The doors have just opened letting in a torrent of players of every nationality, who'd been penned in the casino, but are now taking their seats in the impressive ballroom/theatre/starry-ceilin ged tournament area in anticipation of the start of play. Breakfast at the players' main hotel, so new it's practically shrink-wrapped, has been extended until the poker-sympathetic time of noon, so everyone, regardless of the lateness of their attendance at last night's Pokerstars party, could grab some coffee before their cards.
Thomas Kremser is urging a prompt seating so that the tournament can get underway, and it looks as if it's only a matter of minutes until the start.
As we said, photography is banned inside the Casino Vilamoura itself - so we will have to head out into the sunshine periodically if we want to provide you with any photos. What a pity.
As summer begins to end, the poker season begins to hit a second wind. The WSOP may have finished, albeit temporarily, but as we hit September there's a second purple patch. EPT Vilamoura is the starting point for the month as the world's best poker players head across to Europe for this tournament as well as the WSOPE and EPT London, it's going to be a busy month.
The return to Vilamoura is a little earlier this year but the weather remains equally beautiful as we find out who will succeed Antonio Matias as the EPT Vilamoura champion. After Arnaud Mattern came incredibly close to making history in Tallinn but could only manage third, the EPT continues with the unique concept of never having a double EPT winner. Can season 7 of the EPT change this circumstance?
Daniel Negreanu makes his first appearance in the new EPT season as September's hectic poker schedule begins to take shape. As well as the Canadian superstar, there are many others here to enjoy the Portuguese festivities including EPT Berlin winner Kevin MacPhee, Arnaud Mattern, Dutch Team Pokerstars Pro Lex Veldhuis and JP Kelly, the latter hosting a special EPT golf & poker tournament over the latter few days of the tournament.
However, photography will be difficult during the event as Portuguese law states that we will cannot take photos during the tournament. All photos taken will be from outside the casino during the tournament's play.
Today's tournament will start at 12pm local time (GMT).
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