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Casinos> 2009
- Real Casinos News Archive> THE WORLD’S RICHEST POKER TOUR ANNOUNCES BIGGEST
SEASON YET
LONDON, UK, JUNE 15, 2009 – John Duthie, Chief Executive
of the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour (EPT), today announced
the first half of the schedule for EPT Season Six. The European
Poker Tour is now the world’s richest poker tour in terms
of both players and prize pools and is sponsored by PokerStars,
the world’s largest online poker site with over 23 million
registered players worldwide.
"The new EPT season includes many events which have made the
past five seasons such a triumph with world record breaking fields
and prize pools across Europe.” said Duthie. “We have
set very high standards and we aim to improve on this still further
in Season Six - with new additions to the schedule as well as a
richer mix of games and buy-ins to cater for more players.”
Last year’s PokerStars EPT season proved a massive success
and overtook the WPT in terms of amount of players and prize pools.
EPT Season Five generated an overall prize pool of almost €55
million (approx $77 million USD) with 7,980 players from 97 countries
of which 3,077 were PokerStars players. The four richest prize pools
available in poker tournaments outside the United States last year
occurred during the fifth season of the PokerStars EPT at: the PCA
($12.7M USD); Monte Carlo ($12.3M USD); San Remo ($7.5M USD); and
Barcelona (7M USD).
The EPT Monte Carlo Grand Final generated the biggest ever prize
pool in Europe at more than €9.3 million. The Grand Final winner,
newly-signed Team PokerStars Pro Netherlands member Pieter de Korver,
a 26-year-old poker pro from Leeuwarden, Holland, bested a record
field of 935 players to take the first prize of €2.3 million
($3.2 million USD).
“This year’s EPT will be bigger and better than ever,
kicking off in August in one of our new scheduled destinations –
magnificent Moscow in Russia. Overall, the tour will visit an unprecedented
thirteen countries* - an increase of four events on top of last
season. As well as Russia, the tour will include new stops in Portugal
this November and other destinations to be announced shortly.”
said Duthie.
The PokerStars EPT Season Six looks set to continue building upon
the successes of the previous five seasons, attracting even more
players and even larger prize pools. There will be more ‘Festival
of Poker’ style stops on the tour, beginning in London this
October with “The Pokerstars.com EPT London Festival at the
Hilton Metropole Hotel” which will feature significant Pot-Limit
Omaha and 8-Game events, as well as the return of the popular High
Roller event. The EPT London Main Event will likely be the richest
tournament ever in the United Kingdom.
Online satellites for the PokerStars EPT Moscow, Season Six start
today, Monday, 15 June, 2009 on PokerStars with buy-ins from as
little as $2.22. Players who qualify on PokerStars don’t just
win their seat; they also win hotel accommodation (or cash equivalent)
and spending money as part of their prize package. The EPT invites
players from around the world to participate in this exciting event
in Russia’s historic and storied capital.
The PokerStars European Poker Tour Season Six schedule so far (more
dates announced soon)* is as follows:
| VENUE |
CITY/
COUNTRY |
TOURNAMENT |
DATES |
BUY-IN |
CAP |
| Radisson SAS |
Moscow
RUSSIA |
EPT RUSSIA OPEN |
August 17-23, 2009 |
200K+12K RUB
($6,900 USD) |
600 |
| Casino Barcelona |
Barcelona
SPAIN |
EPT BARCELONA OPEN |
Sept 4-9, 2009 |
8,000+300 EUR
($11,590 USD) |
700 |
| Hilton Metropole |
London
UK |
EPT LONDON OPEN |
Oct 1-7, 2009 |
5,000+250 GBP
($8,370 USD) |
800 |
| Hyatt Regency |
Warsaw
POLAND |
EPT WARSAW OPEN |
Oct 20-25, 2009 |
20K+1K PLN
($6,460 USD) |
400 |
| Casino Vilamoura |
Vilamoura PORTUGAL |
EPT VILAMOURA |
Nov 17-22, 2009 |
5,000+300 EUR
($7,400 USD) |
600 |
| Hilton Prague |
Prague
CZECH REPUBLIC |
EPT PRAGUE OPEN |
Dec 1-6, 2009 |
5,000+250 EUR
($7,400 USD) |
600 |
| Atlantis |
BAHAMAS |
PCA |
Jan 4-14, 2010 |
10,000+600 USD |
1600 |
*Further dates and an undated schedule will be released shortly
**Currency conversions used herein are approximate and may change.
See www.ept.com for further details.
More details can be found at www.ept.com For further information
please contact press@pokerstars.com
For more information please email press@pokerstars.com
About www.pokerstars.com:
PokerStars is the world’s largest poker room with over 23
million members worldwide. It’s the premier destination for
the world’s top players - with numerous tournaments running
every day. PokerStars is renowned for offering the best software
and security in the online poker world. PokerStars:
•Is the first online poker room to host over 100,000 real
money cash game players simultaneously
•Has dealt over 29 billion hands
•Has run more than 170 million poker tournaments
•Has entered the Guinness Book of World Records for holding
the largest online poker tournament - 35,000 players
•Pays out more than $320 million in tournament prize money
every month
•Have had over 265,000 simultaneous players, and entered the
Guinness Book of World Records as the first and only poker website
to reach the 200,000 simultaneous players mark
PokerStars hold the biggest online poker tournament series in the
world - The World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP). This is
the premier online poker tournament series in the world. Its sixth
annual running saw a total of 33 events, comprised of 55,578 entries
from 119 countries and a total prize pool of $40 million.
PokerStars is the official sponsor of the: European Poker Tour
(www.ept.com), PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, Latin American Poker
Tour (www.lapt.com), Asia Pacific Poker Tour (www.appt.com) and
The World Cup of Poker.
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