EPT London has long been an interesting stop for the EPT. It happens in Europe's biggest city and in one of the world's quaintest casinos. The Vic (more properly known as the Grosvenor Victoria Casino) has a certain old school charm to it that reminds us all of how poker used to be. Now, though, poker has grown, and on the EPT it has never been bigger than this season's EPT London.
Running September 30 - October 7 of this year, EPT London is now the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour London Poker Festival. More than the name is getting bigger. This will be the biggest ever EPT event. Organizers have scheduled...wait for it...16 different events over the eight days of play. With buy-ins ranging from £500 up to £20,000 and games ranging from hold'em to eight-game championships, the festival is going to be too big for just one casino. That's why this year the event is expanding beyond the walls of the Vic and a few hundred meters down the street to the Hilton Metropole Hotel. The Vic is still hosting, but everyone realizes, poker and the EPT have gotten too big to fit. (You can see the recently released schedule on the EPT London page).
John Duthie, EPT creator said "The PokerStars.com EPT London Poker Festival will have a rich mix of games and buy-ins to cater to the most players possible in a compelling schedule - by poker players, for poker players. This continues on the fundamental programming shift made for last season's EPT Grand Final where we tried to create the best opportunity for all our players, not just higher-rollers, to play a wide mix of poker games and formats at a variety of accessible buy-ins."
And lest you think the Vic isn't going to play as big a role this year, you should know that the old girl is still going to host 28 cash game tables every day of the festival.
As always, PokerStars is running qualifiers aplenty. Get in while you can. The way the festival has been growing, you might want to get a seat while you still can.
