European Poker Tour

Some EPT history, and a closer look at a few outstanding EPT players

Back in 2004, few would’ve believed it’d only take 2 years for the EPT to catch up with the prize-pools of the WPT, yet that’s exactly what happened. EPT event winners burst onto the professional poker scene in style, and thus events were set in motion.

The European Poker Tour began in 2004, riding a wave of newfound popularity in the wake of Chris Moneymaker’s awesome Main Event victory. The first ever EPT event was organized in Barcelona, in 2004, and it had only 229 participants. The buy-ins were equally small for it, players could enter for EUR 1,000.

There was no doubt back then that the EPT was not going to reach the WPTs status in the poker world and implicitly its featured prize-pools any time soon. The event was won by Alexander Stevic, from Sweden, and the first-place prize was EUR 80,000.

The first Grand Final took place in Monte Carlo in the same year, and even though the EUR 10,000 buy-in was extremely prohibitive for most, the 211 participants still managed to get together a prize-pool large enough to lure the best professionals from all corners of the world. In this event, Stevic made an amazing comeback to finish 3rd and to take home an additional 178,000 Euros. Victory in the Grand Final went to Rob Hollink from the Netherlands, who bested players like Daniel Negreanu and Gus Hansen on his way to a EUR 635,000 first prize.

Born in Gothenburg, Sweden, Alexander Stevic’s EPT Barcelona victory illustrated extremely well how a person could be instantly planted in the middle of the professional poker world by an EPT event.

Other than his above-mentioned two cash finishes, Stevic had other noteworthy money finishes as well. In 2005, he finished 13th in the Heads-Up World Championship, for $2,883. In 2006, he reached 23rd place in the WPT’s Five-Star World poker classic, where he pocketed almost $10,000.

Rob Hollink, the winner of the inaugural EPT Grand final, can boast more significant poker accomplishments. Born in 1962, in Enshede, NL, Rob Hollink played tennis, basketball and soccer while growing up. Prevented to pursue a career in sports by injuries, he decided to turn to poker instead. Turns out, it was probably the best decision he’d ever made.

Besides his cherished Grand Final victory, Hollink has finished in the money in two other EPT events as well. He also has a WSOP bracelet: in 2008 he won the $10,000 Limit Holdem event for the prize of $496k.

He is generally recognized as an Omaha player, and he’s had wins in several Omaha events like the Pot Limit Omaha Masters of Classics in Amsterdam, in 2001, in the PL Omaha Austrian Masters in 2002, in the Euro Finals of Poker, in Paris, in 2003 and in the World Heads-Up Poker Championship in 2004.

With all the above said in mind, it is easy to see that one of the main reasons for the EPT’s success was the fact that it became a launch-pad for potent new poker talent. It only took 2 years for the EPT to catch up with the prize-pools offered by the WPT, and thus to grow into a global series of events, at least as far as participation is concerned. Starting with 2006, the EPT’s buy-ins and prize-pools became about the same as those featured by the WPT.