Fedor Holz returns for the 2019 WCOOP Main Event
High-stakes tournament crusher Fedor Holz has made a return to online poker appearing in the Pokerstars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) Main Event.
The 26-year-old German wunderkind has stepped away from the game after announcing his retirement from the professional scene in 2016.
Although he doesn’t play nearly as much as he used to, it’s great to see him in action when he does return.
Fedor Holz Treats His Fans
Fedor Holz gave his fans the ultimate treat when he decided to stream his exploits live on TwitchTV and YouTube.
Sadly for those of us who tuned in to watch, his event was over before it even got going. The $5,200 buy-in $10,000,000 guaranteed event had a total of 2236 entries and Holz busted out in 2052.
The very first hand was a tragic beat with Holz flopping the nut straight. The flush draw completed on the turn and, luckily, as it turned out, the river paired the board scaring his opponent with the nut flush out of raising. It could have been all over at the very start.
FIRST HAND I PLAYED OF THE $5,200 #WCOOP Main Event. 😬 Live on https://t.co/F4J5OrTRjR 🚀🚀🚀🚀 pic.twitter.com/XCKx0phHcz
— Fedor Holz (@CrownUpGuy) September 22, 2019
Not long after, Holz was beaming when he picked up pocket rockets and flopped top set. The smile didn’t last long as a straight completed on the river with barely a pot size bet left behind. Sure enough, Holz was shown the nuts and his event was over.
You have to hand it to the youngster for the manner in which he took this slap in the face from Lady Luck. Laughing as if he just couldn’t believe it.
AA in the $5,200 #WCOOP Main Event 😳😳🤑🤑🤯🤯😬😬 #poker pic.twitter.com/nysmYgT5Gb
— Fedor Holz (@CrownUpGuy) September 22, 2019
New Motivations
With more than $32 million in live tournament winnings, and millions more from online poker, we could be forgiven for thinking of Fedor Holz as a veteran of the game.
But this is a guy who didn’t even play the game before Black Friday happened.
Still only 26-years-old, Holz realised soon after his major successes in 2015 and 2016 that he had made enough money and needed new motivations for life.
His Primed Mind product has picked up great reviews, and he is also about to release PokerCode, a masterclass approach learning product for poker.
This approach to life from someone so young is a lesson for us all in the poker community. While most of us cannot retire on our poker winnings, we can still implement this kind of attitude in our daily lives.
One piece of gold that Holz gave us last month came during a speech in Wolfsburg. He explained how daily improvements has been the key to his success. Small, incremental changes that add up to a lot over time.
“This is how I approached getting better at poker – small, consistent improvements in different areas every single day. What starts as a small win accumulates to much much more in the long run.”
The Future
With only three live tournament cashes last year – albeit one for $6,000,000 – and none this year, it looks like Holz is making good on his promise to retire and playing less than ever.
While it’s unlikely that he will ever disappear from the game entirely, it really does seem as if he wants to put his heart and soul into his new projects now.
Something has to give, and if such a great player wants to direct his talents elsewhere, then maybe that’s another lesson we can take from him.
