When the European Poker Tour (EPT) gathers for the final event of its seventh season in Madrid next month, more than just the Grand Final title will be up for grabs.
Reflecting on its seven-year history, the EPT has decided to hold its first ever Champion of Champions tournament, an invitation-only event only open to former EPT champions. The tournament, a freeroll, currently features 40 previously crowned champions and includes some of the top names in the game. There are roughly 20 players who have not confirmed their appearance, but EPT officials state there is still time for them to RSVP.
Even though such players as Full Tilt Poker’s Patrik Antonius (EPT Season 2 Baden Champion), top English pro Julian Thew (EPT Season 4 Baden winner), Ram Vaswani (EPT Season 1 Dublin champion), and Triple Crown winner Gavin Griffin (EPT Season 3 Grand Final champion) have yet to confirm their appearance at the Champion of Champions tournament, the field that is confirmed could be one of the strongest in recent history.
Leading the list of confirmed players is another Triple Crown winner, Roland de Wolfe, as well as fellow top pros Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Jason Mercier, Pascal Perrault, and Peter Jepsen.
The three women who have captured championships on the EPT – Vicky Coren, Sandra Naujoks, and Liv Boeree – have all confirmed that they will be in attendance. In their attempt to become the Champion of Champions, however, the ladies will have to face not only the above players, but also tough French pro Arnaud Mattern, former Grand Final winner Glen Chorny, and recent PokerStars Caribbean Adventure champion Galen Hall.
The freeroll will see the top four players to walk away with something for their time. $100,000 in tournament buy-ins for Season 8 of the EPT will be split among the top four players, with the Champion of Champions winner taking home $50,000. The tournament will take place on May 13th following the completion of the EPT Grand Final at the Casino Gran Madrid.
While this will be the first time that the EPT has held such a prestigious event, other tours have had similar tournaments with mixed results.
The World Series of Poker (WSOP) has intermittently held the Tournament of Champions since 2004, when nine players were invited to a winner-take-all $2 million freeroll. Annie Duke defeated Phil Hellmuth in the first ever event to capture the title.
Although the event was held in 2005 and 2006, the format was changed from an invitation-only tournament to one that players had to qualify for by finishing at the final table of the previous year’s WSOP Main Event or winning a Circuit championship event. The 2005 tournament was most notable for Mike Matusow’s championship run – and resurrection in the game – while 2006 saw an epic battle between eventual champion Mike Sexton and Daniel Negreanu.
After the 2006 tournament, however, the Tournament of Champions was not held again until 2010. When it was brought back, the public voted the field in, with the only caveat for consideration being that the player was a previous WSOP bracelet winner. The 2010 freeroll featured a $1 million prize pool and was won by former Main Event Champion Huck Seed.
The World Poker Tour has only held two events that would be comparable to the Champion of Champions tournament. The first, which was a made-for-TV tournament televised on NBC as counter-programming to the CBS broadcast of Super Bowl XXXVIII in 2004, was won by veteran player Ron Rose.
A year later, the 11 champions of WPT events that year gathered for the second running of the Battle of Champions, with Tuan Le taking home the title. Since that time, however, the WPT has not held such an event.
