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A record 171 tournament staff will be working at the forthcoming EPT & Eureka Prague Poker Festival – the biggest ever team at a PokerStars live event, and that includes the PCA! The record number will guarantee that all players – both tournament and cash games – enjoy an unparalleled experience in the final EPT festival of 2013.

In all, there will be 143 dealers plus 16 floor people, dealer coordinators and chip controllers – nearly double last season’s number. All the staff, who hail from dozens of different countries, will be working under the expert direction of EPT tournament directors Teresa Nousiainen and Thomas Lamatsch.

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Last year’s crew

The languages covered by the team is also quite astonishing – a total of 36 languages ranging from Albanian and Arabic to Turkish and Vietnamese, and including Arabic, Catalan, Chinese, Farsi, Hebrew, Japanese and Swedish.

The event is now so big that this year, for the first time, play is being extended out of the Hilton Prague’s massive Congress Hall into the large lobby area just outside. This is also the first time that the cash games in Prague will be run by EPT dealers, ensuring players benefit from the fast-paced action, wealth of experience and high standards associated with EPT staff. Cash game tables will be running 24 hours a day from December 8 to 18, with players able to enjoy a wide variety of games with blinds ranging from 50/100kc (€2/€4) up to 2500/5000kc (€100/€200).

It’s not just massive staff numbers at EPT Prague either! Articulated lorries will be driving across Europe from the UK to deliver tonnes of equipment to the Hilton Prague – including up to 90 poker tables, 200,000 poker chips, 10,000 player cards and 500m of electrical cabling.

Tournament director Teresa Nousiainen said: “I was lucky enough to work Season 1 of the EPT and it’s amazing to see how much it’s grown. In those days, we had around 300 players for the main event, and maybe just one side event a day. Now just a “normal” EPT Festival has at least 40 events and EPT Prague will have 47 – on some days, there will be up to ten events running at the same time – so we’re going to be very very busy.”

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Last year’s champ, Ramzi Jelassi, won €835,000

The EPT Prague Poker Festival runs 8-18 December. Check out the incredible schedule and check out this satellite page to find out how to win your way into the €5,300 EPT Main Event for a fraction of the price.

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