I talked to a few of my friends at the tournament to get the truth on the robbery.

In reports, masked men armed with guns and machetes rushed mid-day Saturday into the casino at the Berlin Grand Hyatt hotel trying to steal about €240,000 in entry fees.

My friends said they heard no guns and saw no machetes being held by the robbers. In fact, a bunch of the poker players didn’t even come in contact with the robbers, who were down the hall at the tournament registration area.

Here’s the scene from behind the tournament registration area, which you can see one of the robbers getting caught by a casino official, who releases him/her when another bandit threatens him with what looks like a rope stand — and definitely not like a gun or machete.

Here’s video of the poker room as the robbery is taking place:

In case you’re wondering, when play resumed tournament directors offered players the option to take their chips back in any active hand and declare it dead. Also, there’s no indication that any prize money is being withheld from any of the tournaments.

Here’s the statement from tournament organizers:

“Yesterday at approximately 2:15 p.m., an armed robbery took place at the European Poker Tour (EPT) event in Berlin. Nobody was seriously injured.

No shots were fired and the suspects quickly fled after a security guard intervened. The police investigation so far has shown that the suspects had a handgun and a machete. Contrary to tabloid reports, no Kalashnikov assault rifles or hand grenades were used. The suspects did not enter the tournament area and the money taken was substantially less than what has been reported.”