EPT 2024 Dates Are Announced as Two New Sports Stars Emerge
PokerStars has announced its full 2024 European Poker Tour (EPT) season schedule. It will see the return of EPT Paris and EPT Cyprus, venues that debuted in the 2023 season. The tour will also stop in Prague, plus traditional players’ favorites, Monte Carlo and Barcelona.
Success in Amsterdam’s Master Classics of Poker may inspire Finland’s Tommie Lankinen (center) to play on the EPT in 2024. ©HollandCasinoPoker
In 2024, Casino Barcelona will mark its 20th anniversary as an EPT destination. Sweden’s Alexander Stevic collected €80,000 when winning Spain’s first EPT Main Event in 2004. This year, Frenchman Simon Wiciak won €1.13 million when taking the same competition.
In Love With Live Poker in Paris
The 2024 EPT kicks off in Paris on Valentine’s Day with the stunning Le Palais des Congrès acting as a new spacious setting. Organizers say the concert and convention center venue, which adjoins a shopping mall, will accommodate over 120 tournament tables.
Announcing the venue change, Cedric Billot, Associate Director of PokerStars Live Events Operations, said: “After last year’s EPT Paris, we really listened to players’ feedback, and we looked at how to improve the players’ experience and capacity for this event which has the potential to be one of the largest EPT festivals ever.”
Next up on the tour will be the most prestigious stop on the calendar, EPT Monte Carlo, at the lavish Monte Carlo Casino. The tournament festival will run from 24 April until 04 May. Allowing for a summer break and to not clash with the World Series of Poker, EPT Barcelona begins in late August.
2024s European Poker Tour Dates:
- EPT Paris 14 to 25 February 2024, Le Palais des Congrès
- EPT Monte-Carlo 24 April to 04 May 2024, Monte Carlo Casino
- EPT Barcelona 26 August to 08 September 2024, Casino Barcelona
- EPT Cyprus 09 to 20 October 2024, Merit Royal Diamond Hotel & Casino & Spa
- EPT Prague 04 to 15 December 2024, Hilton Hotel Prague
Cyprus’s EPT Main Event – which garnered 896 entries in 2023 and made Frenchman Giles Simon a poker millionaire – has once again been given an October date. Prague, which will host the final leg of the 2023 PokerStars EPT between December 11 and 17, also keeps its December slot.
Two New Stars Could Be Inspired to Join the EPT
Two players who may join the EPT in 2024 are Max Neugebauer and Tommi Lankinen. In taking last week’s World Series of Poker Europe (WSOP) and Master Classics of Poker Main Events, both bettered their previous best live results considerably.
The WSOP Europe was held in London, France, and Germany before settling at King’s Resort in Rozvadov, Czech Republic, in 2017. This year, the €10,350 Main Event had a €5 million prize pool guarantee. It broke the WSOP Europe Main Event record for the third consecutive year.
Overcoming 816 rival entries, it fell to former professional basketball player Max Neugebauer. At six feet eight inches, the 26-year-old was a towering presence at the final table in every sense. His winner’s prize was €1,500,000; the Austrian’s previous best tournament cash was $27,000 claimed in a Las Vegas tournament during the summer.
In Amsterdam, a Finnish player, Tommi Lankinen, proved to be the best of 380 entries in the Master Classics of Poker Main Event. His prize was €218,714, which nearly trebled his previous best tournament cash. The winner, aged 31, also has a background in sports and played football semi-professionally in his home country for five years.
