The Rozvadov poker room has teamed up with the Italian EuroRounders organization to bring us the Italian Poker Sport (IPS) series, whose Main Event offered a €1,500,000 guarantee with a buy-in of €380, where 12 players will also receive a ticket to the WSOPE Main Event worth €10,350.
The Main Event of the series attracted a huge number of players, and Kings Resort broke its own records in the process. Firstly, it achieved a record-breaking single flight, which saw as many as 1,653 entries, and then we saw the total number of entries reach 7,007, which is the largest number of entries achieved in this poker room, and also one of the largest in Europe. The winner will take home €250,000. Previously, the record was held by the German Poker Masters, which reached 6,961 entries at a buy-in of €230.
But the Rozvadov poker room holds the European record for the amount of the prizepool. Last year's Euro Poker Million, with a €2 million guarantee and a buy-in of €590, saw the prizepool reach €3,199,581, making it the largest European prizepool in a tournament with a buy-in under €1,000.
The IPS Main Event was due to reach its final day today, but with so many players taking part in the tournament, the organisers had to add an extra day, and so today we see IPS ME Day 3, with 169 players at the poker tables. The final day should be on the schedule tomorrow.
Who else has European records to their name?
More entries than in the Rozvadov poker room have been achieved in Europe by Banco Casino Bratislava, which took care of the record in November 2024 during the Main Event of the Polish Poker Championship, where we saw as many as 7,084 entries at a buy-in of €130. Coming up later this month, on February 24, 2025, we will see the continuation of the Winter Polish Poker Cup in Bratislava, which guarantees €300,000 at a buy-in of €140. Will we see a new record?
Not to be left out of our list is the popular European Poker Tour, whose €5,300 buy-in Main Event regularly produces some of Europe's highest prize pools. In 2023, the EPT Barcelona subseries of the Estrellas Poker Tour, with its €1,100 Main Event, took care of a record 7,398 entries and a prizepool of €7,102,080. The year 2024 has already brought a smaller field in the same tournament, but still a nice 7,138 entries.
The biggest poker tournament outside the US and also in Europe has been The Goliath for several years now, breaking its own records since 2018 in Coventry, England. In 2024, it set a new record for the number of entries at 11,749, and with a buy-in of £200, we saw a prize pool of £1,879,840, which is around €2,259,257. However, this tournament has one more record to its credit, and that is for the number of entries in a single flights. Flight 1G brought as many as 2,189 entries in 2024, leaving players to wait in a huge queue to register for the tournament.
The biggest in the world
As impressive as those numbers are, they didn't even make the top 15 biggest tournaments globally, and we can tell you that all 15 spots were taken by WSOP tournaments in Las Vegas. The absolute number one spot on the live tournament scene is held by the 2019 WSOP Big 50, which saw 28,371 entries at a buy-in of $500, bringing the prizepool up to $13,509,435.
In second place is the 2023 WSOP Gladiators of Poker, which reached 23,088 entries and a prizepool of $5,679,648 at a buy-in of $300. In third place is the 2015 WSOP Colossus with its traditional $400 buy-in, which reached a nice 22,374 entries.
If we take a look at the prizepool records, the WSOP series holds the top spot here as well, with 8 of its Main Events in the top 10. Ninth and tenth place is rounded out by the Triton SHR Series. In first place is the $10,000 WSOP Main Event 2024, which took care of a prizepool worth up to $94,041,600. This was achieved thanks to 10,112 entries. The next edition of the WSOP series in Las Vegas awaits us on the dates of May 27 to July 16.
Source - pgt, wsop, pokernews, thegoliath, bancobratislava, kings resort, eurorounders, wikipedia, ept