The amazing, stupendous Fedor Holz did it again. He won another High Roller event when he took down the EPT13 Barcelona €50K High Roller. What separates this win from his other wins over the last two years? Holz is supposedly retired from poker after winning the One Drop at the WSOP, so technically, Holz played this event as a “recreational player” and not as a high-stakes regular. Holz shipped €1.3 million for the win in Barcelona and now has nearly $20 million (USD) in career winnings.
Yeah, I know what you're thinking: I thought he was retired? That Fedor Holz clown won another high roller event and he's supposed to be basking in the warm sun on some beach somewhere, yet instead, he's still crushing high roller fields. Life's not fair, eh? The EPT13 Barcelona €50K High Roller had 102 total entries and Fedor Holz bested another shark-heavy field to win a first-place prize worth €1,300,300 (or approximately $1.5 million USD). Holz defeated Canadian pro Sam Greenwood heads-up for the win. And the young German didn't require much time to steamroll the final table. All things considered, it was a rather quick final table according to Howard Swains from PokerStars Blog.
I don't know what else I can say about Holz. I've made jokes in the past that the poker world needs to implement drug testing because how can anyone win so many poker tournaments without the aid of performance enhancing drugs? Then again, take one look at Fedor Holz and he looks like an adorable teddy bear. This clearly isn't a hulking beast and someone who is juicing on steroids like bulky American football players. And he's clearly not blood doping like Lance Armstrong and other angle-shooting cyclists. He's so small that one hit off a joint might get him stoned for a week and a 10mg Adderall would keep him a wake for a month.
Maybe it's not the drugs and maybe it's simply outer space? Yeah, that's my new theory now: Fedor Holz is an alien. It's the only way we can explain his amazing run. Holz has super alien powers of telekinesis and can read everyone's mind….which is why he's been able to crush tournament after tournament. That's gotta be it. Holz is an alien hybrid of sorts, or he escaped a rogue CIA facility that was doing experimenting with human/alien gene splicing. I guess we'll find out that Holz's true life story will inspired the showrunners for season 2 of Netflix's Stranger Things.
Fedor Holz's 7 Figure Scores
- July 2016: WSOP One Drop - $4,981,775
- May 2016: Super High Roller Bowl - $3,500,000
- Jan 2016: Triton Super High Roller (Philippines) - $3,463,500
- Dec 2015: Alpha8 WPT Bellagio High Roller - $1,589,219
- Aug 2016: EPT13 Barcelona - $1,473,127
In a short time, Holz has become the most successful German tournament player with a tad under $20 million. He almost has twice as much as Ole Schemion in second place with $11M. Since April 2015, when he cashed for his first six-figure score, Holz has racked up 20 six-figure cashes. Talk about one sick sick sick run. I don't think anyone has been that hot since I started covering poker. Holz is in a league of his own.
Holz has been en fuego over the last nine months. He won two high roller events at the Aria this summer and took third in another for a nifty score in excess of $1M. He chopped the Super High Roller Bowl before the WSOP began. Then toward the end of the series, he won his first bracelet when he took down the WSOP One Drop for almost $5M. Since December 2015, Holz has five scores in excess of seven figures. Yeah, five! And the EPT13 Barcelona High Roller win is the lowest of the five! He's somewhat humble and explained his run was a combination of luck and a strong support group of friends.
EPT 13 Barcelona - €50K High Roller
Buy-in: €50,000
Entrants: 102 (78 entries and 24 re-entries)
Prize Pool: €5.1M
50K High Roller Results:
1. Fedor Holz - €1,300,300
2. Sam Greenwood - €903,600
3. Tim Adams €597,500
4. Alexandros Kolonias - €467,700
5. Manuchehr Khangah - €377,100
6. Sylvain Loosli - €293,800
7. Daniel Dvoress - €232,600
8. Julian Stuer - €181,200
9. Erik Seidel - €137,130
10. Stanley Choi - €105,300
11. John Juanda - €105,300
12. Adrian Mateos - €98,000
13. Conor Drinan - €98,000
"I went on a run and just got really lucky," explained Holz about his run. Check out this interview he did with Tatjana Pasalic just after the WSOP One Drop...