It has been eight long years since Europe's most prestigious poker tour, the EPT, has been based in London, where it has taken place every year since 2004. In its last edition, Sebastian Pauli defeated Kevin MacPhee in the 675-entry Main Event and took home £499,700. This year, from October 18 to 29, the series returned to the city of iconic taxis, telephone booths and double-decker buses, but the first days already showed that records will not be broken here (like in Barcelona).
Compared to Barcelona or Prague, this festival brings many restrictions and pitfalls for players. Since the game takes place in the Hippodrome Casino, you cannot buy buy-ins here with cash, but only by using credit cards, Luxon Pay or your PS account. Similar to Monte Carlo, when paying buy-ins you may be asked to document the origin of your money to prevent money laundering.
The entire festival, in conjunction with the UKIPT sub-series, kicked off with a £10,200 Mystery Bounty tournament that produced a modest 56 entries. Of them, Joun Pardo did the most, sending Erik Seidel and Henrik Hecklen home in two consecutive hands to grab the trophy and the £80,280 bonus. But he also had eight bounty envelopes along with it, among which he also had the highest prize of £50,000, and in total he took home almost £240,000 from this tournament!
Another event for lovers of the highest stakes was the one-day £25,000 High Roller, which attracted 30 famous names from the world of poker. Stars such as Sam Greenwood, Ben Heath, Steve O'Dwyer and reigning WSOP champion Espen Jorstad appeared at the final table, but each of them had to bow before a different name. That name is Byron Kaverman, who took home a £273,710 bonus after a 13-hour battle, thanks to which his lifetime winnings have already surpassed the $17 million mark.
The most accessible and popular tournament for players right from the start of the festival was the Main Event UKIPT series, which is the British equivalent of the Eureka or Estrellas events. The quartet of opening days took care of 1,458 entries and with them a prize pool of £1,399,680. It was distributed among the 218 participants of the second day of play, from which the last 6 players gradually made it to the final fourth day, among which the 2014 WSOP champion Martin Jacobson is also sitting.
Compared to the massive Main Event Estrellas, which produced a record 6,313 entries this August in Barcelona, we are talking about completely different numbers, but given the location, cashless payments, Brexit and other factors, it is understandable. So we can only wait to see how the Main Event itself will develop, which started yesterday and will last until October 28.
