EPT Berlin halted by armed robbery attempt Six robbers storm hotel, no serious injuries reported, tournament has resumed
Details are a little sketchy, but apparently at around 2pm CET (8am ET) a group of masked robbers stormed the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Berlin during day 4 of the EPT Berlin Main Event.
Here’s video someone recorded off the live stream as people frantically leave the area:
3:35pm Berlin time update from Pokerstarsblog.com :
“An armed robbery by six men took place today at EPT Berlin. Nobody was seriously injured. We hope to re-start all events at 4pm local time. A police investigation is under way. If you have video footage or photographs that could help the police, please contact the EPT organizers as soon as possible.”
UPDATE #2, make that 5pm local time for a possible restart.
UPDATE #3, the 1,000 Euro event that started today was canceled, while the main event finally resumed around 6:00pm local time, but the EPT Live webcast has been canceled. Also, here’s a breaking news article from Pokernews along with a video update:
Page 2 has some pictures during the incident:
10 Comments to “EPT Berlin halted by armed robbery attempt ”
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Kevin Mathers says:
March 6th, 2010 at 10:50am
Video of the armed robbery attempt:
http://www.hochgepokert.de/beta2/2010/03/06/panik-in-berlin/
DanM says:
March 6th, 2010 at 11:02am
wow, they actually caught one of the guys? i’m just catching up on all this … amazing.
george recard says:
March 6th, 2010 at 11:33am
they even played the ept… marc gork the first day…
Kevin Mathers says:
March 6th, 2010 at 11:54am
Actually, that guy and the rest got away. If the video above gets back online, one of the robbers swings a rail at the security guy.
DanM says:
March 6th, 2010 at 1:14pm
did they at least pull the mask off that guy? (lesson from scooby doo.) i don’t know the name marc gork. are you saying he was identified as one of the bad-guys? i don’t get what the picture is that you linked to.
Kevin Mathers says:
March 6th, 2010 at 1:17pm
Marc Gork finished 3rd last year at EPT Dortmund, which was moved to Berlin this year. Apparently Gork wore that outfit at the start of the event this year? I’d say he’s NOT a suspect, except for those who like to stir up things.
Aaron says:
March 6th, 2010 at 6:35pm
Boy, this is some WILD video. I can’t believe I saw that! It seems that they all got away… but no guns were used?? Interesting.
DanM says:
March 6th, 2010 at 6:37pm
no, you can see a gun in the still pic of the security guard wrestling one of the robbers. i suppose that could be the guard’s gun …
DanM says:
March 6th, 2010 at 6:38pm
but @benjodimeo reported for sure there were no machine guns, even though some Euromedia was reporting that.
Brandon says:
March 6th, 2010 at 9:35pm
I can understand the “let them take the money and don’t try to be a hero” attitude out of fear of someone being hurt, but I feel like besides that one guy there isn’t a whole lot of resistance here. You would think there would be a hell of a lot more security where players register, especially with people buying in for the high roller event starting today. I mean, they’re behind the desk taking money and all they have to face is some guy throwing stuff at them? And then later when he actually gets one of them in a headlock on the floor, there aren’t any other security guards around to help him out?
Obviously I don’t know everything about this situation or the casino culture in Germany, but they’re hosting a large event and while they’re being robbed I see very little involvement by security personnel. I go to my local Indian casino and they send four people just to throw out someone who’s underage.