Poker Tournament Robbed on Live TV (video included)

[Uncle B]

European Poker Tour event in Berlin Robbed by Dudes with Machine Gun's and Balls of Steel.

I'm no Butch Cassidy, but I have a pretty solid theory as to which circumstances are most likely to be in place upon an armed robbery: lots of cash and/or lax security. Banks fit the former, convenience stories the latter.

But where does, say, a poker tournament fit in? Organizers of the European Poker Tour event in Berlin found out this afternoon, as six men armed with machine guns reportedly waltzed into the ballroom of the Grand Hyatt, where card players were competing for large sums of cash. The gunmen apparently made off with one million Euros.

As for the security? Were there cameras or anything?

Well, there was a TV crew. Because the tournament was being broadcast on television. Live.

Here's the footage of the, erm, interruption:

The tour's promoter, PokerStars, released a statement confirming the robbery and asking for the public's help in finding the robbers, who remain at large.

You wonder if the enterprising criminals had any idea the event was being televised.

Either way, maybe we should stop keeping millions of dollars on hand at highly publicized events. I'm sure the winner would be happy to take a check.

[Uncle B]

Poker tourney robbers hit jackpot in Germany

Heavily armed group storms luxury hotel; $1.36M heist captured on live TV

A heavily armed group stormed a poker tournament in a German luxury hotel Saturday afternoon and made off with a jackpot, a police spokesman said.

Several participants at the tournament in Berlin’s Grand Hyatt hotel were slightly injured when they panicked and fled following the daring afternoon heist, Carsten Mueller said.

Mueller said four robbers in disguises forced employees to hand over money, and then managed to escape. Mueller declined to give details, including how much money the men got away with.

The jackpot for the tournament stood at euro1 million ($1.36 million), according to a European Poker Tour Web site. The EPT confirmed the heist on the event’s blog in an official statement, saying there had been “an armed robbery executed by six men.” It was unclear why the number differed from the police count.

The B.Z. daily quoted witnesses as saying that the robbers were armed with automatic weapons, machetes and hand grenades.

Mueller declined to comment on the weapons, citing the ongoing investigation.

German news website Spiegel Online quoted witness Claudia Sommerey as saying that panic spread in the room at the five-star hotel in downtown Berlin.

Sommerey told Spiegel Online she hid under a table. “I saw three disguised men with rifles,” she was quoted as saying.

[clevfan]

Armed robbers ante up at German poker event, make off with possible $1M

By Michael Sheridan
NY DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
MARCH 7, 2010

A poker tournament in Germany became a real high stakes game when several armed robbers stormed the game.

According to reports, four to six men, allegedly brandishing guns, machetes and possibly grenades, broke into the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Berlin demanding money.

The gang terrorized the crowds, who then fled, causing several injuries, police said.

Video captured the madness as players at the tables and those watching quickly ran for the exits. A security guard is seen taking on one of the masked robbers, but he later escaped with the help from another masked-man.

The initial moments of the robbery were caught on live television, but coverage quickly cut away as people ran from the tables.

"Several masked, armed individuals entered the Grand Hyatt Hotel and fled with a haul of money," police spokeswoman Heidi Vogt told the BBC.

The thieves may have made off with as much as $1.1 million, the BBC reported. A bag was left behind after the scuffle, and police would not confirm exactly how much was actually stolen.

The incident took place on the fourth day of the five-day tournament. According to the tournament's website, "Nobody was seriously injured and the Main Event, High Roller tournament and Ladies Event all managed to resume within a few hours."

The tournament is expected to end today.

[clevfan]

The Times UK
March 8, 2010

Gang targets €4.6 million poker game

Allan Hall, Berlin

A gang armed with machineguns, grenades and machetes made off with an estimated €250,000 (£225,000) after storming a poker tournament in Berlin.

Their haul was part of a €4.6 million final pot for the card players taking part in the European Poker Tour international tournament, which had attracted the tennis champion Boris Becker and the British-born author Charlotte Roche. Becker had been among the players but was eliminated before the raid. Several players and hotel guests were wounded when members of the masked gang of six men stormed the Grand Hyatt Hotel near the Brandenburg Gate just after 2pm on Saturday.

“We thought it was some kind of terrorist massacre in the making,” said one guest. “One of the men screamed: ‘Don’t move — we have bombs’.”

The men headed to a room on the first floor of the five-star hotel where the 945 entrants to the poker tournanent turn over cash for chips.

A hotel bellboy became the hero of the day when, after money was stuffed into one of two bags, he managed to run off with the lion’s share of the cash while the gang were making their getaway.

Police estimate that the bag they failed to take had almost ¤560,000 stashed inside. There is now a dragnet across Europe for the men, who took between €240,000 and €250,000, according to media reports.

CCTV cameras at the hotel and its adjoining shopping centre have provided clear images of the balaclava-clad gang. A security guard wrestled one of the men to the ground but another of the gang hit his eye with a machete.

Two of the thieves stood guard outside the hotel and the sixth was the driver of a black getaway car. Police arrived too late to catch them and the robbery lasted only a few minutes.

The final gambling sessions of the tournament were back on yesterday — but this time under armed police guard.

Robbers' jackpot

• Rolando Ramos, a man obsessed with the film Ocean’s Eleven, stole $1.5m (£1m) from a Californian casino armed with a plastic gun and pepper spray in 2007

• Jose Vigoa and his gang stole millions of dollars from five Las Vegas casinos, in a 16-month period beginning in 1999

• Raiders stole €500,000 (£450,000) at gunpoint from a casino in Malta in February and escaped in a speedboat

[stevo]

LMAO. Holy shit.

Imagine sitting at a table and have this happen.

[howid]

interfering with a poker tournament and causing it to end in such an abrupt manner, nothing less than the gallows or guillotine would do once they are apprehended.

[analyzer]

Originally Posted by clevfan

A security guard wrestled one of the men to the ground but another of the gang hit his eye with a machete.

OUCH!! He's probably making $12 an hour. I don't think my job is worth losing an eye.

[clevfan]

03/11/2010 12:00 CST

On Poker: Berlin tournament robbery is first of its kind

By Chuck Blount - Express-News columnist

The last time a casino robbery was caught on film made for some good entertainment.

George Clooney and Brad Pitt were excellent in “Ocean's 11,” with an elaborate and successful plot to rob Las Vegas' famed Bellagio and casino owner Terry Benedict out of millions of dollars.

The real thing isn't nearly as fun.

Six armed bandits stormed the Berlin Grand Hyatt Hotel on Saturday during play in the Pokerstars.net European Poker Tour event in Germany. It was the first armed robbery in major tournament poker history.

The thieves, reportedly armed with handguns and machetes, made off with $328,000 out of a $1 million tournament pool. They have yet to be found despite committing a crime dubbed as “amateurish” by German police.

Video of the chaos in real-time can be found all over the Internet, including several quality clips onYouTube.com. Nobody was seriously injured in the incident.

The robbery created an understandable panic, leaving the tournament area in chaos with chips and cards sprawled out on the floor and players fearing for their lives.

According to the local Berliner-Zeitung newspaper, police believe the crime was an inside job.

The Berlin Grand Hyatt isn't a casino and lacked much of the security that's standard in U.S. gaming halls. The robbery was timed at the exact moment the tournament money was being moved to the main safe.

When they move the money in Las Vegas for the World Series of Poker, it is escorted with shotgun-yielding guards. Most people call this a ceremonial practice, but now it should be considered a genuinely smart idea.

In typical poker fashion, where even a heart attack won't stop a good game, the robbery didn't either. Instead of canceling play for the day or the event in its entirety, it took only three hours to reorganize and deal the next hand.

And that's the correct decision. Most of the players had to fly to Germany to play and already had invested substantial time and money into it.

Chip stacks of the remaining 21 players were determined via player honor system. There was no other way to do it.

“There was a lot of panic in the room that day and then we were asked to come back and play for $1 million. It was very unusual,” eventual winner Kevin MacPhee told CBS News.

Amazingly, some of the hands that were in play during the incident were completed when the tournament resumed, including a whopper all-in hand between Ilari Tahkakollio and Luca Canielli that was noted by poker bloggers.

Officials gave players the opportunity to call all hands dead since it was impossible to tell if the decks were legitimate amidst the bedlam. Tahkakollio opted to play his dominated Ad-10h vs. Canielli's As-Qd on a board of 3c-Kc-8s-4c with one card to come. Canielli's hand held up.

In a sign of karma for his good sportsmanship, Tahkakollio was able to absorb the loss and went on to finish second, cashing out for $600,000 Euros.

[Uncle B]

EPT Berlin Poker Robbery: Second Suspect Behind Bars

A second suspect is behind bars charged with taking part in the high-stakes robbery of the PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) Berlin event two weeks ago. The second arrest came after the first assailant, 21 years of age, turned himself in to police on Monday.

Yesterday’s arrest in the German metropolis came after 20 year-old Ahmad el-Awayti was spotted in a subway station, according to the Associated Press. The international news outlet explained how the final confrontation transpired: “Police said he acknowledged to officers that he was being sought by authorities and was arrested without putting up any resistance.” In addition to two of the suspects now being behind bars, the getaway car, a Mercedes, is in police custody. The gang allegedly escaped through a nearby shopping mall.

The Associated Press and other media have reported that the loot from the rare midday casino heist has yet to be found. In a previous article by the news outlet, it was revealed that the four masked gunmen divvied up the €242,000 evenly. Two assailants remain at large, their whereabouts unknown: Jihad Chetwie, a 19-year-old man from Germany, and Mustafa Ucarkus, a 20-year-old who the Associated Press claims is a Turkish native. The suspect who turned himself into police on Monday identified all three of his accomplices, but has not been named.

Bluff Magazine reported that “Mohammed B,” who was originally arrested one week following the robbery and released due to a lack of evidence, might have been involved in the EPT Berlin robbery after all. The poker magazine, quoting the German media outlet Bild, explained, “Arresting officials found a piece of paper on Mohammed at the time of his arrest with six different names written on it. At least three of those names belong to suspects in the robbery.” The heist occurred at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Berlin, where 1,000 players had convened to battle for the €1 million top prize, which went to American Kevin “ImaLuckSac” MacPhee.

The robbery made headlines not just in Berlin, but also around the world. News outlets from Sydney to Toronto to Chicago to New York City published articles about the unique casino heist. With respect to the money, the Associated Press noted, “He has indicated that he will pay back his share of the loot via his lawyer, but it is currently ‘with a third party.’” Authorities are currently in hot pursuit of the two suspects still at large.

The armed robbery was featured on the German equivalent of “America’s Most Wanted,” “Aktenzeichen XY Ungelöst.” MacPhee broke down the harrowing experience on CBS’ “Early Show” on Monday morning following his win and also virtually sat down with CNN’s Campbell Brown and news anchors from BBC. MacPhee was one of seven Americans to cash out of the 144 in the money finishers in the EPT Berlin Main Event and defeated Finland’s Ilari Tahkokallio heads-up; Tahkokallio walked away with a €600,000 consolation prize.

The guards protecting the event were unarmed and, purportedly, a hotel intern was camped out at the registration desk that the four gunmen attacked shortly after 2:00pm local time on March 6th. In a poll posted on Poker News Daily following the incident, 121 of 291 respondents (42%), when asked, “In the wake of the EPT Berlin robbery, do you still feel safe at poker tournaments,” responded, “Yes, casinos have plenty of security.” Only 29 readers, or 10%, felt unsafe.

[JD@1]

You gotta have big balls to do some like that.... but they are all arrested now... at the end not such a good job

[Uncle B]

Gang Locked Up Over Berlin Poker Heist - Over $1 Million in Stolen Money Still Unaccounted For.

Four men aged under 21 have received jail terms over a daylight raid on a million-euro poker tournament in Berlin.

Armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles, grenades and machetes the gang burst into the city's Grand Hyatt Hotel in March and got away with around £200,000.

Seven people were hurt in the heist and the robbers lost a large part of their intended takings in a scuffle during their chaotic escape attempts.

The group were convicted at Berlin's state court of robbery and bodily harm.

The 21-year-old ringleader was sentenced to more than three years in prison.

His accomplices, aged 19 to 20, were each sentenced to a three-and-a-half-year term in juvenile detention.


All four confessed to storming the Berlin poker tournament in March

All four were treated with leniency after they confessed to the crime. However, less than £3,500 has so far been recovered with the gang refusing to say where the rest of the money is.