Friday, 29th March 2024 11:36
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As you may have heard, the European Poker Tour (EPT) is coming back. Next week, the first EPT Online takes place on PokerStars with a slate of 20 high buy-in events essentially replicating the schedule of the world’s most popular poker tour, complemented by 20 “mini” events, for players with smaller budgets.

It feels like it’s been a while, and we couldn’t be happier to be revisiting the EPT — even if we’re not leaving our own homes.


MORE ABOUT EPT ONLINE:
ANNOUNCEMENT | SCHEDULE
TIPPED FOR A SECOND | EPT FACTS AND TRIVIA

“Online” will become the 25th host city of the EPT, after previous trips to Barcelona, London, Dublin, Copenhagen, Deauville, Vienna, Monte Carlo, Baden, Dortmund, Warsaw, Prague, Nassau, Sanremo, Budapest, Kyiv, Vilamoura, Hinterglemm, Tallinn, Berlin, Madrid, Loutraki, Campione, Portomaso and Sochi.

And if you liked that particular piece of trivia, you’re going to love the rest of this post.

To whet the appetite even further for the return of the EPT — or to bring newcomers up to speed — we’ve assembled a long list of facts and figures from the tour’s 16-year history. Drink it all in…

RAW DATA

There have been 126 EPT festivals and 126 EPT Main Events.

EPT Main Events have been won by 124 different people.

The first EPT Main Event took place in Barcelona from September 17-18, 2004. The most recent took place in Sochi from October 6-11, 2020.

The first EPT Main Event winner was Alexander Stevic (Sweden). The most recent was Ruslan Bogdanov (Russia).

There have been 87,803 entries to EPT Main Events.

Pieter de Korver: The winner of the EPT’s biggest Main Event prize

The most entries to an EPT Main Event was 1,988 (inc. 499 re-entries) at EPT Barcelona 2019.

The most unique players to an EPT Main Event was 1,785 at EPT Barcelona 2016.

The biggest first prize at an EPT Main Event is €2.3 million ($3,024,167 at the time), won by Pieter de Korver (Netherlands) at EPT Monte Carlo Season 5.

The biggest prize pool at an EPT Main Event was at the PCA in Season 7, which was $15,132,000.

EPT LANDMARKS

Gavin Griffin won the EPT’s first €1m+ prize

First €1 million-plus prize pool
€2,110,000 – EPT Grand Final, Monte Carlo, Season 1

First €1 million-plus first prize
€1,825,010 – Monte Carlo, Season 3 (won by Gavin Griffin (USA))

First €5 million-plus prize pool
€6,636,400 – EPT Grand Final, Monte Carlo, Season 3

First $10 million-plus prize pool
$12,674,000 – PCA Season 5

First 1,000-entry Main Event field
1,136 entries – PCA Season 4

Main Events pass 10,000 entries total
PCA Season 4 – cumulative total hits 10,104 in this event

GEOGRAPHY

The EPT has so far been to 24 cities in 20 countries.

The only city to be visited by the EPT every year since 2004 is Barcelona.

Three different cities in Austria have hosted EPT festivals: Vienna, Baden and Saalbach-Hinterglemm (for Snowfest).

EPT Loutraki: One and done

Two cities in all of Germany (Dortmund & Berlin), Italy (Sanremo & Campione) and Spain (Barcelona & Madrid) have hosted EPT events. In Season 7, the EPT went to Spain and Austria twice. In Season 8, it went to Spain and Italy twice.

Four venues have been visited only once by the EPT:
In Season 5, the tour went to Budapest, Hungary for the only time.
In Season 6, the tour went to Kyiv, Ukraine for the only time.
In Season 9, the tour went to Loutraki in Greece and Campione in Italy for the only time.

Home field advantage: British players won EPT London four times.

Home field disadvantage: No Spanish player has ever won EPT Barcelona, nor EPT Madrid. No Irish player ever won EPT Dublin. No Austrian player ever won EPT Baden nor EPT Vienna nor EPT Snowfest. No Italian player ever won EPT Sanremo or Campione. No Polish player ever won EPT Warsaw.

The closest two EPT venues are Sanremo (Italy) and Monte Carlo (Monaco), which are 19 miles apart.

The farthest distant EPT venues are Kyiv (Ukraine) and Nassau (Bahamas), which are 5,624 miles apart.

PERSONAL TRIUMPHS

Only two players have won two EPT Main Events:
Victoria Coren Mitchell (London Season 3 & Sanremo Season 10)
Mikalai Pobal (Barcelona Season 9 & Prague 2019)

Coren Mitchell won the 16th and 98th Main Events, 2,766 days apart
Pobal won the 84th and 125th, 2,671 days apart

Mike McDonald: A podium of his own

Ten players have finished first and second on the EPT:
Ram Vaswani
Brandon Shaefer
Mark Teltscher
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier
Mike McDonald
Kevin MacPhee
Michael Tureniec
Steve O’Dwyer
Dimitar Danchev
Mike McDonald

The only player to finish first, second and third in an EPT Main Event is Mike McDonald.
1st – EPT Dortmund, Season 4
2nd – PCA Season, Season 10
3rd – EPT Deauville, Season 6

OTHER TRIVIA

In Season 8, three back-to-back EPT Main Events were won by players from Denmark. Mickey Petersen, Frederik Jensen and Jannick Wrang won in Copenhagen, Madrid and Campione, respectively. It’s the only time players from a single country have won three in a row.

The same dealer dealt the final hands when both Coren Mitchell and Pobal won their second EPT Main Events.

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