Poker News

Tony Kendall

In my previous missive from the other side of the Atlantic, I promised to let you now how the American visitors fared when they came across to Barcelona, for the Spanish leg of the European Poker Tour (EPT).

Well none of you guys finalled, and none of you cashed. Toogood for you, were we? Well, no, not exactly. You see, as far as I could tell, and I was present throughout, we were not graced with the presence of any of our American friends. The EPT is only in Season Two, so it has a way to go before it overtakes the WPT as the world’s Premier Poker Series. This season it stops off in Barcelona, London, Baden (Austria), Dublin, Copenhagen, Deauville, and finally, Monte Carlo. Not a bad start, then

But let’s take a look at the Barecelona EPT first, and see how it is measuring up. Venue was the Gran Casino de Barcelona - one of the better, larger, and more elegant of all the European venues. Capacity was set at 290 - that’s right - 290! And this is one of the biggest, if not THE biggest, of our permanent venues. With entry set at ?4,000, something like 400 hopefuls arrived in Barcelona hoping to take part, so the organisers, in their eagerness to please, tried to shoe-horn a few more players in. Seats per table were increased to 11, so it was all a bit squishd. And they pressed into service a few “heads-up” tables, designed for 2 players - 8 seats were somehow squeezed around these minitables, so we had most of the field playing 11 to a table, and the rest 8 to a table.

It was a 2 day event - just 2 days! - so, with the entry much larger than anticipated, the structure was “tweaked” to speed things up. The result was that on Day Two, the field dropped from 45 to 9 in a little less than 3 hours! So, it’s fair to say, the clock was a bit faster than ideal.

The second leg of the EPT takes place this week in London, at The Victoria Casino. Capacity is limited to 256 - that’s 128 for each of the two opening days. In effect, only a 2 day event again, the Day One’s being Friday and Saturday, the Final being on Sunday, so it does not bode well for a fair and reasonable clock.

Then we go to Baden, in Austria. That one is a Tuesday- Wednesday-Thursday affair, which is a little odd. Next up is Dublin, and the Venue will be The Merrion. This has to be THE nicest cardroom in the whole of Europe if it’s atmosphere you are looking for. Lovely people, too. But The Merrion is a house - yes, a house! Big house, mind, with the cardrooms being spread over 4 different floors. How many WPT’s take place in the bedrooms of houses? Then things look up, and it’s Copenhagen, in Denmark, where the capacity will likely be 300+, followed by Deauville, in France, where 500 can easily be accommodated. And we end the season in style, in Monte Carlo, where as many as are prepared to stump up ?10,000 will be able to sit down in style and comfort. So, we have a way to go before we threaten the WPT. Actually, the organisers are doing a pretty good job, considering the lack of venues in Europe. And it’s only Season Two, so don’t write us off yet.

So now you know why, so far as I could tell, there was no Ameican invasion of our EPT in Barcelona, nor is there likely to be at the rest of this season’s EPT’s. You guys have it made over there in America, we tips our hats to you. Better venues - MUCH better, bigger venues, hugely so, and experience on your side.

So you guys can stay at home, and save on the airfare. But watch out, because we ARE hungry for success, and we DO have the players. We’ll just have to visit you and plunder your loot

Filed under: Poker News