Why 32-Year-Old Fedor Holz, with $50M in Cashes, is Stepping Down from GGPoker
Not every superstar goes the Doyle Brunson route and grinds the high-stakes poker games until they die.
Fedor Holz, one of the top tournament crushers the past decade, has decided to step back a bit from the game, at least professionally. He first informed his X followers that, after six years representing the online poker giant, he has decided he won't renew his ambassador contract with GGPoker.
After dropping the surprising GGPoker news, he continued to say that he is "trying to have kids this year and I’m launching an investment fund, so that will be my full focus going forward." As such, as his tweet implies, he'll be more focused on non-poker activities. But it's unclear if he still plans to pop up at random tournaments such as the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event, or perhaps a PGT high roller here and there.
Holz Became a Poker Superstar at a Young Age
Holz, a German pro, has accomplished a great deal in poker at age 32. He already has $50 million in live tournament cashes, The Hendon Mob database shows. That includes two WSOP bracelets and three Triton Poker titles.
The now former GGPoker ambassador made his presence felt in 2015 when he ran deep in two PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) events and a 25th-place finish in the WSOP Main Event, and then he took down the $100,000 WPT Alpha8 for $1,589,219 to close out the year.
Little did the poker world know the 22-year-old at the time was about to have a historic year in 2016, with over $16 million in live tournament cashes, third all time behind Antonio Esfandiari ($19 million in 2012) and Dan Colman ($22 million in 2014). Justin Bonomo surpassed the record held by Colman in 2018 with over $25 million in cashes. Coincidentally, Bonomo defeated Holz heads-up that year to win the $1 million buy-in WSOP Big One for One Drop for $10 million. Bryn Kenney then topped everyone with $30 million in cashes in 2019.
Holz, following his banner year in 2016, began to scale back the tournament grind. He signed with PartyPoker as an ambassador in 2017 before moving on to GGPoker a couple years later. He still continued playing enough tournaments to put up seven-figure cashes annually, but has been equally focused on various business ventures.
Holz isn't leaving poker fully, however. He wrote on X that he plans to make "1-2 trips a year" to Triton events. If he never cashes another tournament, which seems unlikely, he exits the game as Germany's all-time winningest live tournament player and one of the top high rollers ever. But chances are good he’ll post many big scores in the years to come.
