The 2016 EPT Barcelona is Coming. Do You Know Who Cashed in the Main Event More Than Anyone?

In two weeks’ time, the PokerStars European Poker Tour Season 13 kicks off in Barcelona, one of the most popular EPT stops. The poker festival starts Wednesday August 17th with the €1,100 Estrellas Main Event and concludes Sunday August 28th with the €5,300 EPT Main Event final table. The schedule includes two €10,000 High Roller events, a €25,000 Single Day High Roller, a €50,000 buy-in Super High Roller, and countless smaller events spread out over the two-week festival. The entire schedule can be found on EPT.com.

A Fixture on the EPT Calendar Since Year One

Barcelona is a fixture on the European Poker Tour’s schedule. In fact, it’s the only stop that’s been there each and every season after London disappeared from the EPT schedule last season. The event started as a €1,000 event in 2004 but became a €4,000 event in Season 2. In Season 3, the organization bumped it to €5,000 and even increased the buy-in to €8,000 over the next three years.

Alexander Stevic became the first ever European Poker Tour champion back in 2004 after beating a field of 229 players. He walked away with a check worth €80,000 and would become prominent face on the tour in the events to follow, finishing third in that year’s EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo.

Last year it was John Juanda taking home the title and €1,022,593, coming out on top of a field 1,694 strong, the biggest ever EPT Main Event.

PokerStars EPT Barcelona Main Event Champions

Heaps of High Rollers

With the Main Event buy-in rolled back to €5,000 in 2010 after being €8,000 for the three prior years, the EPT introduced a €10,000 event to accommodate the high rollers. The event hasn’t left the schedule since, and in 2012 they introduced the €50,000 Super High Roller. Last season a €25,000 Single-Day High Roller was added to the program, and all three of these high roller events will return this year. An additional €10,000 event is organized at the start of the festival this time as well, to be held August 17-19.

The first ever €10,000 event was won by Fernando Brito who made an even chop with Juha Helppi, granting them both €127,500. With a field of 36 the turnout wasn’t huge, but the event would grow in years to come. Last year the event saw a record-breaking 506 entries, Mustapha Kanit walked away a winner banking €738,759 after striking a three-way deal with Kuljinder “Kully” Sidhu (€640,000) and Nick Petrangelo (€592,840). After agreeing to the chop, the three of them called it quits for the night and didn’t play another hand of poker in one of the stranger finishes to a poker tournament that we can remember.

Dan Smith took down the first ever €50,000 Super High Roller back in 2012, banking €962,925 …

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