The European Poker Tour (EPT) is one of the most famous and biggest poker events next to the World Poker Tour (WPT) and the World Series of Poker (WSOP). Inaugurated in 2004 the EPT has annually staged several huge tournaments in various cities all over Europe. The tour traditionally ends with the big final in Monte Carlo each year. While the first year saw 6 stops prior to the final the current 5th season includes 10 different cities before meeting in Monte Carlo. Since last season the tour also includes a non-European stop that immediately became a favourite of the tour: a tournament on the Bahamas.
The EPT currently resides in Prague (December 9th – 13th) which means that we have reached half-time of season 5. The buy-ins of the tournaments usually are set at around €5,000+250, not really the kind of money your everyday amateur poker player is willing or even able to spend. This is why you will find a lot of really big and famous names at the various tournaments like for example the freshly crowned WSOP champion Peter Eastgate. The Dane who wrote history by becoming the youngest poker player to ever win the WSOP main event in 2008 is presently competing with other poker professionals as well as amateurs at the EPT in Prague.
Amateurs? Indeed… While a direct buy-in at a EPT tournament usually is too expensive for the likes of us (let’s face it, most of us likely cannot afford to there is nonetheless a great opportunity to be part of it. Several online poker rooms offer the possibility to qualify for the EPT by playing satellites for low buy-ins. The recent EPT Warsaw for example saw the young German Nico Behling end up in second place, earning in excess of €200,000 – and he qualified by playing satellites on Everest Poker. This wasn’t the first time for him, but the first time that he ended up in the money and then even at the final table.
While the EPT initially had a hard time coming up with the well-known names you can now find some of the best and most famous poker pros at the tournaments. And all the players that qualify for a tournament of the EPT through an online poker room and manage to find themselves in the money, maybe even sitting at the final table, will take away not only lots of cash but also a lot of experience and interesting meetings and talks with some of the big time poker players. Some even manage to acquire a good sponsorship deal in addition to their poker earnings.
If you ever wanted to breathe the same air as the world’s most famous poker pros you now have a great chance of qualifying by playing one of the many daily satellites at Everest Poker, starting from buy-ins as low as $5+0.50 (we strongly recommend taking a look at how a satellite strategy differs from for example your regular Sit&Go strategy). You may also decide to directly compete in the Winner’s Choice Tournament on Wednesday’s where you can win one of the weekly $12,000 Everest Poker EPT Packages, the buy-in being $200+15 for that tournament. You can of course also decide to use your Everest Poker Summit Points instead of money for your buy-in, as usual.
If you do qualify for the EPT let us know and simply contact us. We are always keen to know how our players are faring and how they are doing. We of course also like to hear from you if you don’t qualify, be it praise, criticism or simply a story about a great hand (or a bad beat) that you would like to share. We wish you a lot of success and luck playing poker!