The highest buy-in tournament that I can name right now is the $50,000 buy-in HORSE event that takes place annually at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. This year, Scotty Nguyen was the top dog in the HORSE tournament, pocketing a healthy $1.9 million for his efforts. Heads up, he defeated Mike DeMichele, who took home a respectable $1.2 million for second place. There were 148 entrants in total, making it one of the smallest, but toughest, World Series of Poker Tournaments. At the upcoming European Poker Tour’s London stop, the inaugural European Poker Tour high roller event will boast a ₤20,000 + ₤300 buy-in, or $40,000 in the United States.
The tournament will kick off on October 5th and run for two days. It’s one of the highest-stakes tournaments ever played and, according to PokerStars, will be filmed for television. PokerStars is guaranteeing that the winner will take home at least ₤1 million. However, given the size of the tournaments that PokerStars generally offers, I see the champion taking home a lot more than that. This is the first time that the online poker room has ever guaranteed a prize as part of a European Poker Tour event.
Satellites for this massive buy-in tournament and for the EPT London Main Event are ongoing at PokerStars. The best part about the online poker room is that it is 100% Mac-compatible. All of the features available on the site are available to users of Macs. The fully-downloadable version of PokerStars will take you less than five minutes to install. The site accepts U.S. players and a wide variety of deposit options are available.
The Main Event of EPT London is a ₤5,000 + ₤200 buy-in tournament. It begins on October 1st and concludes with the final table on October 5th. There are two starting days to the Main Event, which is preceded by a series of preliminary tournaments held at the Grosvenor Victoria Casino on Edgeware Road.
If you’re thinking of heading to London, be forewarned. It’s one of the most expensive cities on the face of the Earth. I went there in 2007 and felt like the poorest man alive. Two tickets to see “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” and popcorn ran me a balmy $47. Bring a lot of cash or just try to win the EPT high roller tournament. Either way, you’ll be in good shape.
After London, here is the remainder of the EPT schedule:
EPT POLISH OPEN - Hyatt Regency, Warsaw
November 15-19, 2008
EPT PRAGUE - Hilton Hotel, Prague
December 9-13, 2008
EPT DEAUVILLE - Barrière Casino, Deauville
TBD
EPT SCANDINAVIAN OPEN - Casino Copenhagen
February 17-21, 2009
EPT GERMAN OPEN - Casino Hohensyburg, Dortmund
March 10 - 14, 2009
EPT SAN REMO - San Remo
April 18-23, 2009
EPT GRAND FINAL - Monte Carlo
April 28 - May 3, 2009