Home / Poker News August 2013 / An EPT Retrospective – The First Nine Seasons
An EPT Retrospective – The First Nine Seasons
Posted by: James Carter. - Fri, 2013-08-23 16:05
The 10th season of the European Poker Tour is set to kick off on August 26, which is just three days away, in Barcelona, which is the very place where the first ever EPT event took place way back in 2004.
Aiming to take advantage of the poker explosion of 2003-2004, the
EPT started out quite modestly, especially in light of what we know about it now. Its first ever main event draw a starting field of only 229 players, despite a more than affordable buy-in of €1k. Alexander Stevic was the one who won the inaugural event, taking down the €80k top prize, perhaps quite unaware that he had forever etched his name into the annals of poker history. To provide a sort of perspective on just how far the Tour has come, consider this: last season’s lowest first place haul ended up in Ruben Visser’s possession and it was a £595k chunk of change.
The EPT has thus far been extremely successful indeed. Before one knew it, they rose to the top, drawing in some of the biggest names in the game, main event after main event. They then proved successful yet again in distancing themselves from the pack.
The very first season of the Tour featured only seven events. By the time the 4th season was reached, that number had increased to 11. By Season 6, there were 13 stops and the pace was kept up right until Season 9 which consisted of only 8 stops. The reduction in the number of stops did not come at the detriment of opportunities for players though, because each and every stop was expanded into a genuine poker festival, featuring several side events and live qualifiers for the main event, not to mention high rollers.
The best way to qualify for an EPT Main Event is by playing online at PokerStars.
