PokerStars EPT Season 5 releasedCan you believe there is other news going on than the World Series of Poker events? Well it’s true, the very popular European Poker Tour (EPT) season five schedule has just been released by PokerStars. The EPT will be in nine cities filming the poker tournaments and the first tournament will take place on September 10th in Barcelona.

“The new EPT season includes all the events which have made the past four seasons such a triumph with record fields across Europe and record prize pools. We have set very high standards and aim to improve on this still further in Season 5.” said John Duthie, chief executive of the EPT.

Season 5 Schedule:

EPT Barcelona Open: September 10 - 14, 2008, €8,000 + 250
EPT London: October 1 - 5, 2008, £5,200 + 200
EPT Polish Open (in Warsaw): November 15 - 19, 2008. ZI (Zloty) 20,000 + 1000
EPT Prague: December 9 – 13, 2008, €5,000 + 300
EPT Deauville: January 20-24, 2009, €5,000 + 300
EPT Scandinavian Open (Copenhagen): February 17 - 21, 2009, 50,000 + 2,250 DKR
EPT German Open (Dortmund): March 10 – 14, 2009, €5,000 + 250
EPT San Remo: April 18 - 23, 2009, €5,000 + 250
EPT Grand Final, Monte Carlo: April 28 – May 3, 2009, €10,000 + €600

The European Poker Tour began in 2004 and replicated there business after the World Poker Tour (WTP). The main difference when the EPT started out is that their tournament buy-ins were about 50% less than the WPT. When the EPT started gaining some recognition and popularity grew, management increased the buy-in to the events and now the average buy in is €8,000. The EPT show is hosted by owner and creator John Duthie, alongside Colin Murray. The EPT is broadcast across Europe and is starting to make it’s appearances on North America networks.