European Poker Tour

The European Poker Tour (EPT) is a series of poker tournaments created by John Duthie, winner of the inaugural Poker Million tournament. It began in 2004 as part of the worldwide explosion in Texas Hold 'em popularity. Since 2011 the EPT has been sponsored and wholly owned and controlled by PokerStars the online casino and taped by Sunset + Vine for television broadcast across Europe. By season 4 the buy-in for most EPT events was increased to €8,000 (due to increased popularity and lack of space in participating casinos^[3]). At 2007 exchange rates, this is approximately equal to the US$10,000 which is the buy-in for most major poker events.

European Poker Tour

Sport	Texas Hold 'em
Founded	2004 by John Duthie
CEO	2004-2012 John Duthie 2012-2017 Edgar Stuchly[1] 2017-2018 David Carrion 2018-now Cédric Billot
Continent	Europe
Most recent champion(s)	Pedro Marques EPT Prague (Dec/2024)
Most titles	Victoria Coren (2) Mikalai Pobal (2) Mike Watson (2) Anton "WhatIfGod" Bergstrom (2)
Broadcaster(s)	Sunset + Vine[2]
Official website	europeanpokertour.com Flutter Entertainment plc www.starsgroup.com

Old logo used prior to 2018

Old logo used from 2018 to 2021

This single move made the EPT the largest poker tour in the world, eclipsing its nearest rivals significantly. The WSOP was larger, but was only run in Las Vegas.

The final table like most other major poker events is made up of 8 players.

For the first couple of seasons, John Duthie commentated for the show alongside Colin Murray. Since the middle of Season 3, James Hartigan has been the lead commentator, with professional players Greg Raymer, Daniel Negreanu and Victoria Coren Mitchell providing analysis. Hartigan also presents the live webcast^[4] from each event. The TV show was first hosted by Caroline Flack, then joined by Natalie Pinkham. Seasons 4 and 5 were hosted by Kara Scott, while Seasons 6 and 7 were fronted by Michelle Orpe. Since Season 8, there have been four different presenters with Kristy Arnett, Sarah Grant, Laura Cornelius and Lynn Gilmartin, with commentators James Hartigan and Joe Stapleton presenting the TV shows.

2010 EPT Berlin robbery

On 6 March 2010 four masked men, armed with knives and at least one hand gun robbed the EPT event in Berlin. According to the police, the robbers got away with €242,000. No one was seriously injured, only one guard got a minor cut while trying to detain one of the robbers. The panic which gripped the crowd was briefly captured on the live webcast before the camera cut away. The attackers were caught several days after the robbery and later convicted and sentenced to three years in prison.^[5]

2017 rebranding

In 2017, the series was discontinued and rebranded as the PokerStars Championship. However, this only lasted one year and the EPT returned in 2018.^[6]

2020 EPT Online

In 2020, three scheduled stops on the EPT (in Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Prague) were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic – a fourth event (in Sochi) continued as planned.

An inaugural EPT Online series took place on sponsor site PokerStars instead, running from 8–18 November 2020. The series comprised 20 tournaments, including a $5,200 Main Event, four $10,300 High Roller events, and a $25,000 Super High Roller. The Main Event, which had a $5 million guaranteed prize pool, attracted 1,304 entries. The final prize pool came to $6.52 million, of which $1,019,082 went to the eventual winner "WhatIfGod", with Timothy Adams finishing as runner-up.^[7]

EPT Main Event winners

	PokerStars Championship (PSC) Main Event winner (2017).
	PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event winner.
	Winner of poker's Triple Crown.

Season	Date	Event and location	Main Event winner	Prize
1	18–19 September 2004	EPT Barcelona Open	Alexander Stevic	€80,000
	9–10 October 2004	EPT London	John Shipley	£200,000
	23–24 October 2004	EPT Dublin	Ram Vaswani	€93,000
	29–30 January 2005	EPT Scandinavian Open, Copenhagen	Noah Boeken	DKr1,098,340
	15–19 February 2005	EPT French Open, Deauville	Brandon Schaefer	€144,000
	10–11 March 2005	EPT Vienna	Pascal Perrault	€184,500
	15–19 March 2005	EPT Grand Final, Monte Carlo	Rob Hollink	€635,000
2	16–17 September 2005	EPT Barcelona Open	Jan Boubli	€426,000
	30 September–2 October 2005	EPT London	Mark Teltscher	€280,000
	4–6 October 2005	EPT Baden Classic	Patrik Antonius	€288,180
	29–30 October 2005	EPT Dublin	Mats Gavatin	€317,000
	19–22 January 2006	EPT Scandinavian Open, Copenhagen	Mads Andersen	DKr2,548,040
	8–11 February 2006	EPT French Open, Deauville	Mats Iremark	€480,000
	7–11 March 2006	EPT Grand Final, Monte Carlo	Jeff Williams	€900,000
3	13–16 September 2006	EPT Barcelona Open	Bjørn-Erik Glenne	€691,000
	21–24 September 2006	EPT London	Victoria Coren	£500,000
	7–10 October 2006	EPT Baden Classic	Duc Thang Nguyen	€487,397
	16–29 October 2006	EPT Dublin	Roland De Wolfe	€554,300
	17–20 January 2007	EPT Scandinavian Open, Copenhagen	Magnus Petersson	DKr4,078,080
	8–11 March 2007	EPT German Open, Dortmund	Andreas Høivold	€672,000
	14–17 March 2007	EPT Warsaw Open	Peter Jepsen	zł1,226,711
	28 March–2 April 2007	EPT Grand Final, Monte Carlo	Gavin Griffin	€1,825,010
4	28 August–1 September 2007	EPT Barcelona Open	Sander Lylloff	€1,170,700
	25–29 September 2007	EPT London	Joseph Mouawad	£611,520
	7–10 October 2007	EPT Baden Classic	Julian Thew	€670,800
	30 October–3 November 2007	EPT Dublin	Reuben Peters	€532,620
	10–14 December 2007	EPT Prague	Arnaud Mattern	€708,400
	5–10 January 2008	PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, Paradise Island	Bertrand Grospellier	$2,000,000
	29 January–2 February 2008	EPT German Open, Dortmund	Mike McDonald	€933,600
	19–23 February 2008	EPT Scandinavian Open, Copenhagen	Tim Vance	DKr6,220,488
	11–15 March 2008	EPT Warsaw Open	Michael Schulze	zł2,153,999
	1–5 April 2008	EPT Sanremo	Jason Mercier	€869,000
	12–17 April 2008	EPT Grand Final, Monte Carlo	Glen Chorny	€2,020,000
5	10–14 September 2008	EPT Barcelona Open	Sebastian Ruthenberg	€1,361,000
	1–5 October 2008	EPT London	Michael Martin	£1,000,000
	28 October–1 November 2008	EPT Hungarian Open, Budapest	Will Fry	€595,840
	15–19 November 2008	EPT Warsaw Open	João Barbosa	€367,140
	9–13 December 2008	EPT Prague	Salvatore Bonavena	€774,000
	5–10 January 2009	PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, Paradise Island	Poorya Nazari	$3,000,000
	20–24 January 2009	EPT French Open, Deauville	Moritz Kranich	€851,400
	17–21 February 2009	EPT Scandinavian Open, Copenhagen	Jens Kyllönen	DKr6,542,208
	10–14 March 2009	EPT German Open, Dortmund	Sandra Naujoks	€917,000
	18–23 April 2009	EPT Sanremo	Constant Rijkenberg	€1,508,000
	28 April–3 May 2009	EPT Grand Final, Monte Carlo	Pieter de Korver	€2,300,000
6	18–23 August 2009	EPT Kyiv	Maxim Lykov	€330,000
	4–9 September 2009	EPT Barcelona	Carter Phillips	€850,000
	2–7 October 2009	EPT London	Aaron Gustavson	£850,000
	20–25 October 2009	EPT Warsaw	Christophe Benzimra	zł1,493,170
	17–22 November 2009	EPT Vilamoura	António Matias	€404,793
	1–6 December 2009	EPT Prague	Jan Skampa	€682,000
	5–11 January 2010	PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, Paradise Island	Harrison Gimbel	$2,200,000
	20–25 January 2010	EPT Deauville	Jake Cody	€847,000
	16–21 February 2010	EPT Copenhagen	Anton Wigg	DKr3,675,000
	2–7 March 2010	EPT Berlin	Kevin MacPhee	€1,000,000
	21–26 March 2010	EPT Snowfest, Salzburg	Allan Bække	€445,000
	15–21 April 2010	EPT Sanremo	Liv Boeree	€1,250,000
	25–30 April 2010	EPT Grand Final, Monte Carlo	Nicolas Chouity	€1,700,000
7	11–16 August 2010	EPT Tallinn	Kevin Stani	€400,000
	28 August–2 September 2010	EPT Vilamoura	Toby Lewis	€467,836
	29 September–4 October 2010	EPT London	David Vamplew	£900,000
	26–31 October 2010	EPT Vienna	Michael Eiler	€700,000
	22–27 November 2010	EPT Barcelona	Kent Lundmark	€825,000
	13–18 December 2010	EPT Prague	Roberto Romanello	€640,000
	8–15 January 2011	PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, Paradise Island	Galen Hall	$2,300,000
	25–31 January 2011	EPT Deauville	Lucien Cohen	€880,000
	21–26 February 2011	EPT Copenhagen	Michael Tureniec	DKr3,700,000
	20–25 March 2011	EPT Snowfest, Salzburg	Vladimir Geshkenbein	€390,000
	5–10 April 2011	EPT Berlin	Ben Wilinofsky	€825,000
	27 April–3 May 2011	EPT Sanremo	Rupert Elder	€930,000
	7–12 May 2011	EPT Grand Final, Madrid	Ivan Freitez	€1,500,000
8	2–7 August 2011	EPT Tallinn	Ronny Kaiser	€275,000
	27 August–1 September 2011	EPT Barcelona	Martin Schleich	€850,000
	20 September–6 October 2011	EPT London	Benny Spindler	£750,000
	21–27 October 2011	EPT Sanremo	Andrey Pateychuk	€680,000
	15–20 November 2011	EPT Loutraki	Zimnan Ziyard	€347,000
	5–10 December 2011	EPT Prague	Martin Finger	€720,000
	7–13 January 2012	PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, Paradise Island	John Dibella	$1,775,000
	31 January–6 February 2012	EPT Deauville	Vadim Kursevich	€875,000
	20–25 February 2012	EPT Copenhagen	Mickey Petersen	DKr2,515,000
	12–17 March 2012	EPT Madrid	Frederik Jensen	€495,000
	26–31 March 2012	EPT Campione	Jannick Wrang	€640,000
	16–21 April 2012	EPT Berlin	Davidi Kitai	€712,000
	25–30 April 2012	EPT Grand Final, Monte Carlo	Mohsin Charania	€1,350,000
9	15–25 August 2012	EPT Barcelona	Mikalai Pobal	€1,007,550
	5–11 October 2012	EPT Sanremo	Ludovic Lacay	€744,910
	9–15 December 2012	EPT Prague	Ramzi Jelassi	€835,000
	7–13 January 2013	PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, Paradise Island	Dimitar Danchev	$1,859,000
	3–9 February 2013	EPT Deauville	Remi Castaignon	€770,000
	10–16 March 2013	EPT London	Ruben Visser	£595,000
	21–27 April 2013	EPT Berlin	Daniel Pidun	€880,000
	6–12 May 2013	EPT Grand Final, Monte Carlo	Steve O'Dwyer	€1,224,000
10	26 August–7 September 2013	EPT Barcelona	Tom Middleton	€924,000
	2–12 October 2013	EPT London	Robin Ylitalo	£560,980
	12–18 December 2013	EPT Prague	Julian Track	€725,700
	7–13 January 2014	PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, Paradise Island	Dominik Pańka	$1,423,096
	26 January–1 February 2014	EPT Deauville	Sotirios Koutoupas	€614,000
	23–29 March 2014	EPT Vienna	Oleksii Khoroshenin	€578,392
	14–20 April 2014	EPT Sanremo	Victoria Coren (2)	€476,100
	26 April–2 May 2014	EPT Grand Final, Monte Carlo	Antonio Buonanno	€1,240,000
11	16–27 August 2014	EPT Barcelona	Andre Lettau	€794,058
	8–18 October 2014	EPT London	Sebastian Pauli	£499,700
	7–17 December 2014	EPT Prague	Stephen Graner	€969,000
	8–14 January 2015	PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, Paradise Island	Kevin Schulz	$1,491,580
	27 January–7 February 2015	EPT Deauville	Ognyan Dimov	€543,700
	17–28 March 2015	EPT Malta, St. Julian's, Portomaso	Jean Montury	€687,400
	28 April–8 May 2015	EPT Grand Final, Monte Carlo	Adrián Mateos	€1,082,000
12	18–30 August 2015	EPT Barcelona	John Juanda	€1,022,593
	20–31 October 2015	EPT Malta, Portomaso	Niall Farrell	€534,330
	5–16 December 2015	EPT Prague	Hossein Ensan	€754,510
	6–14 January 2016	PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, Paradise Island	Mike Watson	$728,325
	9–20 February 2016	EPT Dublin	Dzmitry Urbanovich	€561,900
	26 April–6 May 2016	EPT Grand Final, Monte Carlo	Jan Bendik	€961,800
13	16–28 August 2016	EPT Barcelona	Sebastian Malec	€1,122,800
	18–29 October 2016	EPT Malta, Portomaso	Aliaksei Boika	€355,700
	8–19 December 2016	EPT Prague	Jasper Meijer van Putten	€699,300
PSC	6–14 January 2017	PSC Bahamas	Christian Harder	$429,664
	14–20 March 2017	PSC Panama	Kenneth Smaron	$293,860
	1–9 April 2017	PSC Macau	Elliot Smith	HKD2,877,500
	29 April–5 May 2017	PSC Monte Carlo	Raffaele Sorrentino	€466,714
	25–31 May 2017	PSC Sochi	Pavel Shirshikov	₽29,100,000
	21–27 August 2017	PSC Barcelona	Sebastian Sorensson	€987,043
	12–18 December 2017	PSC Prague	Kalidou Sow	€675,000
2018	6–14 January 2018	PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, Paradise Island	Maria Lampropulos	$1,081,100
	23–29 March 2018	EPT Sochi	Arsenii Karmatckii	₽27,300,000
	28 April–4 May 2018	EPT Monte Carlo	Nicolas Dumont	€712,000
	27 August–2 September 2018	EPT Barcelona	Piotr Nurzynski	€1,037,109
	22–29 September 2018	EPT Open Sochi	Wjatscheslaw Bondarzew	₽12,063,300
	11–18 December 2018	EPT Prague	Paul Michaelis	€840,000
2019	5–16 January 2019	PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, Paradise Island	David Rheem	$1,567,100
	24–29 March 2019	EPT Sochi	Uri Gilboa	₽27,475,000
	25 April–4 May 2019	PokerStars and Monte-Carlo Casino EPT	Manig Löser	€603,777
	26 June–2 July 2019	EPT Open Madrid	Jakub Grzegorzek	€176,357
	20 August–1 September 2019	EPT Barcelona	Simon Brändström	€1,290,166
	9–13 October 2019	EPT Open Sochi	Yi Ye	₽19,306,000
	11–17 December 2019	EPT Prague	Mikalai Pobal (2)	€1,005,600
2020 2021	6–11 October 2020	EPT Sochi	Ruslan Bogdanov	₽15,984,500
	8–15 November 2020	PokerStars EPT Online I	Anton "WhatIfGod" Bergstrom	$1,019,082
	23–30 March 2021	EPT Sochi	Artur Martirosian	₽24,633,000
	2–11 October 2021	EPT Open Sochi	Evgeniy Starinkov	₽16,029,300
	8–19 December 2021	PokerStars EPT Online II	Anton "WhatIfGod" Bergstrom (2)	$363.640
2022	5–16 March 2022	EPT Prague	Grzegorz Główny	€692,252
	28 April–7 May 2022	EPT Monte Carlo	Marcelo Simões	€939,840
	8–21 August 2022	EPT Barcelona	Giuliano Bendinelli	€1,491,133
	18–28 October 2022	EPT London	Ian Hamilton	£664,400
	7–18 December 2022	EPT Prague	Jordan Saccucci	€913,250
2023	23–29 January 2023	PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, New Providence	Michel Dattani	$1,316,963
	15–26 February 2023	EPT Paris	Razvan Belea	€1,170,000
	26 April–6 May 2023	EPT Monte Carlo	Mike Watson (2)	€749,425
	21 August–3 September 2023	EPT Barcelona	Simon Wiciak	€1,134,375
	11–22 October 2023	EPT Cyprus	Gilles Simon	$1,042,000
	4–15 December 2023	EPT Prague	Padraig O'Neill	€1,030,000
2024	14–25 February 2024	EPT Paris	Barny Boatman	€1,287,800
	24 April–4 May 2024	EPT Monte Carlo	Derk Van Luijk	€1,000,000
	26 August–8 September 2024	EPT Barcelona	Stephen Song	€1,290,386
	9–20 October 2024	EPT Cyprus	Oliver Weis	$1,030,000
	4–15 December 2024	EPT Prague	Pedro Marques	€963,450
2025	30 April–10 May 2025	EPT Monte Carlo	Aleksandr Shevliakov	€1,000,000
	18-31 August 2025	EPT Barcelona
	1-12 October 2025	EPT Malta
	13-14 December 2025	EPT Prague
2026	18 February–1 March 2026	EPT Paris
	30 April–10 May 2026	EPT Monte Carlo