If you like online poker, then you must follow the World Series of Poker, which, in turn, doesn’t mean you follow the World Series of Poker Europe, because, up until now, the WSOPE was the Disney Europe to the WSOP’s Disneyworld. But the organizers of the 2017 WSOPE poker festival, which already had the makings of one of the biggest poker festivals of the ever, have made an announcement that obliterates all that we though this tourney was going to be and replaces it with all kinds of even more awesomeness. The €10,300 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event was originally announced as having a €4 million guaranteed prize pool, but has been increased to €5,000,000. Additionally, the eventual champion is now guaranteed winnings of at least a €1,000,000 plus the coveted championship bling-bling.
“We are encouraged by the number of early bookings for the WSOPE, so much so that we have raised the total guarantee of the Main Event to €5,000,000 and now guarantee €1,000,000 to the winner,” Leon Tsoukernik, owner of King’s Casino Rozvadov in, for the first time ever, the Czech Republic, at which the gargantuan poker festival is set to take place, from October 19 through November 10, 2017, said. “My advice is to book now and secure your spot.” The entire competition will feature €21 million in guaranteed prizes across 84 individual tournaments, with 11 gold bracelet events accounting for €18 million of the prize pools. That’s the stuff online poker dreams are made of.
Buy-ins will range from as low as €550 to as high as $111,111 in the inaugural European Colossus event, schedule October 27-31 with a €2,000,000 guaranteed prize pool. There are, in addition to no-limit hold’em, three pot-limit Omaha bracelets on offer, one of which is reserved for the eight-or-better variety of PLO. “I’m so proud that that the WSOP Europe is coming to King’s,” Tsoukernik said. “I started off with a dream and my dream has come true and I hope poker players have their dreams come true too when they see the sheer size and facilities of King’s. With the awarding of WSOP gold bracelets, we have brought a huge piece of Las Vegas to Europe and we aim to deliver Vegas standards with this event too.”
According to WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart, the Europe version of the tourney had, since its debut in 2007, struggled to find a permanent location, because, basically, there is only one Vegas, baby. “But I truly believe in Leon’s vision, his passion and King’s Casino to execute the best WSOP Europe to date,” Stewart said. “We are bullish in this becoming the European equivalent of the WSOP in Las Vegas, something we have always dreamed of doing when we first began our foray into Europe a decade ago.” The WSOPE was previously held in England, Germany, and France. The 2016 edition was held from October 8-24 at the Spielbank Casino in Berlin, Germany and was won by American professional online poker player Kevin MacPhee.