The PokerStars.com European Poker Tour is undoubtedly one of the biggest success stories in tournament poker history. And the most prominent reason for its amazing growth and popularity is its founder and chief executive, John Duthie, who had the pleasure in mid-June of announcing the first half of the EPT Season 6 schedule, one that boasts of new poker destinations and the hopes of the most well-attended and lucrative events in poker.
Coming off the €55 million fifth season that attracted 7,980 players from 97 countries, Season 6 looks to have an expanded number of stops, more preliminary events at some of the tournament stops, and a wider range of buy-ins that suit more of a range of players. For instance, the very first stop of the tour will be in Moscow, a new endeavor for the EPT, but a necessary one with so many of the new players on the circuit hailing from Russia. And many stops will include what organizers call the “Festival of Poker,” which offers other tournaments like PLO and mixed games prior to the main event; the October London stop will be the first of those to be included in the sixth season.
Duthie explained, “The new EPT season includes many events which have made the past five seasons such a triumph with world record breaking fields and prize pools across Europe. We have set very high standards and we aim to improve on this still further in Season Six - with new additions to the schedule as well as a richer mix of games and buy-ins to cater for more players… Overall, the tour will visit an unprecedented thirteen countries - an increase of four events on top of last season. As well as Russia, the tour will include new stops in Portugal this November and other destinations to be announced shortly.”
The portion of the schedule that has been released is as follows:
| August 17-23 | Moscow, Russia | 200K RUB buy-in ($6,900) |
| September 4-9 | Barcelona, Spain | 8K EUR buy-in ($11,590) |
| October 1-7 | London, UK | 5K GBP buy-in ($8,370) |
| October 20-25 | Warsaw, Poland | 20K PLN buy-in ($6,460) |
| November 17-22 | Vilamoura, Portugal | 5K EUR buy-in ($7,400) |
| December 1-6 | Prague, Czech | 5K EUR buy-in ($7,400) |
| January 4-14 ) | Bahamas (PCA | $10,000 |
Even though the first event doesn’t begin for nearly two months, satellites have already started running on PokerStars to award seats into the EPT events. The first to be up for grabs will be the Moscow tournament, and satellites start with entries as low as $2.22. Win your way through qualifiers, as so many people on the tour do, and the winning seat will come with a prize package that includes money for travel, hotel accommodations, and expenses during the trip.
For as little as a $2.22 investment, players can win their way to beautiful Moscow and take part in the inaugural Russian stop on the sixth season of the European Poker Tour.