Up to six armed men carrying guns, machetes and possibly grenades caused havoc at the European Poker Tour Berlin Main Event, after making off with up to €1.1 million of the tournament's prize. EPT Berlin robbery. On 6 March 2010 four masked men, armed with knives and at least one hand gun robbed the EPT event in Berlin. According to the police, the robbers got away with €242,000. No one was seriously injured, only one guard got a minor cut while trying to detain one of the robbers. 'During an international poker tournament in Berlin, some armed robbers burst into the room, and panic erupted. Armed with Kalashnikovs and hand grenades, six masked robbers stormed the Grand Hyatt hotel in the central Potsdamer Platz, aiming the weapons players, judges, hostesses and security personnel and have taken the full amount of bets from the tables, running away with 800,000 euros.' German police apprehended Ahmad el-Awayti yesterday in a Berlin subway. El-Awayti is the second suspect to be arrested in connection with the March 6 robbery of the European Poker Tour.

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As reported yesterday, up to six armed gunmen robbed the Grand Hyatt Hotel’s casino during the PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) stop at Berlin. While nobody was seriously hurt, the incident caused havoc, as the thieves made away with a portion of the EPT High-Roller tournament prize money.

PokerStars, the official sponsor of the EPT, released an update about the incident on Sunday: “Yesterday at approximately 2:15pm (local time), 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.”

The poker site added, “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.”

After the terror on the scene settled, players were asked to continue play only a few hours later, including the 20 remaining players in the EPT Berlin Main Event. One of the competitors was American pro Kevin “ImaLuckSac” MacPhee, who commented about the incident on PocketFives.com. “I honestly thought we should have stopped play,” said MacPhee, who eventually reached the final table as the chip leader of the Main Event. “It was a pretty freaky thing to have happen, especially considering the poor planning of the tournament area… no exits, lots of panic, stampeding, screaming, crying.

“The EPTLive.com people shut down because of it, but we somehow were expected to play on,” MacPhee continued. “I thought it was a little unfair to put that upon the players after something like that happens, especially without any player input on how to handle the situation.”

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EPTLive was broadcasting the Main Event as the hotel was robbed and caught footage of the panic in the tournament area. Mickey Dinsen Peterson, a professional poker player known as “mement mori” online, was among the dozens of people in the poker room when the break-in occurred. “I sat at one of the outer tables and all of a sudden 10 people came storming into the poker room with more following all heading for the exit screaming something about robbery and bombs,” explained Peterson on the TwoPlusTwo forum. “At this point, there is an absolute panic where everyone is pushing you towards the exit and even though we can’t see any robbers, they could enter the room at any second for all we knew.”

The robbery not only terrified those playing the EPT event in Berlin. News broke quickly across the world and players were eager to share their thoughts and prayers via Twitter and other social networks. Here’s a sample of the reaction:

Shaun Deeb: “Wow EPT Berlin got robbed by 6 armed gunman they got close to a mil in euros glad I didn’t go to this one.”

Bodog pro Evelyn Ng: “OMG!! ARMED ROBBERY at EPT Berlin, 6 gunmen take off with $1M in highroller buyins.”

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Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg: “Wish I was at EPT during the heist!!! Woulda been a great experience! Glad nobody got hurt.”

Jeff “YellowSub” Williams: “Ept Berlin raided by armed robbers, hope everyone is ok.”

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Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest updates on the robbery at EPT Berlin.