Fedor Holz’s Life: Biggest Profits and Losses, Private Life and Net Worth

Legends of Poker
08/05/2018

– General Information –

Originally from Saarbrücken, Germany, Fedor Holz is a professional poker player who was born on July 25, 1993 and is also known by his PokerStars screen name “CrownUpGuy”. Holz now lives in Vienna, Austria and primarily plays high roller tournaments. This focus has landed him a good bit of money and attention, including a listing on Forbes’ 30 under 30 in Germany and a spot as high as #4 at some point in his career on the All-Time Money List.

– Key Career Dates –

  • 2012: He cashes in his first live tournament in the €500 No Limit Hold’em Main Event at the GPT II – Deepstack Series in Rozvadov, Czech Republic for $19,288.
  • 2013: He drops out of university to play poker for a living.
  • 2016: He wins his first WSOP gold bracelet in the $111,111 High Roller for One Drop event for $4,981,775. Subsequently, he announces his retirement from professional poker.
  • 2018: He finishes second in the $1,000,000 Big One for One Drop event for $6 million. That is the biggest single live tournament cash of his career to date.
  • 2021: He beats Wiktor “Limitless” Malinowski in a $100/$200 online heads-up No Limit Hold’em challenge.

– Fedor Holz’s Career –

 → Beginnings ←

Born in 1993 to a 17-year-old mother who quit school and became a journalist, Holz was a smart but bullied child. Later, his mother had two more children, so Holz grew up with two younger sisters. According to him, his childhood was nice and full of love, but it was also challenging being raised by a young mother and growing up poor, for which he endured a lot of teasing at school. Even though he had an IQ of 155, he often skipped school as a child. He remembers being very unmotivated: “Money was never something that drove me.”

When he finished high school at 17, he moved away from home and began studying informatics at university, but he still didn’t find his education interesting. Instead of studying in his free time, he started playing poker with his friends. At first, he recalls, they always beat him, but he was impressed by their ability to pull in €1-2K per month playing poker, so he kept competing, improving, and learning through experience.

In 2011, when he was 18, he turned to online poker and really began honing his skills and pulling in around €300 or €400 per month. He improved rapidly and progressed to higher stakes at an impressive rate. In 2012, he was staked by a reputable MTT player who also took him on as a student and coached him to the next level. All of this work and focus culminated in his first big win playing the €500 No Limit Hold’em GPT II Deepstack Series Main Event in Rozvadov, Czech Republic. Holz finished 2nd for €15,320.

In 2013, he decided to drastically reroute his life and move in a new direction. He dropped out of school and started touring the world to play poker. In 2014, having left his friends and native surroundings, he settled in Vienna and focused on playing poker there. In September of that year, he won $1.3 million when he came in first in the $5,200 buy-in World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) Main Event.

→ World Series of Poker ←

With 16 total WSOP cashes, 6 final tables, and 2 WSOP bracelets, Holz has brought in a total of $13.02 million from WSOP events.

  • 2015: Finished 3rd at the $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em 6-Handed Championship for $268,463.
  • 2016: Finished 1st at the WSOP $111,111 High Roller for One-Drop NLHE event for $4,981,775. Brought in over $10 million in cashes in just six weeks. Following this huge success, Holz claimed, “I’m not going to continue as a professional player.” However, he’s continued playing and winning for the past couple of years, so at this point his “retirement” has really just become a joke among the online poker community.
  • 2018: Won his biggest cash yet ($6,000,000) when he was runner-up to Justin Bonomo at the $1,000,000 No Limit Hold’em – The Big One for One Drop.
  • 2020: Claimed his second bracelet in the $25,000 No Limit Hold’em – Heads Up (Event #79) at the 2020 WSOP Online on Natural8-GGNetwork for $1.077 million. He beat the Brazilian Brunno De Albuquerque in the last match-up for the title,

→ World Poker Tour ←

With 6 WPT money finishes and one final table, which he won, Holz has brought in a total of $5,112,777 from World Poker Tour events.

His big win came at the 2015 WPT Alpha8 Las Vegas, where he won $1,589,219.

→ Other Tournaments ←

2012:

  • September: Came in 2nd at the €500 No Limit Hold’em Main Event GPT II, Deepstack Series, Rozvadov, for $19,288

2013:

  • February: Came in 1st at the $500 + 50 No Limit Hold’em event, Bounty Lebanese Poker Tour 2013, for $4,695
  • April: Came in 2nd at the €1,850 + 150 No Limit Hold’em event, High Roller 8 Handed ESPT Valencia, for $8,877
  • May: Came in 2nd at the €1,000 + 10 No Limit Hold’em event, Turbo EPT Monte Carlo, for $45,894
  • November: Came in 2nd at the $6,800 + 200 Lucky Number 7 Highroller event, Caribbean Poker Tour, for $35,000

2014:

  • August: Came in 1st and 4th at two EPT Barcelona events; five cashes totaling approximately $150,000
  • November: Came in 1st at the 2014 Mega Poker Series €700 + 70 No Limit Hold’em MPS Main Event for $38,610

2015:

  • April: Came in 4th and 7th at two Super High Rollers events at the EPT Monte Carlo ($372,208 and $369,152 total)
  • August: 2 cashes at the EPT Barcelona ($112,663 and $36,590 total)
  • October: Came in 2nd at the EPT Malta €2,000 + 200 #47 No Limit Hold’em event for $71,627; came in 6th at the WSOPE High Roller event for $109,613
  • November: Came in 7th at the ACOP High Roller event for $ 114,691
  • December: Came in at the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic 2015 event for $1,589,219

2016:

  • January: Came in 1st at the WPT National Philippines Triton Super High Roller Series Cali Cup event for $3,072,748 (Read his short interview).
  • May: Came in at the Aria $300K Super High Roller Bowl event for USD$3,500,000
  • June: Came in first at three Aria High Roller events for $276,012, $393,120, and $637,392
  • July: Came in at the High Roller for One Drop No Limit Hold ‘em event for $4,981,775
  • August: Came in at the EPT Barcelona €50K Super High Roller event for $1.3 million
  • October: Came in 4th at the $98,000 + 2,000 No Limit Hold’em Aria Super High Roller event for $299,880

2017:

→ Live Cash Games ←

Holz will only play live cash games when they are very big games against people he knows. The largest cash game he’s ever played was a €4000/€8000.

→ Online Poker ←

Holz’s online poker accomplishments currently include a WCOOP Main Event title and a spot atop the WCOOP’s all-time money leaderboard. He also came in 2nd at WCOOP Super High Roller event in September 2016, for which he won $1,067,639.

His regular online successes also include victories in the PokerStars Sunday $109 Rebuy and the PokerStars Sunday 500, which brought him a total of $150,000 and contributed to him twice topping the Pocket Five leaderboard.

He won the PokerStars High Roller event in November 2017 for $178,498. 

Despite being knowingly retired from poker Holz keeps showing up with results. In June 2020 he took down the PokerStars Summer Series event #167, the $5,200 NLHE [8-Max, High Roller] for $156,377. He continued to excel at the online tables by taking down a WSOP Online Side Event $10k High Roller for $255.481.

 

In March 2021, Holz took on Wiktor “Limitless” Malinowski in a $100/$200 NLHE heads-up cash game challenge on Natural8-GGNetwork. Prior to the duel, Malinowski was so confident in his skills that he even declared that he would play Holz drunk. Holz took him up on his word, and during the first session, Malinowski was drinking wine while playing.

However, the high level of confidence didn’t work Malinowski – Holz ended the match with $90,000 in profit.

A month later, in April 2021, Holz finished 2nd in the $10,300 NLHE event on the opening day of SCOOP 2021 for $199,995. He lost the heads-up battle for the title to Laszlo “omaha4rollz” Bujtas from Hungary.

→ Sponsorship Deals ←

In September 2017, Holz signed a sponsorship deal with Partypoker. (Read also this article).

,” which is a 6-episode mini series filmed during the Poker Masters at Aria Casino Las Vegas and sponsored by Skrill and Partypoker.

As a few other players, Fedor made the transition from a partnership with partypoker to GGPoker. In May 2020 he announced the ambassadorship with the Asian poker site, and also a collaboration with his poker coaching company Pokercode.

→ Business ←

Staking

Although he’s a renowned staker, Holz prefers to coach players in whom he sees great potential. He doesn’t appear to enjoy coaching that much, but he does develop strong relationships with most of his mentees.

Primed Group

In January 2017, Fedor Holz helped found Primed Group, an investment-based start-up in Vienna that is founded on a belief in the infinite potential of individual minds connected through technology. Their work focuses on developing and investing in disruptive technologies that support the improvement of human performance.

Primed Mind

Primed Group recently launched “Primed Mind”—an immersive coaching app available for mobile devices that offers visualized goal-setting techniques and captivating audio content. Originating in the minds of Holz and his poker coach, Eliot Roe, Primed Mind is designed to motivate users through the application of collective imagery and thoughts that are intended to bring optimum results for each user.

– Fedor Holz’s Private Life –

 → Love Life ←

Holz’s love life remains a mystery, and we must assume he wants it that way. On his Instagram account, you can see some pictures of him in the company of a woman who we imagine is his girlfriend, but that has never been confirmed.

View this post on Instagram

Good one!

A post shared by Fedor Holz (@fedorholz) on

→ Net Worth ←

According to hendonmob.com, Holz has earned a total of $32,556,377 in live cashes as of December 2020. This makes him #8 on the All-Time Money List.

The first extraordinary purchase he made using tournament winnings was a house in Germany for his family.

→ Hobbies & Personal Life ←

According to a Reddit AMA (Ask me Anything) that Holz participated in, he is an avid football fan and traveler. Among other places, his travels include Nepal, Bhutan, Australia, New Zealand, Tanzania, Canada, USA, Austria, Hong Kong, Portugal, Switzerland. In terms of poker, he’s played in Malta, Lebanon, Austria, USA, Macau, Spain, Germany, Czech Republic, Monte Carlo, Australia, Montenegro, Bahamas, England, Cyprus, and more.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Fedor Holz (@fedorholz)

Holz is quite the opposite of the stereotypical poker player. Although he isn’t a vegan, he lives an incredibly healthy lifestyle, rarely drinking beer or partying. He doesn’t even drive a car. His fascination with Elon Musk is self-proclaimed, and he posts a lot on Twitter about the philosophy and self-development books that he reads, including how he practices yoga and employs the Wim Hof breathing and body control techniques. Perhaps most uncharacteristic in the poker world, Holz has a “no porn” bet for the rest of his life, meaning that he does not and never will watch porn. He feels that abstaining from this type of content enables him to have better relationships with women.

He enjoys playing video games from the 90s like Age of Empire 2 and Mario Kart 64, as well as more recent games like Overwatch and PUBG (Player Unknown’s BattleGround).

Holz occasionally streams on Twitch, where he uses the name CrownUpGuy, to raise money for nonprofits such as Evidence Action and Against Malaria Foundation.

– Fedor Holz on Social Media –

  Twitter: https://twitter.com/CrownUpGuy 

  Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/fedorholz/

Tags:
Germany
Fedor Holz
Author:Marc

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