EPT Season 11 - Schedule Announcement Thread
08-11-2014
, 12:21 PM
Hi all,
It is time for my annual announcement of the changes for the upcoming EPT Season! I hope you will like them and we appreciate any feedback you provide. As is always the case, we continue to review the decisions throughout the season and can and will make changes to things if we feel there is a need. Many things are rolled out as a trial and expanded from there. A perfect case in point is my very first item…
Nine handed - The biggest change from a playing perspective is a continuation of something we trialled during EPT10. For EPT10 we guaranteed that the Main Event would be 9 handed on Day 1A. For EPT11 we are now guaranteeing that the Main Event will only play 9 handed on Day 1 A/B and Day 2 (it will continue to switch to 8 handed on Day 3 as in previous seasons). If necessary, once we sell all available seats on Day 1B, players who then buy into the Main Event will become alternates.
Go for the Cup - The National Tours have always had a €/£300 ‘Mini or ‘Cup’ as part of their Festivals. This have become more and more popular as the Festivals have grown over the last few seasons and we have a renewed focus on them for EPT11. Last year, due to space in many locations, we couldn’t offer multiple Day 1’s or even single re-entry for this event. This year we have committed to showcasing this event and doing everything we can to create massive prize pools and an amazing featured event for smaller buyin players.
• Barcelona– Four Day 1’s (8 possible bullets)! We also are having every ‘day’ of this event running from 8pm to allow more local players to participate and to have more tables available.
Non No Limit Holdem Championships - As I’ve mentioned in a few different threads, we will have a significant number of €/£1K non No Limit Holdem Championships across our stops with each stop focusing on a different discipline of poker. Deauville is tricky as only 5 games are legal there (FLH, PLH, NLH, FLO, PLO). This doesn’t mean you won’t see other non-NLH formats at different stops, just that these are the games that will get a big focus and are part of the Player’s Choice Sats running on PS.
• Barcelona – Omaha High-Low – Fixed Limit, Pot Limit, No Limit
• London – Mixed Games – HORSE, 8 Game, 10 Game
• Prague – Omaha High – Fixed Limit, Pot Limit, No Limit
• Deauville – Holdem – Fixed Limit, Pot Limit
• Monaco – TBD
You will continue to see the fun and innovative tournaments you have come to expect on the EPT with tournaments like Win The Button, Deuces Wild, Rivers, Pineapple and in Prague we will play (for the first time ever) Super Holdem!
In Super Holdem you get three hole cards and they all can play 
Super High Roller - As was already announced, for a number of reasons, we decided to move one of the 50K Super High Rollers. The one that has been moved was from London to Prague. So for EPT11 the SHR’s are:
• Barcelona - €50,000
• Prague - €50,000
• PCA - $100,000
• Monaco - €100,000
Unregistration - We have made a change to the unregistration rules regarding tournaments. Players who have pre-registered for an event MUST unregister from the event prior to the start of play. Players who do not unregister will have their buyins placed into the prize pool and will be considered players for that event. There are a number of reasons for this change and we feel that this is in the best interest of our entire player base.
Automatic Main Event Start Day Adjustments - In previous seasons, almost anyone who had been scheduled to play Day 1A and hadn’t turned up for that day had been moved to Day 1B as a courtesy. This creates significant problems for Registrations and tournament logistics in sorting out these players as well as pushing them into a day that may already be close to selling out or at capacity. Starting in Barcelona, any player who has chosen to DBI, RBI, Wire or Cash buy themselves directly into Day 1A and does not turn up for that event will be considered to have played that day. Their money will be placed into the prize pool and their potential chip stack will be adjusted accordingly.
• EPT Main Event – This has a smaller impact on the EPT Main since that event has late registration up until the start of Day 2. Players who fail to turn up after DBIing into Day 1A will be moved to Day 2 with a full stack (which is 30K at 100/400/800).
• National Tour Main Event – This has a much stronger impact on the National Tours. These events have four levels of late registration and then your stack will begin being blinded out. Since the National Tour’s play 9+ levels in their Day 1’s, there is a significant chance of you being blinded out of the event if you choose not to turn up for the start day you bought yourself in for.
Late Registration (all events) - One of the small problems we have seen with allowing players to collect their table/seat assignment and take their seat whenever they choose is that a number of tables are starting only 3 or 4 handed when 7 – 9 seats are sold on that table. We received significant negative feedback from players who showed up on time and were stuck playing short-handed. This has actually encouraged more players to late register since they don’t want to play short-handed at the start of the event. Starting with EPT11 Barcelona, once an entire seat number has been sold, all of that seat will go into play. So once we have sold all of the ‘eight’ seats in the tournament, the Tournament Director will announce to the dealers to put all of the ‘eight’ seats into play. Anyone who has collected an ‘eight’ seat for that tournament but who hasn’t sat down and began to play will have their stacks placed in play and subject to blinds and antes.
• Please Note – This only impacts players who have collected their table and seat number and chosen NOT to go and sit down and begin to play. The stacks only go out once all of that seat number have been randomly sold. It does not impact late registrants or DBI and Online Qualifiers or anyone who has not collected their table and seat assignment. This ONLY impacts players who have collected their table and seat and chosen NOT to sit down and begin to play.
Payouts - In previous seasons the payout rule was that if you were a PokerStars Qualifier or a PokerStars DBI player, then you could receive up to double the buyin amount of the event (5K Main = 10K cash) in cash and the remainder would go onto your PokerStars account. This rule remains the same for online Qualifiers however it is being changed for DBI’s. All players who use the PokerStars Client to DBI will have all of their winnings returned to their PokerStars account.
2+2 - Finally, you won‘t see me on here as often as you have in the past (as some of you have probably already noticed
). With PSLive Toby (UKIPT, Estrellas, EPT Barcelona, London, Monaco) and PSLive Thomas (FPS, Eureka, EPT Deauville, Prague, Monaco) handling their own official threads, they have everything under control. I’ll still be around monitoring things and paying attention, but I won’t be posting quite as much.
I can’t wait for the season to start, see everyone in Barcelona!!!
Cheers,
Neil
PokerStars Live Events Specialist
@neiljpoker – up to 6 total tweets now, I told you I was fun to follow!
It is time for my annual announcement of the changes for the upcoming EPT Season! I hope you will like them and we appreciate any feedback you provide. As is always the case, we continue to review the decisions throughout the season and can and will make changes to things if we feel there is a need. Many things are rolled out as a trial and expanded from there. A perfect case in point is my very first item…
Nine handed - The biggest change from a playing perspective is a continuation of something we trialled during EPT10. For EPT10 we guaranteed that the Main Event would be 9 handed on Day 1A. For EPT11 we are now guaranteeing that the Main Event will only play 9 handed on Day 1 A/B and Day 2 (it will continue to switch to 8 handed on Day 3 as in previous seasons). If necessary, once we sell all available seats on Day 1B, players who then buy into the Main Event will become alternates.
Go for the Cup - The National Tours have always had a €/£300 ‘Mini or ‘Cup’ as part of their Festivals. This have become more and more popular as the Festivals have grown over the last few seasons and we have a renewed focus on them for EPT11. Last year, due to space in many locations, we couldn’t offer multiple Day 1’s or even single re-entry for this event. This year we have committed to showcasing this event and doing everything we can to create massive prize pools and an amazing featured event for smaller buyin players.
• Barcelona– Four Day 1’s (8 possible bullets)! We also are having every ‘day’ of this event running from 8pm to allow more local players to participate and to have more tables available.
Non No Limit Holdem Championships - As I’ve mentioned in a few different threads, we will have a significant number of €/£1K non No Limit Holdem Championships across our stops with each stop focusing on a different discipline of poker. Deauville is tricky as only 5 games are legal there (FLH, PLH, NLH, FLO, PLO). This doesn’t mean you won’t see other non-NLH formats at different stops, just that these are the games that will get a big focus and are part of the Player’s Choice Sats running on PS.
• Barcelona – Omaha High-Low – Fixed Limit, Pot Limit, No Limit
• London – Mixed Games – HORSE, 8 Game, 10 Game
• Prague – Omaha High – Fixed Limit, Pot Limit, No Limit
• Deauville – Holdem – Fixed Limit, Pot Limit
• Monaco – TBD
You will continue to see the fun and innovative tournaments you have come to expect on the EPT with tournaments like Win The Button, Deuces Wild, Rivers, Pineapple and in Prague we will play (for the first time ever) Super Holdem!
In Super Holdem you get three hole cards and they all can play Super High Roller - As was already announced, for a number of reasons, we decided to move one of the 50K Super High Rollers. The one that has been moved was from London to Prague. So for EPT11 the SHR’s are:
• Barcelona - €50,000
• Prague - €50,000
• PCA - $100,000
• Monaco - €100,000
Unregistration - We have made a change to the unregistration rules regarding tournaments. Players who have pre-registered for an event MUST unregister from the event prior to the start of play. Players who do not unregister will have their buyins placed into the prize pool and will be considered players for that event. There are a number of reasons for this change and we feel that this is in the best interest of our entire player base.
Automatic Main Event Start Day Adjustments - In previous seasons, almost anyone who had been scheduled to play Day 1A and hadn’t turned up for that day had been moved to Day 1B as a courtesy. This creates significant problems for Registrations and tournament logistics in sorting out these players as well as pushing them into a day that may already be close to selling out or at capacity. Starting in Barcelona, any player who has chosen to DBI, RBI, Wire or Cash buy themselves directly into Day 1A and does not turn up for that event will be considered to have played that day. Their money will be placed into the prize pool and their potential chip stack will be adjusted accordingly.
• EPT Main Event – This has a smaller impact on the EPT Main since that event has late registration up until the start of Day 2. Players who fail to turn up after DBIing into Day 1A will be moved to Day 2 with a full stack (which is 30K at 100/400/800).
• National Tour Main Event – This has a much stronger impact on the National Tours. These events have four levels of late registration and then your stack will begin being blinded out. Since the National Tour’s play 9+ levels in their Day 1’s, there is a significant chance of you being blinded out of the event if you choose not to turn up for the start day you bought yourself in for.
Late Registration (all events) - One of the small problems we have seen with allowing players to collect their table/seat assignment and take their seat whenever they choose is that a number of tables are starting only 3 or 4 handed when 7 – 9 seats are sold on that table. We received significant negative feedback from players who showed up on time and were stuck playing short-handed. This has actually encouraged more players to late register since they don’t want to play short-handed at the start of the event. Starting with EPT11 Barcelona, once an entire seat number has been sold, all of that seat will go into play. So once we have sold all of the ‘eight’ seats in the tournament, the Tournament Director will announce to the dealers to put all of the ‘eight’ seats into play. Anyone who has collected an ‘eight’ seat for that tournament but who hasn’t sat down and began to play will have their stacks placed in play and subject to blinds and antes.
• Please Note – This only impacts players who have collected their table and seat number and chosen NOT to go and sit down and begin to play. The stacks only go out once all of that seat number have been randomly sold. It does not impact late registrants or DBI and Online Qualifiers or anyone who has not collected their table and seat assignment. This ONLY impacts players who have collected their table and seat and chosen NOT to sit down and begin to play.
Payouts - In previous seasons the payout rule was that if you were a PokerStars Qualifier or a PokerStars DBI player, then you could receive up to double the buyin amount of the event (5K Main = 10K cash) in cash and the remainder would go onto your PokerStars account. This rule remains the same for online Qualifiers however it is being changed for DBI’s. All players who use the PokerStars Client to DBI will have all of their winnings returned to their PokerStars account.
2+2 - Finally, you won‘t see me on here as often as you have in the past (as some of you have probably already noticed
). With PSLive Toby (UKIPT, Estrellas, EPT Barcelona, London, Monaco) and PSLive Thomas (FPS, Eureka, EPT Deauville, Prague, Monaco) handling their own official threads, they have everything under control. I’ll still be around monitoring things and paying attention, but I won’t be posting quite as much.I can’t wait for the season to start, see everyone in Barcelona!!!
Cheers,
Neil
PokerStars Live Events Specialist
@neiljpoker – up to 6 total tweets now, I told you I was fun to follow!
Last edited by PSLive Neil; 08-11-2014 at 12:40 PM.
08-14-2014
, 12:43 PM
Hi all,
Charder - 102 - All PS DBI's must return their winnings to the PS Client.
Iquit - 103 - We emailed the casino for clarification on dress code and bags. Toby will post in the BCN thread when he gets their reply.
Ebut - 104 - I can't confirm or deny anything as of yet sorry. I will say Deauville to Monaco is WAY too big a window to be left empty
Cheers,
Neil
PokerStars Live Events Specialist
Charder - 102 - All PS DBI's must return their winnings to the PS Client.
Iquit - 103 - We emailed the casino for clarification on dress code and bags. Toby will post in the BCN thread when he gets their reply.
Ebut - 104 - I can't confirm or deny anything as of yet sorry. I will say Deauville to Monaco is WAY too big a window to be left empty
Cheers,
Neil
PokerStars Live Events Specialist
08-14-2014
, 12:47 PM
08-19-2014
, 01:57 PM
09-06-2014
, 04:05 PM
Quote:
Hi Poker,
The dates are announced on EPT.com - http://www.europeanpokertour.com/tournaments/#prague
"Held in association with the Eureka Poker Tour, festive EPT Prague takes place December 7-17, 2014, in one of the most beautiful cities in the world."
The full poker schedule will release after Barcelona finishes. We are making some small changes based on results here.
Cheers,
Neil
PokerStars Live Events Specialist
The dates are announced on EPT.com - http://www.europeanpokertour.com/tournaments/#prague
"Held in association with the Eureka Poker Tour, festive EPT Prague takes place December 7-17, 2014, in one of the most beautiful cities in the world."
The full poker schedule will release after Barcelona finishes. We are making some small changes based on results here.
Cheers,
Neil
PokerStars Live Events Specialist
09-07-2014
, 10:08 AM
09-09-2014
, 11:08 AM
Hi all,
Ur - 110 - Yes.
Never - 112 - We just finished the redesign after Barcelona feedback. It is getting signed off tomorrow and will either be announced the end of this week or next week.
Poker - 114 - Might be more than 60 tourneys including 11am Sats and midnight turbos Win for the children 
Mur - 115 - Carlos got it for me (thanks!). David will have all your answers in the PCA thread.
Cheers,
Neil
PokerStars Live Events Specialist
Ur - 110 - Yes.
Never - 112 - We just finished the redesign after Barcelona feedback. It is getting signed off tomorrow and will either be announced the end of this week or next week.
Poker - 114 - Might be more than 60 tourneys including 11am Sats and midnight turbos
Win for the children Mur - 115 - Carlos got it for me (thanks!). David will have all your answers in the PCA thread.
Cheers,
Neil
PokerStars Live Events Specialist
09-18-2014
, 12:44 PM
09-23-2014
, 06:32 AM
Hi All,
Taffy - 119 -No comment sorry.
Ur - 120 - He is going to have to bump me until tomorrow. Small tech glitch so we have to postpone by 24 hours until tomorrow afternoon
Cheers,
Neil
PokerStars Live Events Specialist
Taffy - 119 -No comment sorry.
Ur - 120 - He is going to have to bump me until tomorrow. Small tech glitch so we have to postpone by 24 hours until tomorrow afternoon
Cheers,
Neil
PokerStars Live Events Specialist
09-23-2014
, 11:51 PM
At least tell me a good restaurant in Prague so I can research the menu in the meantime
09-24-2014
, 08:25 AM
09-24-2014
, 08:25 AM
Hi all,
Schedule is up on EPT.com and I'm so excited I wrote a blog about it
http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/2014/i...p-151097.shtml
Thomas is creating the official thread this afternoon.
EDIT - Official Thread - http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/65...014-a-1477026/
Cheers,
Neil
PokerStars Live Events Specialist
Schedule is up on EPT.com and I'm so excited I wrote a blog about it
http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/2014/i...p-151097.shtml
Thomas is creating the official thread this afternoon.
EDIT - Official Thread - http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/65...014-a-1477026/
Cheers,
Neil
PokerStars Live Events Specialist
Last edited by PSLive Neil; 09-24-2014 at 08:41 AM.