First stop for the European Poker Tour
BARCELONA (08/08/08).- The Casino de Barcelona is the venue chosen to kick off, on September 10, Season Five of the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour (EPT), Europe’s richest and most popular poker tour. The EPT events are held in Europe’s best casinos, such as the Casino de Barcelona, bringing together the world’s best poker players, all competing for the excellent prizes. Given the importance of this tour, the EPT broadcasts its tournaments on TV channels across the world.
The tour will take place in nine countries, including a welcome return to the popular event in Deauville, France. Season Five has 10 programmed events, ending with the Grand Final in Monte Carlo on April 28 to May 3 next year. “Last year’s EPT was an incredible success. It had a total prize pool of almost €40,000,000 ($62,000,000), 5,902 contestants, and gave the largest prize ever to be won outside Las Vegas, at the Grand Final of Monte Carlo”, says John Duthie, CEO of the EPT.
The winner of last season, Glen Chorny, a 22 year-old business studies student from Ontario (Canada), beat a total of 842 players to take home the first prize of 2 million euros (3 million dollars) after qualifying online via PokerStars. “Season Five of the EPT will have an even greater impact; it will attract more contestants from all over the world, and will have even greater prizes”, Duthie points out.
The event is sponsored by PokerStars.com, which has organised online satellites for players to qualify for a seat from only 2.20 euros, whereas buy-in for the main EPT event costs 8,250 euros. The prize package for players who classify through PokerStars will also include accommodation at the hotel and expenses. In addition, there will be satellites where participants can classify for the main tournament at the Casino de Barcelona and Casino de Peralada. These will be held on Wednesdays August 20th and 27th and on September 3 at 9 pm, whereas the ones at Peralada will be held on Thursday August 28 and Friday September 5 at 8pm. In both cases, the buy-in price is €200€ + €20.
The Casino de Barcelona will also host two Super Satellites with a buy-in price of €200 + €20, with second chance satellites, which will take place on September 8 and 9 from 5 pm. The main event kicks off on September 10, ending with the grand final on September 14 from 4 pm.
With more than 100 million players around the world, there are more poker players than golf or tennis players. An estimated 15 million people per day play poker around the world, of which 10,000 do so in Spain. This is why the Gran Casino de Barcelona has made great efforts to bring to our country one of the world’s best poker shows. The games are No Limit Texas Hold’em events (a player may bet his entire stake at any time), which is poker’s most popular game around the world, and the one most widely played in most international tournaments.
August 8, 2008