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Following in the footsteps of the World Poker Tour, first broadcast by the Travel Channel in 2003, the European Poker Tour was developed as a television series to follow the world's professional poker players in the major tournaments across Europe. In 2004, the popularity of Texas Hold'em poker was exploding across the world, not only in the states, but also in Europe, and this brought major European talent to light, including players like Ram Vaswani, Marcel Luske and Ross Boatman.
The major European Poker Tour tournaments are held in Dublin (Ireland), London (UK), Copenhagen (Denmark), Deauville (France), Barcelona (Spain), Baden (Germany) and, of course, Monte Carlo in Monaco. The culmination of the series is held in Monte Carlo, where the ten finalists and runners up from the preliminary tournaments will play for the European Poker Tour Grand Champion title. In 2005, the Grand Champion was Rob Hollink, from Holland, who scooped the first prize of €650,000.
There are several differences between the World Poker Tour and the European Tour however, most notably that the EPT buy-in is approximately half that of the WPT. This means that the prize pools are smaller, but with EPT first prizes still in the region of $100,000, many top poker competitors still find the tour worth their while! Some of best players in the world, including champions Chris Moneymaker, Isabelle Mercier, and Greg Raymer have all taken part in the European Poker Tour, so star quality is certainly not lacking. The other major difference is that the World Poker Tour has only 6 players at the final table, where the European Poker Tour has 8.
The European Poker Tour has backing from an influential team. First of all, the tour is sponsored by the most innovative online poker room on the internet - PokerStars.com. This online poker room and poker resource has run over ten million poker tournaments, and dealt over 2 billion hands to its players. The site also has influence in live tournaments, making stars of Chris Moneymaker and Greg Raymer, who both won their entries to the World Series of Poker through playing online.
The CEO and Executive Producer of the European Poker Tour is John Duthie, and experienced director of UK dramas, including "Silent Witness" and "Clocking Off" which won a BAFTA. Importantly, John Duthie is also an avid poker player, winning the Poker Million tournament in 2000 on live TV, which had a million pound first prize, but which also launched the popularity of poker in the UK. He also made it to the final table of the $3,000 No Limit Hold'em event at the World Series of Poker 2005.
Thomas Kremser is the European Poker Tour Tournament Director, who is also the CEO of the International Poker Federation, and the tournament director for Channel Four's Late Night Poker Series. His aim is to promote poker as a recognised sport.
Sunset & Vine is a company that specialises in the production of sports programmes and international advertiser supplied programming. Sunset & Vine supply over 2000 hours of television each year and has also produced and distributed the Gillette World Sport magazine show for the past 18 years.
Commentators for the show are John Duthie and Colin Murray, an experienced sports and radio presenter. Caroline Flack brings feminine glamour to the team and hosts the show, interviewing the professional poker players and opening up the world of poker to the viewers.
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