Kevin interrupting this post to include some breaking news
PokerStars has just released a statement with an update on Saturday\’s robbery at EPT Berlin along with clearing up various rumors:
\”Yesterday at approximately 2.15pm, an armed robbery took place at the European Poker Tour (EPT) event in Berlin. Nobody was seriously injured. Four armed men were involved in the robbery which targeted the tournament registration desk outside the tournament area.
No shots were fired and the suspects quickly fled after a security guard intervened. The police investigation so far has shown that the suspects had a handgun and a machete. Contrary to tabloid reports, no Kalashnikov assault rifles or hand grenades were used. The suspects did not enter the tournament area and the money taken was substantially less than what has been reported.
The tournament resumed after a few hours and a police investigation is now under way. The tournament is taking place on the first floor of the Grand Hyatt Hotel at Marlene-Dietrich-Platz and is being held by SPIELBANK Berlin Casino.
The police are working closely with the EPT and SPIELBANK Berlin. Police are asking anyone who has information, video footage or photographs that might aid the investigation to contact them.\”
Micon over at DonkDown had a Skype-chat with an eye-witness — brings up some more details from the robbery itself about how the action played out at the Hyatt and the cash situation on hand.
JUST HAD THIS CHAT W/ONE OF THE REPORTERS THAT WAS @ EPT BERLIN
[4:30:46 PM] Bryan Micon: did u see this shit?
[4:31:00 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS:Yeah. I was down the hallway when that happened. When the dude in black runs to the right off screen he runs towards us and we ran the other way.
[4:31:06 PM] Bryan Micon: what is the word? inside job?
[4:31:11 PM] Bryan Micon: did they make off w/the $?
[4:31:31 PM] Bryan Micon: also will u be on radio on Wed?
[4:32:00 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: Just rumors right now. But we heard one of the staff members actually knew who it was or at least recognized them because she said they were players.
[4:32:13 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: Wearing the same clothes they wore when they played in some events.
[4:32:39 PM] Bryan Micon: wowsers
[4:32:45 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: And we\’ve heard anywhere from $0 to $700k stolen.
[4:34:30 PM] Bryan Micon: check this vid
[4:34:54 PM] Bryan Micon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iu2e7yiX … r_embedded
[4:35:11 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: Haha, yeah, saw it.
[4:35:18 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: Lived it, hha.
[4:35:52 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: Here\’s what happened in the video.
[4:36:13 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: Right at the beginning you see Noah Boeken walk back into the tournament ballroom through the door.
[4:36:25 PM] Bryan Micon: y
[4:37:26 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: It\’s because there was some commotion outside and he ran out to see if there ws a fight as did a lot of people. Turns out, nothing was going on when they went outside so they started coming back in, hence his smile and laughter.
[4:37:49 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: But the guy with the camera kept going and stayed in the doorway.
[4:38:00 PM] Bryan Micon: then all hell broke loose
[4:38:19 PM] Bryan Micon: dude is THROWING THE BOOK AT HIM
[4:38:23 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: While the security guard fought two of the guys. The one in red had a gun and the other guy had a machete.
[4:38:34 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: The guy in black had the machete, you can see it in the video.
[4:38:51 PM] OTHER GUY IN CHAT: lol machetements
[4:39:01 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: About 20 secs into the video you see the guy in black take off to the right and go down the hallway.
[4:39:06 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: That\’s where we were.
[4:39:25 PM] Bryan Micon: omg
[4:39:33 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: I was walking back to the media room which is down that long hallway when there was some yelling behind me and some guys running towards me.
[4:40:07 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: They were yelling in German so we didn\’t really understand them, but it sounded like they were saying \”rough, rough!\” So I thought a \”rough\” was a fight.
[4:40:22 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: So we turned back and started walking back to see the fight and possibly report on it or whatever.
[4:40:50 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: We got about halfway down the hallway when the guy came running down it towards us as you see him in the video when he darts to the right off screen.
[4:41:27 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: I saw what I thought was a big knife and a guy in a mask and yelled oh my god and just turned and booked it back to the media room.
[4:41:45 PM] Bryan Micon: jesus
[4:41:54 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: We all got in, like the four or five of us that ran back and there was about 20 others already in the room.
[4:42:01 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: We shut the doors and barricaded it with some chairs.
[4:42:17 PM] Bryan Micon: :good decision
[4:42:52 PM] Bryan Micon: 1 of the vids shows chips everywhere on 1 tbl
[4:43:06 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: Meanwhile, Noah was in the tournament room hiding behind these wooden window shade things.
[4:43:14 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: As were a lot of people.
[4:43:55 PM] Bryan Micon: and the dude that was tackled?
[4:44:04 PM] Bryan Micon: him and the others all got awaay?
[4:44:15 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: Well, you see him get tackled and the guard holds him.
[4:44:21 PM] Bryan Micon: y
[4:44:23 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: And the gun is on the ground right next to him.
[4:44:37 PM] Bryan Micon: then homeboy comes in video game style
[4:44:53 PM] Bryan Micon: the guard is throwing something at red guy
[4:45:18 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: Then the guy with the machete comes running back at him and a third guy grabs one of the rope poles like a bat and goes after the guard as well to free his friend.
[4:45:26 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: So the guard let him go and they took off.
[4:45:41 PM] Bryan Micon: they got out?
[4:45:44 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: Yeah.
[4:45:48 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: Haven\’t been caught.
[4:45:55 PM] Bryan Micon: damn
[4:45:59 PM] Bryan Micon: and they got
$?
[4:46:19 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: Supposedly some but no one knows for sure.
[4:47:04 PM] Bryan Micon: then they restarted the event after this shit?
[4:47:12 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: Sam Chartier recalled Johannes Strassmann bursting through the doors back into the room leap frogging chairs and tables and yelling in German. Although Chartier said he couldn\’t understand what Strassmann was saying because of the language barrier, he noticed that everyone who did understand him was panicking. Tables were flipped so people could hunker behind them while chips flew all over the floor.
[4:47:34 PM] Bryan Micon: wowsers
[4:47:37 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: Yeah, I mean given the circumstances I think the tournment staff handled is as best they could.
[4:47:43 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: Even better than everyone expected,
[4:47:53 PM] Bryan Micon: like, put the table right side up
[4:47:57 PM] Bryan Micon: everyone how much chips did u have?
[4:48:13 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: Well, the Main Event tables didn\’t get flipped.
[4:48:20 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: The chip stacks just got knocked over on those.
[4:48:44 PM] Bryan Micon: lolz how do u make a ruling on that!?
[4:49:00 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: So the players, TDs, and dealers all worked together to figure out how many each person had and they made sure everyone voted on each chip stack basically and agreed on it.
[4:49:12 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: If someone argued, they went over it again,
[4:49:16 PM] Bryan Micon: tough but fair
[4:49:23 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: That took like 45 minutes.
[4:49:36 PM] Bryan Micon: lolz that\’s pretty good imo / obv avg chips stack off by 2%
[4:50:14 PM] Bryan Micon: and that place @ the beginning of video where red is (and where German guard throws the book at him) is that the cashier or buy-in area?)
[4:52:05 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: Yeah. There was no money kept there until today because today the High Roller event was held. 10k Euro for the buy in and you had to pay cash, you couldn\’t buy in with Stars money or anything.
[4:52:12 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: So they just had all that money from those guys there on site.
[4:52:22 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: Obv not thinking this would hppen.
[4:53:01 PM] Bryan Micon: wow
[4:53:24 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: It was crazy scary.