Poker and robbery - it's all about the money

I'M all for law and order but I have to take my hat off to the team behind the raid on the hotel hosting the European Poker Tour event in Berlin on Saturday.

I say team. There were by all accounts scoundrels, up to six raiders armed to the teeth with items that included machine guns, machetes and grenades depending on which account you listen to.

It was audacious. Live video feeds, quickly uploaded onto the internet showed scenes last witnessed in the Poseidon Adventure as players and dealers forgot all about their gut shot draws and pot odds and instead focused on self-preservation. Security did joust with the villains, and one guard was hurt for his trouble. Fortunately, no-one was seriously hurt and the only injuries that did occur resulted from the mad rush to take cover.

But I do admire this gang for thinking out of the box. Most criminals presumably spend months plotting raids on well-defended banks, battle for ages trying to work out how to circumvent the CCTV at an art museum or set aside weeks mulling over how they will disarm the guards at the local safety deposit depot. But this crew opted instead for a lightly defended five-star hotel. The winner of the main event alone was due to pick up £1m the day after the raid took place so presumably there was always going to be plenty of cash sitting around.

The Grand Hyatt on Potsdamer Platz was clearly never designed along the lines of Fort Knox. Yes, there were potentially hundreds of witnesses - but herein lies the genius of the raiders - they must have reckoned most of players would be oblivious to the heist. Our gang presumably banked on the fact that the majority of the potential witnesses would have their hoodies up, shades on and ipods plugged into their ears.

Life and work is about more than the pursuit of money. It is the same with most competition. When Federer and Nadal squared up for their epic tie break at the 2008 Wimbledon finals the ball boys and girls didn't run to fetch a half a dozen wheelbarrows stacked with £750,000 to belined up along the tramlines.

Yet at poker events, especially in America, organisers are not shy about shoving the entire win fund on the table.

The hard truth is that with poker and robbery everything is about the pursuit of money and here was the reminder, if we ever needed one.

I cannot believe a robbery like this has not been attempted before. It is straight out of a movie - that fact proves poker's emergence onto the mainstream and the publicity associated with headlines and TV bulletins across the globe cannot do too much harm to poker either.