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An unprecedented robbery took place 14 years ago during EPT Berlin
Spielbank Casino Berlin and PS jointly organised the EPT Berlin stop in March 2010, which took place at the luxurious Grand Hyatt Hotel. Initially it looked like a normal EPT stop, but everything changed one day and the news of the EPT flooded all the world's media.
What actually happened?
The date of March 6, 2010 at about 14:15 brought an unexpected situation that none of us want to experience. Just as Day 4 of the Main Event was getting underway, men with guns, machetes and balaclavas on their heads stormed the registration desk. Immediately, panic set in in the tournament hall and players started running away. All this chaos and shouting was captured on livestream.
In total, 6 men were involved in the robbery, four of whom stole €242,000 in cash directly from the tournament registration desk. This was just as players were buying into the €10,000 High Roller. The robbers would have taken considerably more from the hotel, but one of the security guards managed to snatch one of the bags out of the robbers' hands. Rumor has it that they would have taken more than €500,000 along with that bag. Fortunately, no one was hurt during the robbery.
Therobbery also involved a poker player
The police later released the faces of the robbers thanks to the security cameras and as a result, they were caught within a few days. Some of them even turned themselves in to the police. Four of the robbers were directly involved in the robbery and the other two were supposed to have organised it. It was found out that one of the organisers of the whole robbery was playing one of the EPT tournaments during the first days to find out information for his accomplices.
Who were the robbers?
The police later released the names and ages of the robbers. The whole incident was carried out by Ahmad el-Awayti, 20, Vedat S., 21, Jihad Chetwie, 19, Mustafa Ucarkus, 20, Ibrahim El-M., 30, and Mohammed Abou-C, 32. It was the last named who participated as a player in one of the tournaments.
One of the robbers also explained to the police how they divided the money. Each of the robbers was to receive €45,000 and €5,000 went to the person who had tipped off the whole robbery. This was to be the aforementioned Mohammed Abou-C. Although the police arrested the perpetrators and the court sentenced them to several years in prison at the end of 2011 (some reports say 3 years, others 6 years), the money was never found.
The Main Event continued
After all this unpleasantness, the EPT understandably came to a standstill for a few hours. One of the tournaments was even cancelled completely. The Main Event continued that day without a livestream. The winner of the EPT Berlin 2010 Main Event the following day was Kevin Macphee, who took home €1,000,000.
Source - Poker.org, Bild.de, Pokernews.com, Pokergurublog.com, Pokerstrategy.com, CBS