Fedor Holz Wins PokerStars High Roller $2,100 NLHE for $178,498

It was Fedor Holz all the way in the inaugural PokerStars $11million guaranteed High Roller Series opening event, the German live ‘beast’ proving that he still has what it takes to crush online MTT’s as he took down the first prize of $178,498 under his ‘CrownUpGuy’ moniker.

The 442-entry field included other big names looking to make a mark in the new series, Vladimir 'vovtroy' Troyanovskiy and Igor Kurganov among them, but Holz was the man they would all be fearing – particularly as he seemed to have set his sights on the High Roller Series as soon as it was announced…

The kick-off event for the series featured a $2100 buy-in - the $10K events still to come later this week – but with big money expected it was no surprise to see the likes of Holz involved, despite his PartyPoker connections.

Another PartyPoker man who ran deep in the 2-day opener was Patrick ‘pads1161’ Leonard, the Newcastle, England man another of those who happily mixes his live play with online success – fresh from a GUKPT season-ending final table 8th place which will doubtless pay a few of his online buy-ins this week.

Despite this support, Leonard eventually crashed out in 6th spot for $42,651 and it left Holz with almost as many chips as his 4 opponents, although this disparity was levelled somewhat as ‘88maca88’ sent both ‘calculer’ and ‘gray31’ to the rails, with ‘NastyMinder’ falling soon afterwards, leaving Holz with a 4:3 chip lead as heads-up play began.

It didn’t take long for the boy wonder from Germany to dispose of his Argentinian-based rival, however, with the final hand seeing Holz shove the river and unluckily for ‘88maca88’ who had just hit top pair, Holz revealed that he had turned a full house!

Final results: