,000 No Limit Hold'em Main Event, winning €320,400. In December 2015, he won the EPT12 Prague €25,500 Single Day High Roller, winnings €539,000. In 2016, he won the $300,000 No Limit Hold'em event at the

Super High Roller Bowl The Super High Roller Bowl is a recurring high stakes No-Limit Hold'em and Pot-Limit Omaha poker tournament that takes place at venues across the world. The first edition of the event was held in July 2015 and featured a $500,000 buy-in, drawin ...

for $5 million. In January 2019, Kempe won the $50,000

PokerStars Caribbean Adventure The PokerStars Caribbean Adventure is an annual televised poker tournament. History The event was first held in 2004 and was originally co-sponsored by PokerStars and the World Poker Tour. In 2008, the event moved from the WPT to the European ...

Single-Day High Roller, winning $908,100. During the same tournament series Kempe won the $10,200 No Limit Hold'em - KO Turbo (Event #41), taking down $117,280. Later in the month, Kempe won the

Aussie Millions The Australian Poker Championship, commonly known as Aussie Millions, is a series of poker tournaments held at the Crown Casino, in Melbourne, Australia. The Main Event of the series is the Southern Hemisphere's richest poker tournament with ...

AU$25,000 challenge earning AU$831,465. In 2025, Kempe won his first World Series of Poker bracelet, in the $10,000 Super Turbo Bounty event. As of 2025, Kempe's live tournament winnings exceed $23,000,000. He is the fourth most successful German poker player.

Gaming

Along with fellow poker players Stefan Schillhabel, Steffen Sontheimer,

Fedor Holz Fedor Holz (born 25 July 1993) is a German professional poker player, originally from Saarbrücken, who focuses on high roller tournaments. He was ranked by Pocketfives.com as the best online MTT player in 2014 and 2015. In July 2016, Holz won ...

, Manig Loeser, Rainer Kempe is part of the "''No Limit Gaming group''", which mixes poker players and video games players. They have a counterstrike and a league of legends team.

Personal life

He attended the Rosa-Luxemburg-Gymnasium in Pankow and later studied at the

University of Potsdam The University of Potsdam is a public university in Potsdam, capital of the state of Brandenburg, northeastern Germany. The university is mainly situated across three campuses in the city. Some faculty buildings are part of the New Palace o ...

and the

University of Sussex The University of Sussex is a public university, public research university, research university located in Falmer, East Sussex, England. It lies mostly within the city boundaries of Brighton and Hove. Its large campus site is surrounded by the ...

Falmer Falmer is a small village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Lewes (district), Lewes District of East Sussex, England, lying between Brighton and Lewes, approximately five miles (8 km) north-east of the former. It is also ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. Kempe lives in

Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...

References

External links

Card Player profile

Hendon Mob profileWPT profileWSOP profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kempe, Rainer Living people 1989 births Alumni of the University of Sussex German expatriates in England German poker players University of Potsdam alumni World Series of Poker bracelet winners