The European Poker Tour took a pandemic hiatus during the pandemic as did most other live tournament series. However, it was one of the first ones to return in 2020. PokerStars took the EPT to Sochi, Russia in October 2020, though they removed guarantees and expectations for turnout. But it played to conclusion, masks and travel restrictions and all.
Most other locales partnered with the EPT were not ready to do the same. So, PokerStars took the series online later in 2020. The EPT Online ran on PokerStars – obviously – as did a Mini EPT with lower buy-ins. The main series offered 20 tournaments and $20M in guarantees. In the end, it brought in $21.2M via more than 13K entries.
This year, PokerStars was determined to bring the European Poker Tour back. It did another stop in Sochi, which just wrapped. And very recently, the poker operator announced that the EPT Prague will return to the Czech Republic in December of this year. Another Sochi Success
PokerStars took its EPT Open Sochi to Casino Sochi October 2-11 with a festival of tournaments culminating in a Main Event. The full series offered 30 tournaments, including satellites, with everything from the EPT Cup to a High Roller.
The first major event of the series awarded a spade trophy to Andrey Danilyuk in the PLO tournament. The EPT Open Sochi High Roller event brought in 195 entries for a RUB 45,522,750 prize pool. The top 27 players cashed, but Vadim Lipovka of Belarus won it for RUB 10,082,800 (approximately €121,539).
The Main Event cost RUB 133,000 to enter, and the final tally showed 1,210 entries, the largest field in the event’s history. It set the prize pool at RUB 142,296,000 (more than €1.7M) and paid out 175 players. The final table of 10 players included two Germans, one of them being Henri Toussaint as the chip leader.
As the final table played out, the final five ended up agreeing on a payout deal. Toussaint made it to heads-up play against Evgeniy Starinkov. The latter finally won to grab the trophy, though Toussaint – via the […]
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