European Poker Tour - Season 5

EPT Season 5

Europe’s biggest and best poker tour is back for Season 5! Next stop will be Budapest, October 28 – November 1, 2008, and then Warsaw, Prague, Deauville, Copenhagen, Dortmund and San Remo. All routes will then lead to the Grand Final in Monte Carlo, taking place April 28 - May 3 2009.

This is the tour where millionaires are made at every stop along the road to the Grand Final. Each event sees the world’s greatest poker players take their seats to battle it out for huge sums of cash in Europe’s best locations. The prestigious Grand Final in Monte Carlo has one of the biggest prize pools around, and is the event that everyone wants to win.

Don’t miss your chance to become the next European Poker Tour champion. See below for the Season 5 event schedule.

Season 5 - The Story So Far

The Grosvenor Victoria Casino in London welcomed 596 of the world’s best poker players for the second event of Season 5, and the £5,200 ($9,100) Main Event was won by young American player Michael Martin. Martin was able to fight his way back from the brink of elimination to win the £1,000,000 ($1,753,600) first-place prize, beating Michael Tureniec in the closing stages. The field, which contained 234 PokerStars qualifiers, created a prize pool of £3,349,200 ($5,884,965). Also of note was a third place finish from Polish Team PokerStars Pro player Marcin Horecki.

Jason Mercier, winner of EPT Season 4 San Remo, was triumphant in the £1 Million Showdown, getting the better of an in-form John Juanda in heads-up play. Mercier, from Florida, pocketed £516,000 (£904,858) for the win, and made it a one-two for the USA in London. Many pros commented that there was absolutely no dead money in this exclusive tournament, in which 86 of the toughest players in the world each bought in for £20,000.

The first event in Season 5 took place in Barcelona and saw PokerStars player Sebastian Ruthenberg crowned as Champion! He took home €1,360,100 ($1,941,401) after beating a record-breaking field of 619 players. Going into heads-up play with a stack almost five times that of runner-up Fintan Gavin, it was all over in a matter of minutes when Sebastian’s K-9 was good enough to win the final hand. The final table also featured Season 4 EPT San Remo winner Jason Mercier - who came close to becoming the first ever player to win two EPT titles.

See the PokerStars Blog for full coverage of Season 5 events and PokerStars.tv for interviews and highlights.

To watch highlights from EPT Seasons 1-4, go to PokerStars.tv. Visit the PokerStars Blog for a full report from all EPT Season 4 events.

Season 5 Event Schedule

For more information, visit the EPT site.