What Poeltl Is#
Poeltl is a daily browser game, now hosted at poeltl.nbpa.com, that asks players to identify a mystery NBA player within eight guesses. Producer Gabe Danon, a daily Wordle player and producer on the Dunktown podcast, launched the game in February 2022 at poeltl.dunk.town. It's named after NBA center Jakob Poeltl, and in a formal relaunch that also moved the game onto its current NBPA domain, the NBPA, Poeltl, and Danon announced Poeltl joining as co-owner and ambassador of the game, working with Danon and the players' union on its content and promotion.
Each guess must be a real NBA player from the site's database, spanning current rosters and past seasons.
How to Play#
After each guess, categories light up for the guessed player's name, team, conference, division, position, height, age, and jersey number. Green means an exact match to the mystery player, yellow signals a partial match (such as the same conference but a different team), and no colour means no match; arrows on numeric categories like height and age show whether the answer runs higher or lower than the guess.
Players can reveal a blurred silhouette of the mystery player at any time without spending a guess, which is often enough to rule out a body type or position before committing to a name.
From Side Project to NBPA Partnership#
Poeltl ran for two years as an independent side project before the NBA Players Association formally partnered with Danon and Jakob Poeltl to relaunch it, folding a fan-made Wordle clone into official league-adjacent territory — a rarer path than most sports guessing games take, since most stay unaffiliated hobby projects indefinitely.
Our rating:
Frequently Asked Questions#
Is Poeltl actually endorsed by the NBA player it's named after?
Yes — Jakob Poeltl became a co-owner and ambassador of the game after the NBPA-backed relaunch.
How many guesses do you get?
Eight, with eight comparison categories revealed after each one.
Does the silhouette hint cost a guess?
No, players can view it at any point at no cost to their guess count.
More Games Like Poeltl#
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Or browse all of them on our games like Wordle.
Daily Puzzles, Our Way
Play today's NerdleBuddy puzzle, or use the Classic Nerdle solver to choose a next guess from your tile feedback.