Visit Poker Stars

EPT Season 5 Schedule Announced; PokerStars Qualifiers Start In July

The schedule for the highly anticipated 5th season of the European Poker Tour (EPT) has finally been revealed! As always, the EPT will kick off in Barcelona, Spain at Casino Barcelona. The first events will take place from September 10th-14th, 2008, with an £8,000+ £250 buy-in and attendance capped at 700 players.

From there, it’s off to England’s Victoria Casino for EPT London, scheduled from October 1st-5th, 2008. The buy-in is £5,200+£200, capped off at 500 players. The EPT 5 will then stop in Warsaw, Poland - then Prague, Czech Republic – followed by Deauville, France. Denmark, Germany and Italy will host EPT 5 events, finally converging on the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo, Monaco.

See the full EPT 5 Tournament schedule below for complete details:

EPT Barcelona Open
Location: Casino Barcelona – Barcelona, Spain
Date: September 10-14, 2008
Buy-in: £8,000 + £250
Players Cap: 700

EPT London
Location: Victoria Casino – London, England
Date: October 1-5, 2008
Buy-in: £5,200 + £200
Players Cap: 500

EPT Polish Open
Location: Hyatt Regency, Warsaw - Warsaw, Poland
Date: November 15-19, 2008
Buy-in: PLN 20,000 + 1,000
Players Cap: TBA

EPT Prague
Location: Hilton Hotel – Prague, Czech Republic
Date: December 9-13, 2008
Buy-in: £5,000 + £250
Players Cap: 600

EPT Deauville
Location: Barriere Casino – Deauville, France
Date: January 20-24, 2009
Buy-in: £5,000 + £300
Players Cap: 700

EPT Scandinavian Open
Location: Casino Copenhagen – Copenhagen, Denmark
Date: February 17-21, 2009
Buy-in: DKR 50,000 + 2,250
Players Cap: 500

EPT German Open
Location: Casino Hohensyburg – Dortmund, Germany
Date: March 10-14, 2009
Buy-in: £5,000 + £250
Players Cap: 500

EPT San Remo
Location: San Remo– San Remo, Italy
Date: April 18-23, 2009
Buy-in: £5,000 + £250
Players Cap: 800

EPT Grand Final
Location: Monte Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort – Monte Carlo, Monaco
Date: April 28 – May 3, 2009
Buy-in: £10,000 + £600
Players Cap: 1,000

According to the PokerStars online forum, the PokerStars online poker room will begin hosting qualifiers to EPT Season 5 next month, as early as the first week of July.

Visit Poker Stars

A Very Happy Father’s Day At Poker Stars; 200 WSOP Seats Awarded

It was a very happy Father’s Day indeed last weekend as PokerStars.com, the world’s largest online poker room, celebrated in style by hosting a 200-seat WSOP satellite awarding prize packages to the Main Event in Las Vegas. The online poker room replaced its regular PokerStars Sunday Million with this massive WSOP giveaway.

The WSOP satellite tournament featured a $350+$20 buy-in, guaranteeing WSOP Main Event seats to the top 200 finishers. A field of 8,076 topped the guaranteed prize pool enough to eventually award 226 seats in the 2008 World Series of Poker.

The Poker Stars WSOP Satellite tournament lasted just under 19 hours before the final 226 competitors each earned a $12,500 prize packages that includes the $10,000 direct buy-in to the 2008 WSOP Main Event, along with $2,500 for travel and accommodation expenses.

Last year, Poker Stars was proud to send 1,596 players to WSOP, and this year has promised to up the ante, sending a minimum of 2,000 players to the world’s most prestigious live poker tournament. The number currently rests at 1,723, but there is plenty of time to meet (if not exceed) the Poker Stars goal of 2,000 members participating in the 39th Annual WSOP Main Event.

Visit Poker Stars

PokerStars Constricts Buy-In For Sunday Million Online Poker Tournament

PokerStars recently announced that there will no longer be diversity in the buy-in of its weekly Sunday Million online poker tournament. From here on out, a set buy-in of $200+$15 will buy players into the Sunday Million poker tournament, worth a guaranteed prize pool of $1,000,000, each and every week.

Up until now, the PokerStars Sunday Million incurred a $200+$15 buy-in every weekend, expect for one. On the last Sunday of each month, the buy-in was upped to $500+$30. This will no longer be the case at PokerStars.

It may sound like a win-win situation for everyone, but that’s not exactly how some online poker fans are seeing it. While much more expensive, a $530 buy-in usually kept the numbers down in regards to less experienced players, allowing the high rollers to compete against one another. With a lower $215 buy-in, the field will be packed all month long.

PokerStars did not forget about their skilled high rollers, however. The online poker room is adding a new weekly tournament to the line-up, to be held each Sunday. One hour after the start of the Sunday Million, at 5:30 p.m. ET, PokerStars will host a $500+$30 online poker tournament with a guaranteed prize pool of $250,000.

Should this new PokerStars tournament become even half as popular as the Sunday Million, players can expect heightened prize pools on a regular basis. Comparatively, the Sunday Million has been known to escalate as high as $2.4 million in recent months.