EPT: Earn yourself a seat for eight bucks

There are many ways to earn a seat at an EPT event, only one of which involves delving under the mattress, hauling out a bundle of used bank-notes and plonking them onto the cashier's desk in any one of these spectacular locations across the continent.

Every serious poker player knows that the most efficient route into many of the top tournaments is via an online satellite. Ever since Chris Moneymaker, then Greg Raymer, won their seats to the World Series on PokerStars, and then won the whole thing, players have been battling it out in cyberspace for the right to battle it out in "real" space and take home a fortune.

Last week, Joseph Mouawab, from Lebanon, won the London leg of the EPT after qualifying online at PokerStars, following in the footsteps of Gavin Griffin and Brandon Schaefer, among others, who had previously trod the same path to a pot of gold.

And it has recently become even easier, and even cheaper, to take a stab at this kind of success.

PokerStars recently launched $8.80 + rebuy satellite tournaments to EPT events, guaranteeing at least one seat in the €8,000 buy-in "live" tournaments. The first such tournament was so popular that two seats were generated, earned by some of the most frugal players in the entire event.

chrisrokx, from Munich, Germany, won a $13,350 package to EPT Dublin for a grand total of that original $8.80. He neither rebought nor added on, but ended in the top two to earn his seat. Phoenician88, of Portland, Oregon, didn't rebuy either, although he did take an add-on to bring his total spend to $16.80.

Both of these PokerStars players will take their seat in Dublin at the end of this month, where there's likely to be a first prize in the region of €500,000.

PokerStars are intending to run these satellites every Thursday and Friday, so keep an eye out. It might well be the best $8.80 ever spent.