EPT DORTMUND ENTRIES BEAT EXPECTATIONS

1 February 2008

The Pokerstars European Poker Tour Dortmund had a slightly delayed start this week for all the right reasons - more players entering than had been anticipated


The first day of the German event involved a longer registration queue at the Hohensyburg Casino, but play eventually started in a Day 1A that saw 198 contestants, many of them top players such as Gino Alacqua, Juha Helppi, Alex Kravchenko, Julian Thew, Katja Thater, Internet whizz Sorel 'Imper1um' Mizzi and the young Italian pro Dario Minier.

The latter was unfortunately an early casualty, bundled out by Swiss player Claudio Rinaldi. Sorel Mizzi, the Internet champion, followed soon after.

Making it through to Day 2 was Juha Helppi. together with Thater, Swedish pro Mats Iremark and 75 other players from an original Day 1 A field of 198. The starting field for the event is split into Day 1A and Day 1B, with the final table scheduled for next Saturday, February 2nd.

The German Open represents the start of the fourth EPT season, and a return to the March 2007 inaugural Hohensyburg Casino venue for the event. Last year the German Open recorded a total entry of 493 players and generated a prize-pool of Euro 2 317 100 from the Euro 5 000 buy-in for each entry. Norwegian Andreas Hoivold took the title and the winner's purse of Euro 672 000 on that occasion, defeating Italian Cristiano Blanco on the first hand of heads-up play. Blanco took home Euro 380 000 for his second placing.

In this year's event, a total of 97 entrants qualified online at the giant Poker Stars website, including Internet players of the calibre of Mizzi and Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier. German's world famous former tennis champion and Poker Stars ambassador Boris Becker is also scheduled to play in Dortmund.

The German Open is the seventh tournament to be held in this season's EPT, and follows events in Barcelona, London, Baden, Dublin, Prague and Paradise Island in the Bahamas. The average turnout for EPT events this season has seen 520 players competing at each stop, and the average first prize has been around Euro 850 000.

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