As usual, in the months leading up to the World Series of Poker, there are a ton of big money tournaments leading up to the biggest tournament series of the year. The Winter can be a bit of a slow time for poker, but as Spring, the tournaments increase, and players get ready for the biggest time of the year. With multiple EPT events, WPT events, and a World Series of Poker Circuit stop upcoming, you can be assured new millionaires will be made at an alarming rate.
The World Poker Challenge in Reno, Nevada has been quite a long series, with 35 events leading up to tomorrow’s $7.7k Main Event, which is a WPT event. As the series comes to an end, the action has been fast and furious, with notable online pros taking down nice scores. Matt Graham, better known as mattg1983 on most sites, took down event 32. 101 players ponied up the $2k buyin, and Matt won it for $47,060. Just two events before, Jason Gray, a talented online player, took down the $1.5k event for $39,541. The Main Event begins tomorrow and runs until Friday, March 28th, culminating at the final table. The action begins tomorrow at 12:00 PDT.
Another extremely popular series began today. The Foxwoods Poker Classic attracts a great deal of players, as the Foxwoods Casino is a popular casino amongst many pros. It hosts some excellent events, though it is a bit short. Only ten events deep, but with two amazing events at the end of the series. The ninth event is a $50k buyin event, which is sure to attract the best and the brightest in the poker world, and is sure to provide some amazing storylines. The final event, yet another WPT event, is a $10k buyin. The series runs until the beginning of the Championship Event on April 4th, which finishes up on April 9th.
The WSOP Circuit will be stopping in Indiana, starting next Monday with multiple satellites to the Main Event of the series. It will include 11 events leading up to the Main Event. Most of the events are below $1k, but they do include some interesting tournaments. There’s a $550 6-max event, a $225 ladies event, and a $550 ½ No Limit Hold ‘Em, ½ Pot Limit Omaha event, which is sure to be an interesting one. The Main Event of the series is a $5,150 two-day event beginning on April 13th. It should be noted that this is one of the last stops before the World Series this summer, with only stops in Las Vegas and New Orleans ahead.
Yet another successful EPT Season is coming to an end, as Season 4 is getting very close to their amazing Main Event. But before that, they’re going to be in Italy for the first time ever. The PokerStars sponsored series has become increasingly popular this season, with tournaments selling out left and right. The stop in San Remo, Italy, will be no different as it’s already sold out. It’ll begin on April 1st, and end on April 5th. It will begin with a $7.7k Main Event, and have five side events throughout the five-day tournament.
This all leads up to the biggest EPT Event of the year, the Monte Carlo Grand Final. To say that this tournament is important would be an understatement. Last year the winner was Gavin Griffin, who won it for $2.4 million. The final table included numerous pros, such as Marc Karam (who made the final table in 2006 as well), Andrew Black, and Ram Vaswani. The buy in this year comes to about $16.3k U.S., and will be a six-day event. For those of you still looking to get into this prestigious tournament, there are still a great deal of satellites running on Poker Stars, so get to it while you still can! The event begins on April 12th, and ends on April 17th.
That is all for this week, keep tuned to FTR Blogs as the tournament scene heats up in the coming weeks!