Watching the videos posted on YouTube, the robbery which occurred during day 4 of the EPT Berlin tournament seems staged. It seemed absolutely unthinkable that a poker tournament was targeted by criminals. It is like claiming thieves tried to steal the gold and silver medals at the Olympics.

This is the first time that a robbery has taken place during a major poker tournament, and certainly it will change the rules of these events. The tournaments location managers will now have to take pay much more attention to security procedure which will definitely have an effect on the atmosphere of the tournaments.

At the Hyatt Hotel there were security guards, but they weren’t prepared for an attack of this kind. Although one of the guards managed to stop one of the five thieves, his friends came back and managed to free him.

The robbers allegedly managed to steal about 800 thousand Euros from the coffers of the tournament. A hoard accumulated by buy-ins paid in cash by those who signed up at the last moment.

It is sad to think that sporting events such as a prestigious poker tournament will require security measures similar to those at a bank or airport in the future, but it is probably what will be done.