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ONCHAN, Isle of Man – Hundreds of players will be heading to Monaco in just a few weeks after winning packages for flagship events at the Season 11 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino EPT Grand Final.
With a €1,000,000 guarantee for the Main Event first prize and a wide range of online and live satellites on offer, a record number of players are anticipated in Monaco. More than 160 players have already qualified for the €10,600 Main Event and 175 have won entry to the popular France Poker Series €1,100 Main Event. There will be 78 separate tournaments running from April 28 – May 8 at the Monte Carlo Bay Resort. This will set a new record as the biggest PokerStars live festival anywhere in the world.
LARGE RETURN ON A SMALL INVESTMENT
Three players picked up their €14,000 prize packages for nothing at all after outlasting a giant 11,500-strong field in the EPT Grand Final freeroll. A further five players are also heading to Monaco for free after winning their way in to the €700 Mega Qualifier using tickets obtained via PokerStars’ special EPT Million promotion. Those five faced some tough competition with EPT Berlin champion Kevin MacPhee, Mexican pro JC Alvarado and PCA 2014 runner-up Mike McDonald also among those who qualified.
In addition to the eight free-rollers, all of whom will be competing in their very first EPT, there are more than 20 players who have scored an FPS/EPT double – qualifying for both the France Poker Series and EPT Main Events with combined packages worth up to €16,300.
SATELLITE SUPERSTARS
With weeks of seat-only satellites still to come, huge numbers of online qualifiers are expected to compete in Monaco, and are certain to add to the outstanding results achieved by satellite winners overall in Season 11. So far this season, more than 1,300 players have won their seats online and nearly 200 have cashed, snagging over an astonishing €6.5 million in winnings between them.
Some Season 11 qualifiers have returned home with monster prizes including American Sam Phillips, who became an instant millionaire finishing second for €1,021,275 at the record-breaking EPT Barcelona. Serial EPT qualifier Kevin MacPhee took home £308,500 for his second place finish in London, while in Deauville Romania’s Dany Parlafes scooped €338,700 for his runner-up finish in January. PCA champion Dominik Panka recently added another €347,300 to his bankroll after finishing third at EPT Malta.
Joining forces with the national France Poker Series, this season’s Grand Final includes a massive range of events to suit players of all kinds – from €100 turbo events right up to the prestigious €100,000 Super High Roller. Many events are making their debut in Monaco including the first ever single-day €50k Super High Roller, and the “Poker for Pink” Charity Event on May 2 raising money for Pink Ribbon Monaco, an organization dedicated to breast cancer awareness and prevention. There will also be EPT-run cash games running from noon until 5.30am every day with a wide variety of formats and buy-in levels, and highly competitive rake.
