European Poker Tour
admin on December 17th, 2008
The European Poker Tour started in 2004 as the brainchild of John Duthie, the winner of the first-ever Poker Millions, who also commentates for the show, beside Colin Murray.
Today the EPT, as it’s also called, is the most popular poker tour in Europe. It’s also the richest, with the €10,000 Grand Final (that’s the price of the buy-in), boasting biggest prize pool of any land-based poker tournament held outside of Las Vegas, in 2007/08 reaching €8.4 million.
Like its similarly named World Poker Tour, the European Poker Tour is a series of No Limit Texas Holdem freeze-out tournaments that are broadcast on worldwide television.
Nearly all EPT events follow the same structure, starting players with 10,000 in chips. The blinds start out at 25 and 50, increasing every 60 minutes. On the fifth such change (or the 6th Level) an increasing ante, starting at 25, is also added to the mix. By the time players reach level 26, the small blind is 25,000; the big blind is 50,000; and the ante is 5,000.
The EPT is sponsored by PokerStars, one of the many top online poker sites that offer free entries into the event as prizes in various promotional tournaments and satellite qualifiers. In fact, one of the highlights of each EPT season is the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. In 2007/08 over 1,600 players won their seats in EPT events online.
In addition to satellites, online poker players can also earn seats into the European Poker Tour through redeeming points (or the comparable currency) from an online poker room’s player loyalty program, such as PokerStars FPPs.
As of 2008, the European Poker Tour consists of eleven scheduled events, held in places like Spain, France, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland, England, Germany, Scandanavia, and Italy. The Grand Final of the EPT is typically held in Monte Carlo, Monaco, and in 2007/08 attracted a record-breaking player base of almost 850.
