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Eight years ago, Prague was introduced to the European Poker Tour for the first time. Since then, the tour has been returned to the Hilton Prague every December and here we are again - with a record-breaking 97 events, making this year's festival the largest ever held by PokerStars.
It's the Eureka Poker Tour which is kicking off the action with the extremely popular €1,100 Main Event now well under way. Five seasons of the Eureka Poker Tour are nearly in the books and the tour has joined the EPT for the last three - always in a spectacular fashion, smashing records every time. Tomorrow, we'll find out if the trend will continue for another year. Last season, Hungary's Balazs Botond defeated a field of 1,738 players to snag the €206,948 first prize.
More than 350 players players are now in seats for Day 1a today and the field is still growing, with with late registration open until the end of the Level 4.
Among the familiar faces already competing are Team PokerStars Pro Eugene Katchalov and Team Online's Lilya Novikova. Other notables include EPT10 Prague €10k High Roller third place finisher Dmitry Yurasov plus Igor Yaroshevskyy and Joao Vieira who both also have an EPT €10k High Roller final table appearence under their belts.
The 2014 Aussie Millions champion Ami Barer is also playing. The Canadian shined at Eureka Prague two years ago when he came shy of winning the title, finishing second for €131,400 losing to Dimitri Holdeew heads-up.
Eureka Prague Main Event history:
Season 1: 329 players, €231,290 prize pool, Keith Johnson (UK) for €58,400
Season 2: 652 players, €632,440 prize pool, Menikos Panagiotou (Cyprus) for €137,100
Season 3: 1,315 players, €1,275,550 prize pool, Dimitri Holdeew (Germany) for €226,400
Season 4: 1,738 players, €1,685,860 prize pool, Balazs Botond (Hungary) for €206,948
The EPT 12 Prague Poker Festival features a record 97 tourneys at the Hilton Prague from December 5-16, as well as EPT-run cash games running round the clock. A record 185 tables will be in operation and a record 250 staff working the event.
In last year's €5,300 EPT Main Event, 1,107 players competed creating a €5,368,950 prize pool; the event was won by American Stephen Graner for a massive €969,000.
