Recapping Season 7 of the PokerStars European Poker Tour
It’s no secret that the PokerStars European Poker Tour is the cream of the crop when it comes to poker tournament series around the world. Since the first season in 2004-2005, the EPT has handed out some of the largest prizes around and made thousands of players famous. The seventh season was no different.
Last August, the seventh season of the prestigious EPT kicked off in Tallinn, Estonia. After 13 stops, 9,388 entries and over €50,000,000 in prize money awarded in the Main Events, another extremely successful season of the EPT is in the books.
Out of the bunch, Galen Hall scooped the largest first-place prize after winning the largest event on the tour, the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. Hall bested a field of 1,560 players to claim the lion’s share of the $15.132 million prize pool for a whopping $2.3 million. In the tour’s massive conclusion event, Ivan Freitez secured €1.5 million for winning the Grand Final in Madrid. Hall and Freitez weren’t the only winners, though. The table shown below gives you a look at all the Main Event winners in Season 7.
Event | Champion | Entrants | Prize |
---|---|---|---|
Tallinn | Kevin Stani | 420 | €400,000 |
Vilamoura | Toby Lewis | 384 | €467,836 |
London | David Vamplew | 848 | £900,000 |
Vienna | Michael Elier | 587 | €700,000 |
Barcelona | Kent Lundmark | 758 | €825,000 |
Prague | Roberto Romanello | 563 | €640,000 |
PCA | Galen Hall | 1,560 | $2,300,000 |
Deauville | Lucien Cohen | 891 | €880,000 |
Copenhagen | Michael Tureniec | 449 | €328,612 |
Snowfest | Vladimir Geshkenbein | 482 | €390,000 |
Berlin | Ben Wilinofsky | 773 | €825,000 |
San Remo | Rupert Elder | 987 | €930,000 |
Grand Final Madrid | Ivan Freitez | 686 | €1,500,000 |
Joining us along the ride of Season 7 was Sarah Grant and Laura Cornelius armed with our video cameras of course. You can watch their season recap in the following video:
Main Events weren’t the only attraction for players on the tour. A few select High Roller events won players some massive prizes. Those included London High Roller, PCA Super High Roller, PCA High Roller and the Grand Final High Roller. As you can see in the table below, the list of winners from those events is full of poker superstars, included three who are now Team PokerStars Pros.
Event | Champion | Entrants | Prize |
---|---|---|---|
£20,500 London High Roller | Jose “Nacho” Barbero | 77 | £556,000 |
$100,000 PCA Super High Roller | Eugene Katchalov | 38 | $1,500,000 |
$25,000 PCA High Roller | Will Molson | 151 | $1,072,850 |
€25,500 Grand Final High Roller | Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier | 58 | €525,000 |
The EPT also has a Player of the Year Award, which was won in a landslide this year by Fernando Brito. He finished the season with a whopping 4,135 points. That’s 1,500 more points than second-place finisher Martin Jacobson. The table below shows you how Brito was able to earn so many points.
Event | Finish |
---|---|
EPT Vilamoura €1,000 No-Limit Hold’em Turbo | 2nd - €11,737 |
EPT Vilamoura €1,000 No-Limit Hold’em Bounty | 2nd - €5,820 |
EPT London Main Event | 6th - £145,000 |
EPT London £1,000 No-Limit Hold’em Turbo Bounty | 1st - £16,760 |
EPT Vienna €10,000 No-Limit Hold’em | 1st - €90,000 |
EPT Barcelona €10,000 High Roller | 1st - €127,500 |
EPT Prague Main Event | 32nd - €12,500 |
EPT Prague €1,000 Turbo Bounty | 1st – €11,200 |
PCA $2,000 No-Limit Hold’em | 23rd - $7,390 |
EPT Deauville €1,500 No-Limit Hold’em | 20th - €2,270 |
EPT Copenhagen DKr 15,000 No-Limit Hold’em Turbo Bounty | 1st – DKr 107,640 |
EPT San Remo €2,000 No-Limit Hold’em | 29th - €3,400 |
EPT San Remo €10,000 No-Limit Hold’em | 5th - €42,000 |
EPT Grand Final Main Event | 37th - €30,000 |
Beyond just having an overall Player of the Year Award, the EPT has numerous awards that they give out each season. This year, there were seven other awards given out. Each of the individual winners of an award receives a full prize package for the first event of the eighth season on the EPT.
Award | Winner |
---|---|
Omaha Player of the Year | Dario Alioto |
Mixed Game Player of the Year | Matthew Ashton |
Heads-Up Player of the Year | Diogo Veiga |
Country of the Year | Ireland |
Online Qualifier of the Year | Martin Jacobson |
Achievement of the Year | Max Heinzelmann |
Players’ Choice Award | Max Heinzelmann |
If that’s still not enough, Season 7 of the EPT marked the first time the Champion of Champions event was held. Fifty past EPT champions took part in a €100,000 freeroll that was eventually won by Jason Mercier, who might just be winning everything he plays these days. Mercier bested Hall to take the title and €50,000 first-place prize.
With Season 7 complete, everyone is anxious to see what Season 8 has to offer. We’ll be sure to bring the latest EPT news to you right here on PokerNews and you can also check out the EPT’s website for tournament information.
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