- Commissioner’s statement on Ventura, Marte
- Ronnie O’Sullivan: Masters champion ‘felt so vulnerable’ in final
- Arron Fletcher Wins 2017 WSOP International Circuit Marrakech Main Event ($140,224)
- Smith challenges Warner to go big in India
- Moncada No. 1 on MLB Pipeline’s Top 10 2B Prospects list
- Braves land 2 on MLB Pipeline’s Top 10 2B Prospects list
- Kingery makes MLB Pipeline’s Top 10 2B Prospects list
- New Zealand wrap up 2-0 after Bangladesh implosion
- Mathews, Pradeep, Gunathilaka to return to Sri Lanka
- Elliott hopes for rain for Poli
Top 10 Stories of 2016, #2: Once-In-a-Lifetime Heater for Fedor Holz
- Updated: December 31, 2016
This year’s Top Stories are brought to you by the VerStandig Law Firm, LLC. Combining a keen understanding of the gaming world and an equally keen understanding of the law, Mac VerStandig and his colleagues are devoted to fighting on behalf of the poker community and its members.
It had already been the run of a lifetime for Fedor Holz.
It was early July of this year. Not long before he had punctuated 2015 with a victory in the $100,000 World Poker Tour Alpha8 Las Vegas, earning a first prize of $1,589,219 after besting a star-studded 45-entry field.
It was the first live seven-figure score of the talented young German pro’s career, following the $1.3 million he’d won as “CrownUpGuy” on PokerStars when winning the 2014 World Championship of Online Poker the year before.
Then came 2016, and within the first days of the year, he’d add another even bigger cash by winning the $200,000 Triton Super High Roller in the Philippines, earning an incredible $3,463,500.
Following his being selected in the first round by the L.A. Sunset in the inaugural Global Poker League draft — and delivering a short, humble speech of appreciation — several more deep runs for Holz soon followed.
Those included two more high roller final tables at the European Poker Tour Grand Final (totaling about half a million), a runner-up finish in the $300,000 Super High Roller Bowl (good for $3.5 million) and two more high roller wins in June at the ARIA Resort & Casino (worth more than $1 million).
Speaking strictly of the Super High Roller Bowl runner-up and ARIA wins, Holz described the run to PokerNews as “just insane,” calling it “a once-in-a-lifetime heater.”
But if the heater was only going to happen once, well, it was going to continue for a while longer.
It was time for the $111,111 High Roller for One Drop at the 2016 World Series of Poker, an event that drew 183 total entries with a first prize of $4,981,775. Holz was second in chips among the 88 survivors of Day 1, then in the middle of the pack …
