Online poker room partypoker announced this week that it has signed German superstar Fedor Holz to its roster of sponsored poker pros. Holz, one of the most highly regarded and well liked poker players around, has been on absolute fire the last couple years, banking about $16.5 million in live tournaments since the beginning of 2016.
“I would never partner with a company that was not committed to looking after or listening to the players,” said Holz in a post on the partypoker blog. “I have discussed partypoker’s plans with my good friend, Patrick Leonard, who is heavily involved in improving partypoker’s software and customer services. I hope to be playing in some of the Trickett’s Room online high stakes cash games, if Sam gives me an invite! I am looking forward to playing the $25K Super High Roller on the 19th September and some of the other $35 million guaranteed Powerfest starting this Sunday.”
Patrick Leonard, of whom Holz spoke, was signed as partypoker’s ambassador last April.
As mentioned, Holz has been tearing up the live tournament circuit. His last three cashes have all been tournament victories, two at the ARIA and one in Macau, all well into the three-figures in prize money, totaling about $1.3 million in winnings.
In fact, all but two of his cashes in 2017 have been for at least a quarter million dollars, the largest coming from a second place finish in the Super High Roller event at PokerStars Championship Macau, a score of $868,518.
In 2016, he destroyed everything, racking up FOUR cashes of over a million dollars each. In January 2016, Holz won the Super High Roller at the WPT National Philippines for nearly $3.5 million and followed that up with exactly a $3.5 million runner-up cash in the Super High Roller Bowl in May. In July, Holz won the High Roller for One Drop at the World Series of Poker and almost $5 million and then won approximately $1.5 million in August by winning Super High Roller at EPT Barcelona.
What’s nuts about all of his recent success is that Holz actually “retired” from poker about a year ago. Clearly, he still plays, but he is very selective and competes far less than he used to. He is spending much of his time developing a company called Primed Mind that he founded in 2016.
On the partypoker blog, partypoker’s Managing Director Tom Waters said of Holz’s signing:
Fedor’s phenomenal success on the poker circuit over the last couple of years has made him one of the most respected figures in the game. Fedor will bring us a lot of knowledge and experience and will help us to fulfil our strategy. We are always striving to ensure that the changes that we make, both online and live, are in the best interest of the players. Fedor will help us get closer to the players and will provide us with valued input as we continue to make changes. High stakes action is currently a gap in our offering on partypoker and I’m delighted that Fedor has agreed to work with us to create a new high roller series that I think players and rail birds will love. It’s not all high stakes though, Fedor will also help us support the recreational players, providing academy sessions, videos and strategy advice.
