€5,300 Main Event Day 1a | 2014 PokerStars.net EPT Vienna

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03-23-2014 08:42 UTC+1

The EPT Returns to Vienna for First Time Since Season 7

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Chad Holloway

The stunning tournament room inside the Hofburg Palace. Photo courtesy of the EPT.

What stop on the first season of the EPT attracted the most players? You might be surprised to learn that it was the EPT Vienna with 297 players (the next closest was the EPT French Open with 243 players). It was a successful penultimate stop for Season 1, but little did everyone know that the city wouldn’t play host to an EPT again for half a decade.

The EPT returned to Vienna for its seventh season from October 26-31, 2010. The return to the Austrian capital was well received by the players, 587 of who turned out to create a prize pool of €2,935,000. By then the EPT had grown in both size and prestige, but after 20-year-old economics student and Sunday Million winner Michael “mae9690” Eiler captured the €700,000 first-place prize, the stop once again disappeared from the EPT schedule.

That's changed here in Season 10 as Vienna plays host to an EPT for the third time. Today's €5,300 Main Event is part of a 40-event tournament schedule held in conjunction with the Eureka Poker Tour that include mores innovative and fun game variants than any other festival up to date.

“The EPT is all about fun, celebrating the excitement of the game and gathering players together for a good time, and we really wanted to make a splash on our return to Vienna," said Neil Johnson, Head of Live Poker Operations for the EPT. "The EPT is known for game innovation, variety and we pride ourselves on providing game types in tournament format that you simply don’t find at other live events.”

The stunning Hofburg Palace is the venue, and early numbers indicate that it's going to be a smashing success. Day 1a of the Main Event is set to kick off at Noon local time, and then the second starting flight will take place at the same time on Monday. Registration is open until the start of Day 2, so official numbers won't be available until Tuesday.

Action is set to kick off in a few hours time, so be sure to join the PokerNews Live Reporting Team then as we bring you all the latest and greatest from the EPT10 Vienna.

Who will join this prestigious list of EPT Vienna winners? We'll have the answer in a week's time: