A couple of months ago, that Ocean 11 type robbery escapade shocked the poker world, with the robbery of the EPT in Berlin. Slowly, more and more of the culprits were caught and finally it seems that have apprehended the mastermind behind the robbery, a man who played in the tournament himself.

Mohammed Abou-C, as identified by German authorities as such because of the countries privacy laws., apparently observed where the money was kept as he took part in the poker tournament and then apparently passed the information off to his accomplices.

As brave and ridiculously confident that these guys, even going so far to having a McDonald’s meal a couple of hours before the tournament, it seems the long arm of the law did finally catch up with them. Personally; If I was involved in such a heist I’d have gotten out of Berlin, but it seems that Mr Mohammed Abou-C decieded that Berlin was the safest place to stay, which ultimately lead to his arrest.

This brings the total number of people involved in the robbery to 6.

We’ve been keeping tabs on what’s been happening with the EPT Poker tournament Robbery on March 6 in Germany where a couple of robbers successfully stole a couple of hundred thousand dollars from the hotel.

The arrests began on the 17^th of March when one of the suspects turned him in and from the point onwards, the Berlin police had the names and photos of the other thieves and claimed it was only a matter of time until the suspects were in police custody.

The first suspect to fall under police custody ratted out all his accomplices. So much for a good bluff I say. The trio was apprehended as Ahmad el-Awayti, Jihad Khaled Chetwie, and Mustafa Ucarkus all saw their dreams of making away with €242,000 disappearing into thin air.

The latter two were arrested at Berlins Tegel airport last Sunday and last Wednesday, el-Awayti was arrested in a subway station and brought into custody.

Bluff Magazine Europe quoted Berlin police officials of a 28 year old Lebanese man involvement “According to the current state of our investigation, the suspect is thought to have been the organizer… He also drove the getaway car””

In something that was seemingly straight out of Hollywood, The high-rollers games was underway at the European Poker Tour in Berlin when  masked men burst through the doors with more than poker on their mind.

The men, armed with numerous pistols, a machine gun, and strangely enough a machete burst into the poker tournament in the Hyatt Hotel just after 2pm and announced in true Hollywood crime style “This is a hold up!”

They were not bluffing either – video stream caught the action on the robbers which landed up turning the ballroom into chaos as tables were overturned, people scurried out of the way, those watching ran for the exits, and generally fled causing several injuries. In one of the videos one can see a security guard taking on of the masked robbers but he escapes by his fellow com-padre. This initial footage was caught on live television but was quickly cut off as people ran from their tables.

The men forced security staff and hotel employees to hand over a part of the tournaments jackpot money which according to police could be as high as $1.36 million.  It had been previously reported that the figure was $272,000 however as the news travels the figure has risen to the million mark. During the incident the security guards tried to fend off the attackers, and a substantial part of the money was lost in the scuffle.

Following the brazen daylight heist the robbers escaped on foot through a nearby shopping mall – not wearing black masks any longer – and finally fled in a getaway car.

According to Olaf Wagner, photographer for Germany newspaper Bild, ““When I entered, I saw a number of security people struggling with three masked men, One guy stood in the corner stuffing 500 euro notes into his backpack, while a second man pinned down a security man with his machete.”

The tournament began March 1 with 945 participants who together paid nearly €3.7 million in entry fees.