Looking Back at the European Poker Tour Part Three: The Final Chapter

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Dec 15, 2016 8 min read

After 13 seasons, the European Poker Tour will complete its chapter in poker history with its last festival, EPT 13 Prague. The poker tour will be replaced by the recently established PokerStars Championship and PokerStars Festival events.

EPT Prague is already underway, starting off Dec. 8 and running through Dec. 19. The poker festival's final schedule features many exciting events, highlighted by the €5,300 Main Event Dec. 13 through Dec. 19. EPT Prague runs side by side with the Eureka Poker Tour Prague, which is also the last in its history. Here's a look at the remaining major events on the schedule:

With EPT Prague coming to an end, there is no time better to look back on its 13 seasons. Part One of the retrospective focused on the early years in Seasons 1 through 5, Part Two focused on the Berlin robbery, the effects of Black Friday and the "mega-schedule" and this final part of the series will focus on the later years in Seasons 9 through 13 when the number of venues was reduced with each offering more events, along with some general stats about the venues and EPT winners.

Here is a look at Seasons 9-13 and some general statistics about the festival:

Season 9 (2012-2013): Less Stops, More Events

Season 9 was the start of a new era. The EPT reduced the number of stops to eight, but the number of events per stop ballooned, offering tournaments with a wider variety of games and poker variants. While many of the most popular stops remained, those eliminated from the prior season included Tallinn, Loutraki, Copenhagen, Madrid and Campione.

Dimitar Danchev became the first and only EPT Main Event winner from Bulgaria. He traveled outside of Europe for the win, shipping the 2013 PCA Main Event for $1,859,000.

Steve O'Dwyer made it two straight years as the American won the EPT Monte Carlo Grand Final for €1,224,000 ($1,604,972).

Also winning EPT events in Season 9 were Ludovic Lacay (Sanremo - €744,910/$961,807) and Ruben Visser (London - £595,000/$895,370).

EPT Season 9 Main Event Winners

Season 10 (2013-2014): Victoria Coren Strikes Again

Season 10 featured most of the same stops as the previous season with the only exception being that Vienna was placed back on the tour, replacing Berlin.

The biggest news of the season was perhaps Victoria Coren becoming the only person in EPT history to win multiple EPT Main Events after she shipped the EPT 10 Sanremo Main Event for €476,100 ($660,947).

This also marked the first time in EPT Main Event history when no players from the United States shipped an event. This was repeated again in Season 12 and remains the case thus far in Season 13.

Among the players to win EPT Main Events in Season 10 included Tom Middleton (Barcelona - €942,000/$1,260,100), Dominik Panka (PCA - $1,423,096) and Antonio Buonanno (Monte Carlo - €1,240,000/$1,715,526).

EPT Season 10 Main Event Winners

Season 11 (2014-2015): Mateos Brings a Title to Spain, Urbanovich Wins Player of the Year

Season 11 stops dropped from eight to seven. For the first time, the poker festival hit the island of Malta. The popular stops of Sanremo and Vienna were ousted.

During the first 10 seasons, winners from 24 different countries claimed EPT Main Event titles. Up until the EPT 11 Monte Carlo Grand Final, not once did a player from Spain ever claim victory. This is despite the fact that each year the tour held at least one stop in Spain.

At 20 years old, Spain's Adrian Mateos changed this by shipping the Grand Finale for €1,082,000 ($1,214,161). While this was the Spaniard's biggest victory in terms of euros, it isn't in terms of U.S. dollars due to exchange rate fluctuations. His biggest win in U.S. dollars came a couple of years earlier when he shipped the 2013 WSOP Europe Main Event for €1,000,000 ($1,351,661) becoming one of the youngest champions in WSOP history at 19 years of age.

While Spain ended its drought, Season 11 marked the first time in EPT history that not a single player from the United Kingdom won an EPT Main Event.

Meanwhile, Kevin Schulz brought the PCA title back home to the United States and won the season's top prize of $1,491,580 after shipping the event.

Outside of the Main Event, Dzmitry Urbanovich made waves by winning four separate EPT side events during its inaugural stop in Malta and making 15 total final tables throughout Season 11, which propelled him into the EPT Player of the Year slot.

EPT Season 11 Main Event Winners

Season 12 (2015-2016): The Last Full Season

Season 12 dropped from seven stops to six, however, each stop was packed with events. A stop in Dublin was made for the first time since Season 4, while the poker festival said goodbye to London and Deauville permanently.

John Juanda made history by bringing the first EPT Main Event title to Asia afterwinning the season-opening EPT Main Event in Barcelona. He banked €1,022,593 ($1,164,034).

While many think of Juanda as an American, he was born in Indonesia and didn't move to the United States until 1990, when he enrolled at Oklahoma State University. Shortly after winning the title, Juanda was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame (alongside Jen Harman) in no small part due to him earning almost $19 million in live tournament cashes.

The EPT Dublin Main Event also made history as the largest field size in an EPT Main Event by attracting 1,694 entrants.

Shortly afterwards, Asia snagged its second EPT Main Event title when Iran's Hossein Ensan won the EPT 12 Prague Main Event for €754,510 ($825,151).

Dzmitry Urbanovich was at it again, but this time instead of sticking to winning side events, he took advantage of the tour's return to Dublin to win the EPT 12 Dublin Main Event for €561,900 ($632,279).

Meanwhile, Niall "Firaldo" Farrell brought some pride back to Scotland by winning the Main Event in Malta for €534,330 ($588,592), Mike Watson won the last PCA Main Event of the EPT for $728,325 and Jan Bendik became the first Slovakian EPT Main Event champion by winning the "final" EPT Monte Carlo Grand Final for €961,800 ($1,096,568).

EPT Season 12 Main Event Winners

Season 13 (2016): A Record is Set Before the Final Chapter Ends

Season 13 is a short one thanks to PokerStars announcing that it is moving all of its tournament series under the umbrella of the PokerStars Championships or the PokerStars Festivals.

A new field size record was set to open up Season 13 when Poland's Sebastian Malec outlasted the largest EPT Main Event field size ever, 1,785 players attending the opening event in Barcelona, to win the top prize of €1,122,800 ($1,271,041).

More recently, Aliaksei Boika won the EPT Main Event at the third and final stop in Malta when he navigated through a field of 468 players to win €355,700 ($386,962).

The last stop in EPT history has kicked off in Prague. Will we see a new record in terms of field size? Or witness a previous EPT Main Event winner join Victoria Coren as the only two-time winner? Only time will tell and the PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be on hand to cover the action as it unfolds for some of the biggest events of the festival including the EPT 13 Prague Main Event.

EPT Season 13 Main Event Winners

A Look Behind the Numbers of the EPT Main Event

Including the upcoming stop in Prague, the EPT has made 115 separate stops during its long and storied history. Barcelona was the EPT's most visited city with a stop taking place in the Catalonian capital during each of the 13 seasons. London and Monte Carlo both were visited 11 times as stops, while Prague was not too far behind with 10 stops.

In total, the EPT appeared in 23 cities, four of which were visited one time: Budapest, Campione, Kiev and Loutraki.

Historic Breakdown of EPT Festival

Thus far, EPT Main Event winners were from 27 different countries spanning five continents. The EPT Prague Main Event may determine which country was represented most in the winner's circle by EPT Main Event winners. Both the United Kingdom and the United States are tied at 17. The United Kingdom total includes Victoria Coren winning an EPT Main Event twice.

Germany has third place locked up with 13 EPT Main Event winners, while France and Sweden both have a chance to break the double-digit barrier in Prague with currently nine EPT Main Event winners from each country.

Meanwhile, 10 different countries only have one EPT Main Event winner, seven of which are in Europe.

EPT Main Event Winners By Country

_{*Total Includes Victoria Coren winning the EPT Main Event twice.}

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