Ocean's 4?

By: Blue Rose

The News has been abuzz with the story of several "small time crooks" pulling off the most Ocean's 11 style robbery of our generation. The criminals, with no more than what is said to be a hand gun and a machete, made away with $338,000 in cash, and are still very much at large.

A field of 1000 participants at the main event of the European Poker Tour (Or EPT) watched in horror as a Small Crew of allegedly 4 men relieved the tournament of much of its prize pool.

This was the EPT's first trip through Berlin, and it could not have gone worse for them, but the EPT staff are confident that they will catch the criminals very quickly. Rainer Wendt, a leader in the German Police was quoted saying "It was quite apparent that these were not professionals," he said, calling the robbery "a new dimension of stupidity."

The criminals (supposedly 4), pulled off the robbery in front of 1000 entrants into the tournament, unarmed guards, and several video cameras (See the Video Here). Their apparent immaturity when it comes to crime begs the question, how is it they got away?

German police believe that someone in the tournament might have given the criminal group information on everything from layout of the room, to how many guards there were, and even might have helped execute the robbery themselves.

While the German Police remain quite optimistic, I can't help but believe these guys might be a little smarter than they are given credit for. One wonders if police are only trying to save a little face through the media by pointing out "mistakes" the robbers must have made.

The most interesting part of the story came when a worker at the hotel, while simply doing his normal job, found an additional bag containing €500,000.

Now, this may seem like a large victory for both the German Police Union, and the EPT, but it may mean that the criminals are going to return to claim what they had to leave behind earlier.

Either way the poker world is spinning with this recent news, as it is really the first of its kind among the major poker tournaments. The EPT is small in comparison, but larger tournaments everywhere like the World Poker Tour, and even the World Series of Poker, are reconsidering their safety measures.

- Blue Rose