One person has been injured in an armed robbery on the European Poker Tournament in Berlin, Germany.

Carsten Mueller, a police spokesman said four robbers in disguises forced employees to hand over money, and then managed to escape.

The jackpot for the tournament stood at €1 million ($1.36 million), according to a European Poker Tour Web site. The EPT confirmed the heist on the event's blog in an official statement, saying there had been "an armed robbery executed by six men." It was unclear why the number differed from the police count.

Olaf Wagner, a photographer for Germany's Bild am Sonntag newspaper, was in the hotel when the raid occurred.

He said: "I was at the entrance to the poker hall when they stormed in.I saw three masked men struggling with security personnel in the room where cash is exchanged for chips.

"I saw one of the men stuffing 500 euro notes into a backpack. A second pinned down a security guard with a machete to his chest.

"As they ran one of the security men pulled a robber to the ground. I couldn't decide if this was all a PR stunt or not; it seemed incredible to believe that it could be a real robbery in the heart of Berlin in daylight.

"I got my camera ready. As the security guard was on the floor a hotel page boy came along and took the bag he had been carrying.I saw next to the robber was his gun, a revolver.

"As they struggle the robber calls for help and the others return. One of them has an empty glass bottle he waves in the face of the security man. They force him to release their accomplice.

"Then I see them, unmasked, running into the tourist filled shopping centre. They left the hotel through the emergency exit."

The tournament organiser, the European Poker Tour (EPT), said the raiders had probably been attracted by the one-million-euro prize on offer to the winner of the event. They did not say how much was stolen.

A statement on their website called on anyone with photo or video footage of the robbery to hand it over to the police.

The tournament, which German tennis legend Boris Becker took part in earlier, resumed around four hours after the attack.

Live Cams during the
Robbery





The fight between the securities and
robberies





Aftermath






News reporting the incident

PokerStars.com has announced the latest PokerStars Pro new member - Julian Thew. Julian is from Nottingham, England. Currenly he is rank number 1 in the European Poker Tour Tournament when his most notable victory was at Baden's European Poker Tour in season 4 where he walked away with 670,800 EURO. His poker career's total earning has accumulated to almost $2.5 million.

He became the 5th Brits as a member of PokerStars Pro after John Duthie, Vicky Coren, Jude Ainsworth and JP Kelly.

Ever think of making million from selling a domain? poker.org was sold for $1 million last week.

This is a historical sale for Sedo ( a domain exchange and auction company ) which closed a $1 million deal on a poker domain. The domain was registered under A-1 National Advertising and sold to PokerCompany.com

This could be the highest sale for .org domain when it was highest at $198,000 for engineering.org.

Although the new hike in domain pricing would bring positive values to poker industry for the fast growing and high demand in poker play but it also created unnecesarry attention to the politicians when the goverment'd already taken serious steps to stop online poker room.

The ultimate poker experience at the cruise is back. Ladbrokes announced the Ladbrokes Poker Cruise IV is set to sail in 2011.

The world's largest deluxe cruise liner "Oasis Of The Sea" will be sailing for a 8 days Poker Cruise next year. It will depart from Ft Lauderlade, FLORIDA on 22 January 2011 and return on the 29 Januaray 2011; it will make stops along the route at: Labadee, Haiti - Falmouth, Jamaica and Cozumel, Mexico.

Ladbrokes will be giving away Poker Cruise package worth total £4,000 which includes an ocean view cabin for 2 person, £950 allowance, £500 bankroll and all the standard cruise entertaiment and meals.

The qualifications are underway. The satellite starts from £4.40 at Ladbrokes Poker room and it will last until the end of year.

Register Ladbrokes Poker Account

The continue growing of online Poker has concerned the authority while the FBI has confirmed that online Poker can be subjected to cheating and laying hands to investigate.

Cheating in Poker could be easy by using the tradition method by working in unison to defeat the other players on a table. Meanwhile the latest technology could let someone to use an computer automated system to generate profit either for an operator or individual.

However it is unwise for the goverment to banned online gaming as it is a threat to liberty. But setting rules and regulation, to oversee the whole process to ensure the fair play between players to players as well as the operators to players.