The first half of EPT Season 8 will take in six events across Europe and one in the Bahamas, with plans for the ninth PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) already well under way. The PCA joins EPT London as one of two “Festivals of Poker” set to take place in the first seven events, with both stops featuring multiple tournaments across their respective ten-day and five-day schedules. Last year the Main Events for these two stops generated $15.1 million and £4.1 million prize pools respectively.

Other events set to take place in the first half of the season include Barcelona, San Remo Prague and Deauville.

EPT Chairman and Team PokerStars Pro John Duthie said: “We’re delighted to announce the dates for the first half of EPT Season 8. We’re expecting another incredible year, with a whole host of new champions crowned and maybe even the first ever two-time EPT Main Event winner!”

Team PokerStars Pro Viktor “Isildur1” Blom said he can’t wait for the new season to begin. Blom said: “I’m really looking forward to the coming EPT season. My live game is something I want to work hard on improving, and I would love to have some deep runs this year. I plan to play in most of the events, including Barcelona, the PCA and London. Those stops will be big events for me.”

EPT Season 8 schedule

Below is the full schedule of EPT events up until the end of January, with EPT San Remo – one of the most popular stops on the tour, with 987 players combining in Season 7 to create a prize pool of €4.78 million – being brought forward from next April to this October. The rest of Season 8 will be announced later in the year, which will include tour stops in new cities.

Following the success of live TV broadcasts at the PCA and EPT Grand Final in 2011, many of the EPT Season 8 final tables will also be aired on television networks across Europe and on PokerStars.tv.

EPT Tallinn

The first event of Season 8 takes place in Tallinn, Estonia, and features a total of 19 events across its seven-day schedule. The highlight of the festival is the €4,000 + €250 Main Event, but there is also plenty of other exciting events, including: a €3,000 + €200 NL Heads Up, a €300 + €300 + €30 PLO Bonus Turbo Bounty (5 Cards) 8 Max, a €10,000 + €300 NL Hold’em Single Reload, and a €300 + €30 EPT Main Event Turbo version, which features 30,000 stacks and 15-minute levels. See below for full schedule.

*30,000-chip starting stacks and 15-minute levels

Online satellites

The satellites to the first event in Tallinn will begin on PokerStars.com from June 10. Log in to the client and click Tourney > Events for more details.

EPT history

The European Poker Tour began in 2004 with seven events in its first season. Since then, there have been a total of 70 Main Events and 14 High Roller events, which have combined to award PokerStars players nearly €235 million in tournament prizes.

The most recent season came to a close in May at the EPT Grand Final in Madrid. The Main Event was won by Venezuelan player Ivan Freitez, who pocketed the first prize of €1,500,000. Team PokerStars Pro Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier won the High Roller event for €525,000 and fellow Team Pro Jason Mercier took down the first-ever EPT Champion of Champions event after besting a field of 50 former EPT Main Event winners.

EPT Season 7 saw 8,906 players from 86 countries battling it out for over €50 million in prize money.