After canceling the European Poker Tour's 2021 stop in Prague at the last minute, PokerStars has confirmed three new EPT stops for 2022. We knew the EPT Prague stop would be coming back in early March of 2022. Now it is joined on the calendar by the EPT Sochi and EPT Monte Carlo.
PokerStars Live also announced on its blog the return of four of its most popular regional tours.
For two years, COVID has been laughing as tournament directors make plans. 2021 was due to feature an EPT event in Prague. At the time, the WSOPE was breaking records in Rozvadov in late 2021. However, although the EPT Prague was scheduled right after it and less than 100 miles away PokerStars kicked the plug out of the wall as Czechia activated emergency measures against the fast-spreading Omicron variant.
Now the EPT is returning on relatively safe ground. Czechia has reopened, Sochi barely closed, and Monte Carlo is nicely isolated by the ocean before it and the cliffs at its back.
The three 2022 EPT events are coming in quick succession over the next two months. They are likely to serve as canaries in the COVID ward.
If they succeed, we should see a lot more European tournaments returning. If they collapse again, we will most likely see other events pulled. The most likely outcome, in the latter case, is having to wait to see the lights relit by the WSOPE in November.
Combined tours
The dates for the three 2022 EPT series will be:
- EPT Prague, March 5-16, 2022;
- EPT Sochi, March 18-27, 2022; and
- EPT Monte Carlo, April 28-May 7, 2022.
The full schedules for the EPT can be read on the PokerStars Live website.
Stars also announced the return of several regional tours: the UKIPT in the UK & Ireland, the ESPT in Spain, the FPS in France, and the Eureka Poker Tour in central and eastern Europe.
For convenience, the Eureka Prague and FPS Monte Carlo are coordinated with the EPT series in those cities.
The currently confirmed stops for these four tours are:
• Eureka Prague, March 6-10;
• ESPT Madrid Gran Via, March 28–April 3;
• UKIPT London, April 4-10;
• FPS Monte Carlo, April 28 – May 2;
• Eureka Rozvadov, May 20-29;
• FPS Divonne, October 4-9; and
• FPS Aix-en-Provence, November 22-27.
More stops could be added to any of these tours at any point should COVID and demand allow.
The website does note for the Monegasque and Czech legs that, "The holding of the tournament and its schedules is subject to possible changes arising from the health situation (COVID -19) and the current restrictions in force imposed by the competent [sic] authorities."
This wording is missing from the Sochi page. In Russia, you restrict COVID.
Featured image source: Twitter
