European Poker Tour (EPT)'s 20th Anniversary: Looking Back at the First Ten Years

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Aug 23, 2024 8 min read

The PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) is celebrating its 20th anniversary at the upcoming EPT Barcelona stop. Since its inception, the EPT has awarded over €575 million in prize money while visiting 24 cities in 19 countries.

Fittingly, the EPT celebrates its 20th birthday at the venue that kicked off one of live poker's most prestigious tours. With that in mind, let's take a trip down memory lane and look at the first ten years of this incredible tour.

Season 1

The inaugural EPT took place at Casino Barcelona between September 14-19, 2004. Five side events ran alongside the €1,100 Main Event, a far cry from today's bustling schedules. A field of 229 entrants created a €229,000 prize pool, with Sweden's Alexander Stevic claiming the first-ever EPT Main Event title and €80,000.

It didn't take long for the EPT to award its first six-figure top prize because EPT London, a month after the opening leg of the fledgling tour, paid champion John Shipley £200,000.

Stops in Dublin, Copenhagen, Deauville, and Vienna followed before Dutchman Rob Hollink triumphed in the first €10,000 EPT Grand Final Main Event, defeating Brandon Schaefer heads-up to secured €635,000, a prize unheard of outside the United States.

Season 2

By the EPT's second season, word had spread about the fantastic structures and player-centric nature of the tour. Season 2 started well, with Jan Boubli claiming the €426,000 top prize at EPT Barcelona, the largest prize paid in a non-Grand Final Main Event.

A certain Patrik Antonius became an EPT champion three legs into Season 2, taking down the EPT Baden Classic in Austria for €288,180.

As was becoming the norm, the season ended with the €10,000 Grand Final in Monte Carlo. Nineteen-year-old American Jeff "yellowsub86" Williams won the Grand Final in Season 2, becoming the youngest-ever EPT champion and raking in the tour's largest top prize of €900,000.

Season 3

Season 3 was full of firsts for the EPT. Two stops in, at EPT London, Victoria Coren-Mitchell (Victoria Coren back then) became the tour's first female champion. Two stops later, at EPT Dublin, Roland De Wolfe became the first poker player in history to win a World Poker |Tour (WPT) Main Event and an EPT. De Wolfe would later capture poker's Triple Crown by winning a World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet.

March 2007 was the first time the EPT stopped in Germany, with Dortmund hosting the EPT German Open. Norway's Andreas Hoivold took that event down for €672,000.

Illinois' Gavin Griffin triumphed in the Grand Final and took home €1,825,010, the tour's first seven-figure top prize and the largest single prize by far. Like De Wolfe, Griffin later became a Triple Crown winner.

Season 4

Just as the poker community thought the EPT couldn't improve, PokerStars added four new stops to the schedule. Frenchman Arnaud Mattern helped himself to the inaugural EPT Prague's €708,400 top prize, Michael Schulze became the first EPT Warsaw Open winner, and a then-22-year-old Jason Mercier won his first live tournament, choosing EPT Sanremo (€1,508,000) to do so!

The other new stop was the first edition of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) in early January 2009. Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier was the Main Event's champion, adding a $2,000,000 prize to his impressive resume.

Season 4 also saw Mike "Timex" McDonald became the youngest-ever EPT Main Event champion after he was victorious in Dortmund (€933,600), while Glen Chorny's victory in the Grand Final in Monte Carlo earned him €2,020,000, breaking the record for the tour's largest payout.

Season 5

The EPT was going from strength to strength with each passing season, and in Season 5, there were at least five top prizes of $1,000,000.

Sebastian Ruthenberg won €1,361,000 for his EPT Barcelona win, Michael Martin scooped £1,000,000 for his EPT London victory, while Poorya Nazari got his hands on an incredible $3,000,000 after coming out on top in the PCA Main Event.

Toward the end of the season, Constant Rijkenberg won EPT Sanremo for €1,508,000, and Pieter de Korver claimed the €2,300,000 Grand Final's top prize.

Sandwiched between those eye-popping sums of money was Sandra Naujoks becoming only the second female EPT Main Event champion after she won in Dortmund for €917,000.

Season 6

The sixth EPT season saw the tour and the masses of players head to three new destinations. The tour kicked off with a trip to Kiev, Ukraine, where Maxim Lykov won the Main Event's €330,000 first-place prize.

Portugal hosted an EPT for the first time in November 2009, with EPT Vilamoura. Antonio Matias won the inaugural event there, returning home with €404,793.

The first EPT Snowfest took place in Austria in late March. Players mixed skiing on the slopes with grinding at the tables, with Allan Baekke writing his name in the EPT's history books under the heading Main Event Champion, a result worth €445,000.

British pro Jake Cody won the first leg of his Triple Crown in Deauville, while Liv Boeree became the third female EPT Main Event champion in Sanremo.

Perhaps the biggest story of Season 6 was not a massive score enjoyed by a champion but the fact there was an armed robbery at EPT Berlin! Four masked men, armed with knives and at least one gun, robbed the EPT Berlin Main Event and escaped with €242,000. Thankfully, nobody was seriously injured, and police caught the robbers a few days later; they were later convicted and sentenced to three years in prison.

Season 7

Season 7 of the EPT is my personal favorite because it is when I became a live reporter for PokerNews! After Kevin Stani won the first EPT Tallinn for €400,000, Toby "810ofclubs" Lewis won EPT Vilamoura and David Vamplew defeated seasoned pro John Juanda heads-up at EPT London.

EPT Barcelona again took place, my first live reporting gig for PokerNews, and Kent Lundmark of Sweden emerged victoriously, lifting the trophy and banking €825,000.

An emotional Roberto Romanello triumphed in Prague for the first part of his Triple Crown, Galen Hall secured a $2,300,000 payday in the PCA Main Event, with Vladimir Geshkenbein won the last EPT Snowfest while sporting the patches of the now-defunct online poker site PKR.

The angle shooting Ivan Freitez won that season's Grand Final for €1,500,000.

Season 8

The champions of the EPT Season 8 Main Events read like a who's who of the poker world. Ronnie Kaiser, Benny Spindler, Andrey Pateychuk, and Martin Finger all reeled in titles before the year's end.

Mickey Petersen won the battle of youth vs. experience when he defeated Pierre Neuville heads-up at EPT Copenhagen, with Belgian Davidi Kitai making a superb hero call when heads-up against Andrew Chen at EPT Berlin before taking down the tournament and becoming only the fifth player in history to complete poker's Triple Crown.

Season 9

Belarus celebrated its first EPT Main Event champion when Mikalai Pobal raked in the €1,007,550 top prize at EPT Barcelona to kick off Season 9. There were also wins for seasoned pros Ludovic Lacay, Ramzi Jelassi, and Dimitar Danchev, the latter winning the PCA Main Event.

Steve O'Dwyer enjoyed his first $1M+ score after being awarded €1,224,000 for winning the Grand Final in Monte Carlo. O'Dwyer overcame a stacked final table housing Freddy Deeb, Jason Mercier, Noah Schwartz, Jake Cody, Daniel Negreanu, Johnny Lodden, and Andrew Pantling.

Season 10

Season 10 rounded off the first decade of the EPT, and saw another host of household names become EPT champions. Tom Middleton, and Dominik Panka won the largest sums, namely €924,000 in Barcelona and $1,423,096 at the PCA before something special happened in the penultimate leg in Sanremo.

Until this event, each EPT stop had crowned a fresh Main Event champion; nobody had managed to win two. That all changed when Victoria Coren-Mitchell beat Giacomo Fundaro heads-up, adding her second EPT Main Event title to her impressive resume.

The tenth season ended with Antonio Buonanno become the EPT Grand Final champion. The Italian and Jack Salter locked horns for heads-up at a final table lasting 18 hours before Buonanno finally concluded the tournament.

Stay tuned to PokerNews for Part 2 of our looking back at the EPT glistening history, for live and exclusive coverage of the 2024 edition of EPT Barcelona, and more.

Matthew Pitt hails from Leeds, West Yorkshire, in the United Kingdom, and has worked in the poker industry since 2008, and worked for PokerNews since 2010. In September 2010, he became the editor of PokerNews. Matthew stepped away from live reporting duties in 2015, and now concentrates on his role of Senior Editor for the PokerNews.

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• Tags Arnaud Mattern Bertrand Grospellier Daniel Negreanu Davidi Kitai Dominik Panka EPT European Poker Tour Jake Cody Jason Mercier John Juanda Mike McDonald PokerStars PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Pierre Neuville Patrik Antonius PCA Online Poker Steve O'Dwy
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