Poker Stories is a long-form audio podcast series that features casual interviews with some of the game’s best players and personalities. Each episode highlights a well-known member of the poker world and dives deep into their favorite tales both on and off the felt.

Steffen Sontheimer recorded his first cash in the summer of 2015, and it wasn’t until a year later that he started competing regularly in the high roller events. But despite his limited time on the felt, the 28-year-old already has more than $13.5 million in live tournament earnings, which is currently good enough for no. 44 on the all-time money list, and no. 6 in Germany.

Sontheimer’s run really started in 2017 when Fedor Holz went on Twitter on told that world that ‘Go0se’ was about to start crushing. Holz’s prediction came true, and Sontheimer began making regular final table appearances. In September, he made four final tables and won two events at the Poker Masters to earn the purple jacket as overall champion. He also final tabled the six-figure buy-in High Roller For One Drop at the WSOP Europe. He finished the year with $6.8 million in cashes, 16 final tables, three titles, and a ninth-place finish in the Player of the Year race. Just last November, he won the $250,000 buy-in super high roller at the Caribbean Poker Party for $3.685 million.

Highlights from this interview include growing up in the Black Forest, treating poker like a video game, making friends the Fedor Holz way, learning how to beat “the people,” the spots where live tells actually matter, the Foxen stare, feeling relieved rather than happy after a big win, a buddy calls his shot, the sun run at the Poker Masters, where he keeps his Purple Jacket, getting a shout out from Daniel Negreanu, a $2 million summer downswing, never meeting your backers, the ties between staking and bitcoin, how winner’s photos reveal who has the action, why the Germans are slightly overrated, cheering on the new WSOP champ, the integrity of the high roller community, betting against Jason Mercier during the wrong summer, a kindergarden connection, getting rid of baseball “matches,” and winning a $400k pot on the last hand of the night.

You can check out the entirety of the interview in the audio player at the top of the page or download it directly to your device to play on the go from iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app.

Catch up on past episodes featuring notables such as Doyle Brunson, Daniel Negreanu, Justin Bonomo, Nick Schulman, Barry Greenstein, Michael Mizrachi, Bryn Kenney, Mike Sexton, Brian Rast, Freddy Deeb, Joe Cada, Layne Flack, Chris Moneymaker, Maria Ho and many more. If you like what you hear, be sure to subscribe to get the latest episodes automatically when they are released.