The impressive career of Fedor Holz has stunned the poker world for many reasons. Firstly, his age. He became a legendary poker player when he was very young, winning his WSOP bracelet at the age of 23. And the second is speed: just in a few years he became the 4th in All Time Money List of professional poker players, and earned an almost incredible fortune of $32,556,377. But in many ways his outstanding career has never consisted of victories and 1st places. There have been many ups and downs, and a lot of hard work to achieve the goals. And, indeed, there has always been a touch of brilliance in the way he played, strategies he applied and decisions he made — from his early times and to the most challenging games when faced the best professional poker players in high-roller tournaments.
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First Steps in Poker
Imagine a 17-years-old boy who started studying computer science at university and was not very interested in the subject; and yet, his outstanding IQ of 155 was a clear sign of a powerful mind. He only needed something to get his attention!
Playing poker with his friends in his spare time, he quickly figured out that this game deserved more attention. Some of his friends were already able to make a thousand or two per month playing poker. And Fedor started to learn through experience, feeling that the task of mastering this game is challenging and probably entertaining his mind enough.
At the age of 18, Fedor Holz was already playing online with slightly improved skills, earning several hundred euros per month; and impressively quickly improving his qualification, which soon led to higher stakes. At the age of 19, he was noticed and staked and further coached by a well-known player in online multi-table tournaments (MTT).
In 2014 and 2015, Fedor Holz, whose career was undoubtedly gaining momentum, was already ranked as the best online MTT player by PocketFives, a popular online poker community. There are plenty of MTT poker tournaments offered by various online poker rooms. These tournaments were a good school for a beginner who wanted to hone his skills. But it is noteworthy that many people have been playing online tournaments for a long time, and not many of them are able to gain the skill required to go ahead to the next level.
First Wins in Live Tournaments: 2012-2013
Still playing online a lot, he was apparently preparing for more significant success. In 2012, when he was 19, he won his first cash prize in a major tournament held at a top-class European casino in the Czech town of Rozvadov. It was €15,320 in €500 No Limit Hold’em GPT II Deepstack Series Main Event. He finished second. It was a great success for a young man, however, with a clear perspective that he could win more poker games.
In 2013, he only confirmed that these expectations had been far from groundless. Having dropped his university, Fedor started touring, and got some pretty good results:
- He finished 1st at the $500 + 50 No Limit Hold’em event in Bounty Lebanese Poker Tour, winning $4,695. This was in February.
- In April, Fedor Holz finished 2nd at the €1,850 + 150 No Limit Hold’em event, High Roller 8 Handed ESPT in Valencia, cashing in $8,877.
- Soon afterward, already in May the same year, he was 2nd at the €1,000 + 10 No Limit Hold’em event, Turbo EPT Monte Carlo, gaining $45,894 — his first five-digit live earning.
- And later, in November — 2nd again, this time at the $6,800 + 200 Lucky Number 7 High-roller event in Caribbean Poker Tour, winning $35,000.
2014
In August, he finished the1st and 4th at two EPT Barcelona events; having received five cash prizes of about $150,000.
In November, he took the 1st place again, this time in Mega Poker Series €700 + 70 No Limit Hold’em MPS Main Event for $38,610.
But his greatest success in 2014 was still online: he won the World Championship of Online Poker, gaining $1,300,000. This meant he was getting ready to high-roller events.
2015
However, CrownUpGuy’s overall performance in live tournaments in 2015 was less impressive, especially when you consider what people expected from a young gambler with such high potential. He still won, and continued to make good money, sometimes really very good, but not winning the tournaments:
- In April, he finished 4th and 7th at two Super High Rollers events at the EPT Monte Carlo ($372,208 and $369,152 respectively).
- In August, he cashed twice at the EPT Barcelona ($112,663 and $36,590)
- In October, he was 2nd at the EPT Malta €2,000 + 200, having won $71,627; and 6th at WSOPE High Roller event for $109,613.
- Then, in November, he was 7th at the ACOP High Roller event, winning $114,691.
- And only in December 2015, he came in 1st at the WPT (World Poker Tour, a world-famous and internationally televised gaming brand) Five Diamond World Poker Classic event, having gained $1,589,219 — that was a real breakthrough!
But Fedor Holz is known as a very ambitious person, and he apparently wanted more. This “more” was the realm of WSOP high-roller tournaments, the peak still unsummited. And it was not a challenge, even for CrownUpGuy.
In 2015, he made several attempts. It was 46th Annual World Series of Poker Fedor played in for times. Still winning a lot of money, he was quite far from the top, only once having come in 3rd:
- Event # 14 – 06/04 – 99th – $5,413
- Event # 30 – 06/14 — 59th – $4,917
- Event # 37- 06/17 — 3rd – $268’463
- Event #68 – 06/08 — 25th – 262’574
He also played in two WSOP Europe events, #8 and #10, coming in 51st and 6th for €2,020 and €96,625 respectively. Maybe for someone else, it could have been exactly the right time. But certainly not for Fedor Holz. His real big time came in 2016.
The Peak Of 2016
His results of 2016 made him being spoken about as of probably the best professional poker player of our time.
- January: 1st at the WPT National Philippines Triton Super High Roller Series Cali Cup, winning $3,702,748.
- May: 2nd at the Aria $300k Super High Roller Bowl, winning $3,500,000.
- June: 1st at three Aria High Roller Events, winning $276,012, $393,120, and $637,392.
- July: 1st at the High Roller for One Drop NLH event, winning $4,981,775.
- August: 1st at the EPT Barcelona € 50k Super High Roller event, winning $1,300,000.
- October: 4th at the $98,000 + 2,000 NLH Aria Super High Roller event, winning $299,880.
- He also kept on playing online very successfully, having come 2nd at WCOOP Super High Roller event in September 2016, gaining $1,067,639 — not mentioning other successful appearances.
This fantastic run of great cash-ins, with many 1st places won in the toughest high-roller tournaments was almost unbelievable winning streak for the young German. But his striving for success in WSOP tournaments pushed him forwards. He came in 18th, 47th, and 39th at the events ##10, 21 and 59 of 47th Annual World Series of Poker in 2016, winning 4-5 digit sums and did not stop trying to head for a better result.
This result was the bracelet and $4,981,775 he won at the event # 67, which was High-Roller for One Drop No Limit Hold’em, $111,111 buy-in, 2016/07/08. Perhaps, this was a benchmark goal for Fedor Holz. Soon afterward, he announced his widely discussed poker “retirement.”
2017
Nevertheless, he kept on playing in various high-roller tournaments, his wins varying within the range of $250k – $900k; having finished 1st to 5th, and still increasing his All Time Money List rating. But he did not play in WSOP events that year.
2018
In 2018, Fedor Holz came 2nd at WSOP event # — The Big One for One Drop, No Limit Hold’em, $1,000,000 buy-in. His prize was a record – $6,000,000 – not bad for a retired poker player! Nevertheless, the prize was nearly equal to Fedor Holz’s net worth in 2018, which was still a great contribution to his earnings!
What Is Next?
Even though Fedor is planning to focus more on his business ideas, he still plays poker. He will definitely appear at some high-roller events in coming years. Hopefully, he won’t quit poker completely! Well, maybe we will even see Fedor Holz coaching and inspiring other eager poker players! He has a lot of time, and he certainly has the potential to sharpen his skills even further over time. He does not need to repeat his legendary marathon across various tournaments, and his outstanding overall result of 2016 could well remain once-in-a-lifetime achievement; however, hopefully, his best is yet to come and Fedor Holz net worth will be increased even more!
