Mass commotion broke out at the Pokerstars EPT Berlin Poker tournament yesterday afternoon. The EPT was robbed by 6 men with masks on bearing pistols, machetes, knives, and are alleged to have held assault rifles. The robbery was thwarted for the most part by a single security guard by the name of Roman. There may have been other security guards doing there duty elsewhere that is not caught on the video, but that is not known at the moment. Roman, on the other hand, was caught on video filled with adrenaline, and doing some damage to the masked bandits in a most heroic effort.

Roman – Kuhr Security Hero

Roman holding bandit – gun on the ground

Fearless Roman confronts two bandits by himself
Roman has already become a hero to the world wide poker community. Roman is the reason that the poker bandits only got away with a small amount of money if any. He was throwing comment boxes from the desk at them, hurling poles that hold up the line ropes, and anything he could do to to stop them. He managed to tackle one of the masked poker bandits, and put them in a choke hold. The gun is seen in the picture, proving the masked men had at least pistols, and proving Roman showed that he had absolutely no fear for his life. The other bandits returned yielding large sticks or 2×4s to get their accomplice. They managed to flee to their getaway car, but were only successful in getting some of the prize pool (if any). This security guard displayed the highest level of altruism and should be rewarded for his bravery.

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Full Video of EPT Berlin Robbery
Roman was interviewed by German news:
German reporter: “We got one witness with us, Roman, you are from the security Team (Security-Kuhr), you were involved in this conflict, how can u describe what happened there ?”
Roman: “It was really scary, with how much brutality the gangsters were acting, I was just standing there minding my own business and securing the money, happy about the fact that the day was calm and nothing happened, suddenly there is shouting and screaming coming from the hallway and the people (gangsters) rush the cashier floor with huge brutality and even armed… it was really scary.”
German reporter: “You are injured, but you got to get hold of one of the gangsters, you were trying to get the money back from him… were you successful ?”
Roman: “Yeah, thank god, we were successful… we got a huge amount of the money back from the gangsters, one of the employees of the hotel helped me there, but we couldn’t secure the gangster because he got rescued by his friends.”
German reporter: “Which weapons were used ? We saw a machete, there were rumours about grenades, kalashnikovs, guns, pump-guns etc.?”
Roman: “I can only verify the machete and a hand-held gun.”
German reporter: “So you really tried to get hold of the gangsters even though u were unarmed and they were armed with guns?”
Roman: “Yeah, in the first moment I didn’t think of the fact that they will use the guns against me, and I just wanted to stop them from what they were doing in that particular moment.”
German reporter: “Brave.”
Security for the event was provided by Kuhr Security in Germany. The owner of Kuhr security is Michael Kuhr, who is a 5 time world kick boxing champion. Surely with Micheal Kuhr’s fighting instincts, he was able to hand pick his staff and know that they are properly trained. Roman’s actions are a testament to Kuhr security, but unfortunately it seems they were under staffed and not armed. Perhaps the Hyatt Hotel did not spend enough on the security, or the ETP did not want to dish out extra funds for security. One thing is for sure, there was not enough security at the event for the amount of money that was present.

Kuhr security
If I was in need of a body guard like some of these big name pros like Tom Dwan or Patrik Antonius, I would hire Roman or the security team at Kuhr Security. If I was running a poker tournament, I would be sure to hire enough people to guard the prize money if it wasn’t in a well guarded hotel and casino in Las Vegas.
I can only speculate that the robbers were part of a Vietnamese gang that are present in Berlin, and that at least two of them were blood relatives. It seems unlikely that they would come back for their accomplice, but not grab the money on the ground. IMO at least two were brothers for him to come back like that, unless they were worried the bandit who was caught would narc them out. I’m guessing Vietnamese because of their presence in Berlin, the color of their hair, their size, and the use of machetes and knives.
When all is said and done, nobody was seriously injured and tournament played resumed later that day.

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