Season 10 of the European Poker Tour (EPT) is heading to London this October and this year’s tournament promises to be bigger and better than ever before. This huge event follows the EPT/UK & Ireland Poker Tour which was held at the Grosvenor Victoria Casino back in March, giving precedence to the popularity of poker in the UK.
Founded a decade ago by John Duthie, the European Poker Tour is one of the world’s biggest card festivals, broadcast on television and staged live across some of the biggest cities in Europe.
The tour kicks off in September in the Spanish capital Barcelona before reaching London in the autumn and experts are already predicting that the UK stage will be the most exciting edition in the event’s history with more than 40 events scheduled to run.
Just like the World Series of Poker, the EPT attracts a lot of global attention and the tour’s feature highlights this year will once again be the £5,000 + £250 Main Event tournament followed by the High Roller and European 8-Game Championship.
As an added bonus, this year’s EPT London will also stage the Grand Final of the PokerStars UK & Ireland Poker Tour which will no doubt add to the occasion.
Many top poker professionals are set to fly in for the 10-day spectacle with Dutch marvel Rueben Visser keen to retain the Main Event which he won in London back in March. Steve O’Dwyer, the man known as the ‘hairy beast’, will also be looking to continue his impressive live poker form in 2013. O’Dwyer also produced an excellent 5th place finish in the same EPT/UK & Ireland Poker Tour event before he took the huge first place prize of over $1.5 million at the EPT grand final in Monaco.
There are many more success stories that have come from this event, however the love for this event is always enhanced by its location.
The prestigious Grand Connaught Rooms has been announced as the venue for this year’s championships, situated in the heart of Covent Garden, central London. If you’re thinking of sampling a live poker atmosphere for the first time then it’s a great day out and the venue can be accessed easily via train at Kings Cross station or underground on the Piccadilly and Central lines.
If you’d like to go one step further and fancy competing against the professionals in London yourself, you can win a seat online by playing some EPT London qualifier tournaments.
After London, the tour heads to Prague before eventually concluding in Monaco next May.
Over £5,000,000 was giving away in prize money to lucky participants at last year’s London event and who knows what drama awaits this time round when the tournament commences on October 2nd.
