PokerStars, the world’s largest online poker site, has announced plans for a live poker tour to land in Eastern Europe in 2011. The site confirmed this week that the Eureka Poker Tour will launch in March and offer affordable buy-ins to players residing in the Eastern Hemisphere and online qualifiers from around the world.
The first event is set to take place at the Card Casino in Prague from March 16th to 20th. As opposed to the high-end buy-ins of the PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT), which typically features price tags of around €5,000, the Eureka Poker Tour will cater to mid-stakes pros and amateurs with Main Event buy-ins as low as €800 as well as a full schedule of side events. Each of the Eureka Poker Tour’s Main Events will run for four days, with two starting days and maximum capacities of 400 to 500 players. Prize pools are expected to be in excess of €250,000.
The first season of the Eureka Poker Tour will also see tour stops in Slovenia (May 11th to 15th), Bulgaria (June 22nd to 26th), Croatia (September 7th to 11th), and Romania (dates TBA) before returning to the Czech capital in December for EPT Prague. Further details will be announced in the near future including the tour’s rankings system, leaderboard prizes, and tournament structures.
Team PokerStars Pro member Luca Pagano made an official announcement about the Eureka Poker Tour while at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure earlier this month. Said Pagano, “The Italian Poker Tour went to Nova Gorica (Slovenia) and there were a lot of Italian players, but a lot of local players as well, and a lot of players from Croatia and Romania. That means that those countries are becoming natural markets and that is why PokerStars decided to create a poker tour for those countries.”
Online satellites to the first Eureka Poker Tour event began on Wednesday with a wide range of qualifying options tailored to players of all bankrolls. Feeder satellites start from as little as €2. Qualifiers can be found in the “Event” tab under “Special” and “Qualifiers” in the PokerStars client.
Here’s a look at the tournament schedule for the first Eureka Poker Tour stop in Prague:
Thursday, March 17th: €800 Main Event Day 1A
Thursday, March 17th: €165 No Limit Hold’em Turbo
Friday, March 18th: €800 Main Event Day 1B
Friday, March 18th: €165 No Limit Hold’em Turbo
Saturday, March 19th: Main Event Day 2
Saturday, March 19th: €260 No Limit Hold’em
Sunday, March 20th: Main Event Day 3
Sunday, March 20th: No Limit Hold’em (buy-in TBA)
Sunday, March 20th: €220 Pot Limit Omaha
The Main Event will hand each player 15,000 in starting chips and run 60-minute blind levels. The No Limit Hold’em Turbo events will start with 7,000 chips with 20-minute blinds levels and the €260 No Limit Hold’em event on March 19th will have a starting stack of 10,000 and blind levels lasting 40 minutes. The €220 Pot Limit Omaha event, the final tournament on the schedule, will dole out 10,000 in chips and 30-minute blind levels.
The Eureka Poker Tour is the eighth live circuit created by PokerStars. The site already serves as the headline sponsor of the EPT, North American Poker Tour (NAPT), Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT), Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT), Australia New Zealand Poker Tour (ANZPT), United Kingdom and Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT), Italian Poker Tour (IPT), and Czech-Slovak Poker Tour (CSPT). It also runs the popular PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in the Bahamas, which ended earlier this month with Galen Hall winning the Main Event for $2.3 million.
Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest PokerStars news.
