Back to France

11/22/2008

Good news for poker tournament fans is that Poker Stars.com will be putting France back on to its European Poker Tour programme after an hiatus of two years due to a now changing but originally unfriendly French legislative environment.

The company has confirmed that the Casino Barriere Deauville will be part of the EPT's fifth season, which will run from January 20-24, 2009.

According to an statement issued by the EPT's chief executive, John Duthie, an extensive lineup of Team PokerStars pros is in prospect and includes Vanessa Rousso, Vicky Coren, Isabelle Mercier and Katja Thater, along with Bertrand "ElkY' Grospellier, Noah Boeken, Alex Kravchenko, Luca Pagano, Dario Minieri and Chad Brown. Duthie advises that a big entry field is expected, and registrations will therefore be capped at 700 players, which will generate a prize pool of some Euro 3 360 000.

The online poker company will be running a series of Internet qualifiers which will enable players short of the EPT buy-in of Euro 5 300 to win packages that include buy-in, travel and accommodation allowances.