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Interesting facts about Fedor Holz (Fedor Holz)

Biography of Fedor Holz

The German Fedor Holz, in his youth, has already announced his retirement as a professional player, but before that he managed to write his name forever in the history of poker.

This native of the German city of Saarbrücken, who later moved to the capital of Austria, is considered one of the best tournament players in modern history of poker, and Holtz has achieved significant achievements both in online poker and in the offline tournament arena.

Thanks to his numerous online successes, Fedor has twice in a row become the best online tournament player of the year according to PocketFives (in 2014 and 2015). As for live performances, and specifically in the most prestigious tournament series in the world, the young German's main achievements at the WSOP are the second place in the $300,000 Super High Roller Bowl tournament in 2016, which brought the player $3.5 million in prize money, and victory in the $111 111 High Roller for One Drop at the WSOP of the same year, which gave almost $5 million in prize money and a gold bracelet that every player desires.

Fedor Holtz's poker path began with home games with friends. However, shortly after he turned eighteen in 2011, the future star was introduced to online poker and began to rapidly improve his skills. Holz's progress did not go unnoticed, and in 2012 he got a well-respected backer in poker circles, who also began to help him with the improvement of the level of the game.

Having achieved some success, Fedor was able to afford to play with his own money, and in 2013 he began to travel the world to various poker tournaments. Africa, Asia, America and Europe, including all stages of the EPT…

Also in 2013, Fedor Holz himself took up the training of players, and eventually achieved a high reputation among other poker coaches.

Best Player Achievements: Fedor Holtz

Latest Results

The current WCOOP champion on charity, fame, self-improvement, travel, and the right balance between poker and life

“I'm looking forward to the start of the World Series of Poker, but I'm just as looking forward to what comes after it,” says Fedor Holtz.

After talking with Fedor, it becomes clear that he does not always have a clear plan. Holtz enjoys the freedom to do what he wants and, if he wants, to be led by his whims and whims. After three months of intense and almost non-stop poker (EPT grand final, SCOOP, the first WSOP in his career), Holz's passion for wandering and travel will only intensify. It will be surprising if, after the summer in Vegas, Fedor does not take a vacation and travel poison.

“I want to be able to travel when I want to. I want to take as many short week or two week trips as possible, visit new countries and get new experience and impressions. I want to enjoy life in all its diversity. I want to explore each of its aspects and do it the way I want,” says Fedor.

Fedor lives for today, but he is aware of the inevitability of change. He understands that poker will not serve him forever.

“I understand that there will come a time when I decide that poker is not what I want to do, but right now, at this particular moment, I believe that poker is exactly what I need. This is my approach to life, I just do what I think is right and do not force myself to do things that I do not like, just because it may have a positive impact on my future.

unwanted attention

Fedor gained some notoriety in the German-speaking poker community about two years ago. This popularity was enough to find like-minded people, people who look at life the same way as he does. Fedor won his first offline victories last year in Barcelona. The debut was a success: Fedor got into prizes five times within ten days. The following year, Fedor came close to the final table of the EPT in Malta and the WPT in Vienna, the city where Fedor now lives, and also made it to the top 8 at the super high roller in Monte Carlo

However, Fedor really made a name for himself online, where he is known under the nickname "CrownUpGuy". Last year, Holtz won one of the toughest and most prestigious online tournaments. Winning the World Championship Main Event online poker brought Holz and his investors nearly a million and a half dollars. Five ITMs in Barcelona brought Fedor to the public eye, but after his success at the WCOOP, Fedor took it to a completely different level.

“I noticed some changes after Barcelona, ​​but by and large I didn’t do anything special there. I'm used to this kind of success. The poker community in Germany and Austria knew me quite well even before Barcelona. I cashed in EPT a couple of times, and offline regs from other countries started to recognize me.”

“But after winning the WCOOP, something incredible happened. I received so many messages of congratulations. It seems to me that fame came to me too quickly. I stopped responding to messages. I took a week off and decided to rest a bit. I didn't do anything, I just enjoyed life."

Fedor was fed up with attention not only by poker journalists, but also by his colleagues. When Fedor played offline, he was constantly approached by enthusiastic fans. Holtz simply did not know what to do with such attention.

“I like it when people respect what I have achieved because it means that my hard work was not in vain and it's nice, but on the other hand, some people don't know how to talk to me. Some people feel like they're nothing compared to me. When I face this kind of attitude, I feel uncomfortable.”

The best of the best

Nevertheless, you cannot call Fedor a recluse or a hermit. On May 9th, he invited his poker and non-poker friends to a party to celebrate the start of SCOOP 2015.
“We often hold parties, and just before SCOOP we moved into a new apartment and decided to arrange a small celebration for this,” says Fedor.

“I take all tournaments responsibly, regardless of their name, but I would definitely not refuse the title of SCOOP champion.”

“Of course, the main tournament and the last Sunday is the most interesting part championship, but on other days there will be quite a few interesting things. There are many expensive tournaments in the series. If I manage to go somewhere far, I will be glad and grateful for the experience.”

The spontaneity of the SCOOP party is an example of Fedor's carefree approach to life. This attitude allowed Fedor to find close like-minded friends with whom he travels to tournaments in Europe.

Many of Holtz's fellow travelers have nothing to do with poker. He meets them outside the casino and gaming tables.

“We are ready to accept anyone in our company. Just being an interesting person is enough.”

In addition, Fedor believes that being in the company of talented players is a mutually beneficial cooperation. Fedor learns from his friends and buddies, and they learn from him.
When Fedor was asked who, in his opinion, will break SCOOP this year, without thinking for a minute, he answers that it will be his compatriot bencb789. On the live arena, this player has not shown himself yet, but last year he was at the final table of SCOOP and won a quarter of a million dollars there.

It is with bencb789 that Fedor will go to Las Vegas this year: “He is damn smart. I think the fact that we're going together will do us good."

open eyes

One of Holtz's most endearing traits is his humility and readiness to absorb everything new. Fedor is happy to listen to anyone who he thinks will make him better at poker or in life.

Fedor maintains a personal blog in which he happily shares everything he has learned from recently read books or from other people.

"Every time you connect with interesting people who have something to say, who have something to learn from, whether it's poker or talking about life, it benefits you."
“Even if you just watch an interesting person do their thing, it can change your life for the better. A positive approach helps me not only in life, but also in poker. The more I develop as a person, the better I become as a player."

Helping hand

AT this moment Fedor readily helps those who are not so fortunate as he is. He supports Casa Esperanza, a charity that helps Chilean children, who live in less favorable environments, get an education and improve their quality of life.

Fedor spends a lot of time with Casa Esperanza volunteers.
“Without these people who spend their time helping children, money would not do anything. It seems to me that they deserve respect and glory first of all, and not me.

Thanks to the efforts of Fedor, tens of thousands of dollars were raised for charity. Thanks to the theme on Two Plus Two, Holtz raised 25,000, he donated another 20,000 to charity himself. In the near future, Fedor is going to visit Chile and help the organization not only with money, but also with his own participation.

"I want to help others, especially in situations where the money I could spend on myself could be of much greater benefit to other people."

“I like living in a nice apartment and traveling a lot. If I have money for it, I'm happy. More money won't make me happier."

The balance between poker and life is always quite fragile, but Fedor seems to have found it.
“Don't think too much about what you should do or what others will think of you. Just do what you think is right,” Holtz advises.

Alexey Borisov

Where to find:

Fedor's microblog on Twitter: https://twitter.com/crownupguy
Holtz's Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/fedoire/
Stream CrownUpGuy on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/crownupguy
Holz on Wikipedia: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fedor_Holz

Interesting facts from the life of Fedor Holz:

• Parents named Fedor in honor of Dostoevsky.
• In 2015, he created an online game that determines poker intelligence. Fatima de Melo scored the most points, followed by Daniel Negreanu in second and Liv Boeri in third.

Short biography:

Fedor was born into a poor family and from childhood he dreamed of getting rich in order to buy his parents big house. At the age of 17, Holtz entered the university to study data processing. After six months of diligent study, Fedor passed the exams as the worst in the group, which is why he quit studying and went into poker.

The first months the young man constantly lost. To escape from the Internet, Fedor and a friend went on a trip to Europe and South Africa. Buddies earned cash games and participation in small tournaments. The poker player returned home with a good bankroll and continued to play online at higher limits.

Holtz was playing online cash games and making decent amounts until his opponents began to avoid him. Fedor changed discipline to MTT, where no one knew him. In 2014, the poker player gained popularity when he won the WCOOP and earned $1,300,000 in prize money. But Holtz paid most of this money to equity holders.

After success online, the young man moved to live tournaments - he dreamed of getting a "real" poker champion title. In December 2015, he won the WPT tournament and earned $1,590,000. Three weeks later, Fedor became the first on WPTN and added $3,463,500 to his bankroll.

The biggest victory of Fedor occurred in July 2016. At the World Series High Roller, Holz took first place and took home nearly $5,000,000.

Online, Fedor is helped by training in GTO programs. But Holtz is afraid that in a few years, due to the abundance of poker programs, the online game will be “resolved” and will no longer be interesting. Now Fedor is more interested in live game where mathematics is less important, but knowledge of psychology is needed.

Holtz believes that having reached the level of super high rollers and having won bracelets in online and live games, he has nowhere to grow in poker. Fedor is tired of cards and is going to become an entrepreneur, leaving tournaments as a hobby.

Fedor is upset - being considered a brilliant child, with age he lowered his IQ, and the task that was easily overcome in childhood is now difficult to solve. This is one of the reasons why Holtz wants to retire from poker at the height of his fame, when he is remembered as a successful super high roller.

Video:

1. WSOP ME 2015 — All Fedor Holz: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6Mdq1Auqjc
2. Fedor Holz runs like god in WSOP 2016 High Roller: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhcWrWkrngI
3. Fedor Holz All Hands WSOP 2015: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3zx0PSFdyk
4. Fedor Holz vs Jason Mercier vs Brian Rast-Aussie Millions 2016 100k: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xOhjP-8EeA
5. Guest Fedor Holz #6: Poker Life Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LviSnm3q_4

In my youth already finished his professional career. He later explained that he meant that he no longer needed to make a living playing the game, since he had already provided for himself and his family for several decades to come.

Now the German poker player participates only in those that are of interest to him. Moreover, he prefers live sessions, having played only 790 hands in the online space last year.

Fedor Holtz - biography

The young star of world poker was born in Germany on July 25, 1993. At the age of 20 he moved to Vienna (Austria). Since childhood, Holtz showed excellent results his IQ was 155. For example, Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein had an IQ of 160. With age, Holtz's score declined slightly. According to Fedor, this is due to age regression.

Fedor Holtz is very loyal to journalists and fans. In his interviews, he repeatedly said that grew up in a poor family. Her mother was a social worker and her father was a police officer. However, despite this, he characterizes his family as friendly and close-knit. Parents always motivated and supported future professional. Now that Fedor has earned enough money, he helps his family (he has two younger sisters).

Initially, Fedor Holtz took poker seriously as a way to make money. Immediately after the first major drift, he fulfilled his childhood dream gave his parents a house. It all started with the fact that at the age of majority he realized that he was not living his own life. Studying did not bring pleasure to the guy and did not provide ways for self-realization, besides, financial problems made the guy search possible options correct the situation. At that time, two of his friends were already making money playing poker. He decided to try it too. And not in vain.

After some time, the guy was noticed, and a couple of months after meeting poker, Fedor Holtz already signed a contract with Fr. And then he left his studies, deciding to start a professional career.

Fedor Holz career start

It was under such a pseudonym that Fedor began his professional career. At the end of the first year he was in big trouble. According to him, he felt strong pressure from the outside. Wanting to fix the situation, the backer the player was collaborating with hired a professional trainer for him by MTT. And it gave its results.

The first major victory - 1st place in the WCOOP online tournament in 2014 - helped to increase the German bank account by $1,300,000. A few days later, Fedor Holtz earned another $38,000 in a Full Tilt online tournament.

Continuing at the same pace, after a while he took his place among the most successful players in the online space. And for two years in a row (2014 and 2015), he became the leader at all.

Already at that time, Holz realized that he was able to earn and provide for himself and his family with poker, so he began to try himself in live tournaments. And a year later he had 7 million dollars in his piggy bank profit from live performances.

best year

by the most 2016 turned out to be a successful year for Fedor. At the start of the year, he won the Philippine tournament and took home nearly $3.5 million in prize money. In May, he went to a two-month series of tournaments in Las Vegas, where he received his first well-deserved bracelet and $ 5 million from the very beginning. A few days later he took second place and $3.5 million in another high stakes tournament. For 2016 Fedor Holtz earned a total of almost $17 million.

In addition to the WSOP gold bracelet, the young genius has three spades and 2 WPT titles. In addition to live performances, Fedor also skates online: the total winnings are about $ 2.5 million.

At the end of the most successful year, Holtz announces the end of his professional career, that does not stop him from continuing to win. Now the guy plays only for his own pleasure. At the recent Big One for One Drop as part of the World poker series with a million dollars, Fedor took second place and claimed $6 million in prize money.

• Besides poker Fedor Holtz loves to travel very much. Now that he has earned enough money, he hardly spends time at home. Most of all, Fedor loves mountains.
• Since childhood, Holtz has been interested in psychology. In 2017, together with psychologist Eliot Rowe, Fedor founded a company and released an application for phones that helps people who are insecure - Primed Mind.
• In his good year in terms of earnings, Fedor Holtz surpassed even Phil Hellmuth and Sam Trickett and took sixth place in the ranking of the richest poker players.
• In the poker community, he is called "a real phenomenon."
• Last year he became the face of PartyPoker.

Best Achievements

• First place and $4,981,775 at the 2016 WSOP No Limit Hold'em Opening Event #67 in Las Vegas.
• Second place and $3,500,000 in the 2016 $300,000 No Limit Hold'em High Roller with 888poker in Las Vegas.
• First place and $3,463,500 in prize money in the 2016 No Limit Hold'em Triton Super High Roller Series (Event #3) in the Philippines.
• Winning $1,589,219 at the 2015 WPT Alpha 8 $100,000 No Limit Hold'em High Roller Event #18 in Las Vegas.
• First place and $1,473,127 in prize money in the €48,500 buy-in No Limit Hold'em High Roller Tournament EPT13 - ESPT - 7 in Barcelona.

On May 30 and 31, the German prodigy again made himself known by scoring two victories in super high roller tournaments in two days. Today we decided to find out how the poker wizard lives in 2017, recall his previous successes and ask the opinion of Russian-speaking MTT professionals about Fedor.

Getting a seat in the SuperHighRoller Bowl this year hasn't been easy. The number of professionals who want to cross swords with billionaires and Hollywood actors for $300k is only growing every year, and the organizers deliberately limit the quota for pro-players (the notorious concern for the environment). Only the German "incubator" put forward three new representatives this year, so even the most respected card masters had to worry. Already in May, the organizers held several ridiculous lotteries, where they played for additional places in the tournament. One of them went to Fedor.

On Super Bowl dates, Aria Casino traditionally hosts $50k cabals, which are won by Holtz for the second year in a row (again, traditionally). This year he got 2 wins with a difference of a day and won $645,000 minus buy-ins:

Back-to-back 50k wins! Took it down for 415k. Feeling ready for the 111k Onedrop! pic.twitter.com/YCai63HsZU

Fedor Holz (@CrownUpGuy) June 1, 2017

As you already know, he failed to build on his success - this year's One Drop "champion belt" went to Douglas Polk, and an American actor and stand-up artist knocked him out of the SuperHighRoller Bowl on emotions Kevin Hart:

But if we add here the victory in the side event of Monaco, the 2nd place in the Macau Super High Roller tournament and the top 3 SHR of Australia, then we get another couple of millions of net profit that Holz earned this year as an "amateur".

New project

Holtz's "retirement from poker" last year is not just a buzzword. He decided to realize himself in the field of business and, together with the famous psychologist Eliot Rowe, founded the company last year. "Primed Mind". A new b2b project is developing mobile application, which will help "increase self-confidence, prepare for life's challenges and help realize creative potential":

Currently, the application has already been launched and is available for download in the Apple Store. An active advertising campaign is underway on the Internet, and marketers do not forget to use a long list of German poker regalia:

What made up 23 million

The explosion in Holtz's career happened during the 2014 WCOOP. Then he won his first million in the main tournament of the series:

In 2015, he shifted his focus to offline tournaments and won another $7kk in a year:

The peak of Fedor's career. Summer 2016 and over $10 million in Las Vegas:

A million "for me and that guy" - split in the top 2 most expensive tournament in the history of online poker

The opinion of Russian-speaking professionals about Fedor

Today we have collected for you the opinions of famous players who happened to play with Fedor live or online.

Anatoly "NL_Profit" Filatov

Several times I ran into Fedor. Plays well, in communication is pleasant. Last year at the WSOP in a $3k tournament, I saw him get run over and slam his chair in his heart. Online is also very good. He used to play a lot, but now he has retired a bit and appears, basically, only on large series.

Fedor Holtz dancing salsa with Jangleman's girlfriend

Kirill "moron" Rodionov

He's a tough guy, to say the least. A nice guy in communication, such an intelligent, well, a great player. It is clear that his results are, after all, an outburst of dispersion and a stunning upstreak. But he definitely plays very cool

Sergei "vedevas" Lebedev

Personally, I like him both as a person and as a player. Although I was sitting at the next table one day when he threw chips all over the table after losing a hand to Phil Gruessem.

It does not seem to me that his successes changed him much, although, of course, it was noticeable how they instilled in him a very great confidence in his abilities. In general, almost always maintains a good atmosphere and conversations at the table. In my opinion, he is one of those players who does not transfer the rivalry at the table to the attitude towards people, and not everyone can boast of this. On the other hand, it's easy to be positive and benevolent when everything is dragged along.