April 25 2012, Brett Collson

Season 8 of the European Poker Tour is still going strong at the PokerStars.com and Monte-Carlo® Casino European Poker Tour Grand Final this month, but the world’s leading online poker site has wasted no time in gearing up for Season 9.

On Wednesday, PokerStars announced big changes to next season’s EPT schedule as the number of tour stops was reduced from 13 to eight. However, each destination will offer more tournaments with nearly two weeks of poker at each stop. The first event will be held in Barcelona on Aug. 15, and the tour will then travel to San Remo, Prague, the Bahamas, Deauville, London, Berlin, and Monaco.

The EPT will also join forces with the Estrellas Poker Tour and the UK & Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT) to give more players an opportunity to compete in Europe’s biggest and most prestigious poker tour.

“We looked at every EPT season up until now and asked ourselves how we could make the tour even better for the players,” said EPT President Edgar Stuchly. “In the end, every change comes down to making this a better tour for the people who make this tour what it is: our players.”

In addition to the abundance of lower buy-in events, the EPT will host more High Roller tournaments in the upcoming season. The first high roller will be a televised “50,000 event in Barcelona, followed by “25,000 High Roller and “100,000 Super High Roller tournaments at the PCA in the Bahamas and Grand Final in Monte Carlo.

There will also be a “10,000 Championship Series event at every stop, giving players a chance to show off their skills in a variety of different formats, including heads-up, pot-limit Omaha and 8-game.

“We have had a lot of fun working with our players and our tournament staff to create some of the most exciting poker tournaments in the world,” said EPT Live Poker Specialist Neil Johnson. “With all the incredible improvements coming to the tour, many of them created from player suggestions, EPT 9 will solidify us as the can’t-miss destination for European poker.”

Here’s a look at the schedule for Season 9 of the EPT:

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April 24 2012, Lee Davy

After 10 hours of pulsating poker of the highest quality, the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino European Poker Tour Super High Roller field was whittled down to a final table of eight players. The lucky and skilful octet will be returning on Wednesday at 1200 CET (0300 PDT) vying for their share of a staggering “4,432,500 prize pool. First place will walk away with “1,640,000, and currently occupying the top spot in chips is Justin Bonomo with a stack of 4,393,000.

Bonomo is a shining example of how fickle the game of poker can be. He goes into the final table with a commanding chip lead, but it could have been very different for the man who has $2,902,638 in live tournament winnings to his name.

With blinds at 3,000/6,000 Tony G opened the action with a raise to 14,000, and Patrik Antonius made the call before Bonomo three-bet to 46,000. Tony G came right back at him with a three-bet to 114,000, Antonius folded, and Bonomo moved all in for 400,000. The players were expecting something big, the media was expecting something big, but nobody expected what happened next!

Tony G folded , face up, and the whole tournament floor seemed to stop in time! A shocked Bonomo dragged in his pot, and as you know, went on to become chip leader. Did Bonomo have aces? Did Bonomo get a Christmas and birthday present rolled into one? Only Bonomo knows the answer, but from that moment on, he dominated proceedings and is in great shape when the final table begins on Wednesday.

Joining Bonomo on that final table are Tobias Reinkemeier (1,682,000), Masa Kagawa (1,076,000) and Patrik Antonius (338,000). Those three will be joined by four Team PokerStars Pros: Daniel Negreanu (1,581,000), Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier (1,265,00), Jonathan Duhamel (654,000) and Eugene Katchalov (262,000).

PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino EPT Grand Final Super High Roller Final Table Lineup

Please make sure you keep it locked on PokerNews at 1200 CET (0300 PDT) on Wednesday to find out who is going to be a millionaire for the day. There’s a share of “4,432,500 up for grabs and all of the action will come to you from the pages of PokerNews.

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