$$ Cash 4 Seat $$

The European Poker Tour has just released its schedule for the April 25-30 Grand Final, and among the events is one of the more interesting formats to come out of poker in recent years: the €25,000 High Roller Bounty Shootout tournament

Made famous across the Atlantic during the North American Poker Tour event at The Venetian, the Bounty Shootout format puts a bounty on every player’s head. Players must win their single table tournaments to win any money beyond the bounties. When they reach the final table, the remainder of the prize pool is winner-take-all.

At The Venetian, 49 players faced off in the first-ever High Roller Bounty Shootout tournament. Ashton Griffin won nearly half a million bucks for his victory.

Ashton Griffin

The Bounty Shootout is just one of the many highlights on the EPT Grand Final schedule. More than 20 tournaments are slated to go off during the week-long festival.

If you want your action fast, there will be two-table turbo tournaments running all day everyday with buy-ins from €200 to €10,000 or more. In addition to the fast action, there are near-nightly €300 no-limit tourneys, two €1,000 no-limit hold’em turbos, and a no-limit turbo €1,000 six-max event. A three-day six-max €5,250 freezeout event is also scheduled to begin April 28.

If you’re among the many poker playing women coming to the Grand Final, the now regular EPT Ladies Event will once again be part of the PokerStars Luxury Ladies Poker Club’s five-day extravaganza.

Finally, in addition to the High Roller Bounty Shootout event, on April 26 the EPT will host a special €1,100 turbo tourney. Every player in the event will have a bounty on his head, but a certain number of randomly-chosen people will be secret “jackpot players” who pay a lot more.

For full details, head on over to the EPT Monte Carlo schedule page.

European Poker Tour players have just two events left to stake their claim on some of the most coveted titles on the EPT.

Next month in Monte Carlo the European Poker Tour will honor its top performers from Season 6. The winners of these awards represent the very best the EPT has had to offer over the course of the dozen events leading up to the Grand Final.

Since the start of Season 6, players have earned EPT points for cashing in the main events and side events. It’s been a tight race the whole season long and it could come down to the wire in several categories.

As we prepare to head into EPT Snowfest, there is a three-way tie for Player of the Year. That honor goes to the player who collected the most points in all of the Main Events and $1000+ buy-in side events. With two events remaining, Maxim Lykov, Kevin MacPhee, and Martin Kabrhel are all tied for the top spot.

Kevin MacPhee

The EPT Awards will also recognize players in individual disciplines, including Omaha Player of the Year and Mixed Game Player of the year.

One of the more interesting ongoing battles is the fight for Online Qualifier of the Year. As of today, the top two performing qualifiers (based on a formula that takes into consideration number of seats won and live tournament performance) are Carter Phillips and Pierre Neuville.

Pierre Neuville

The Czech Republic is currently leading the race for EPT Country of the Year, The country that has the most cashes and points per capita will earn this award. Portugal, Israel, and Norway are still in the hunt.

Finally, there are two awards that will be decided by vote. The EPT Achievement of the Year Award will recognize the player who put on the most impressive performance in the first 12 events of the EPT. The EPT People’s Choice Award will go the fans’ favorite.

The award ceremony will take place during the EPT Grand Final at the end of April. For full rankings and information, visit the EPT Awards home page.

There was never any secret about whether the EPT would return to Germany. There was hardly a person on tour who didn’t like Deutschland. The only question when the Season 6 EPT schedule came out was where in Germany the EPT would end up.

That answer came this week when the EPT announced it will be traveling for the first time ever to the historic city of Berlin.

Indeed, Germany’s biggest city will play host to what is expected to be the biggest poker tournament ever held in the country. March 2-7, the EPT will host up to 1,000 players in a brand new facility.

Right in the middle of Berlin, on the prestigious Marlene-Dietrich-Platz at Potsdamer Platz, crews will build a two story glass palace especially for the EPT Berlin event.

Beyond being in a new city and new building, the event will host the glitterati of German poker. Scheduled to appear: tennis legend and Team PokerStars SportStar Boris Becker, the whole of of Team PokerStars Germany, and all the other guests from Germany’s top televised poker show “TV Total PokerStars.de Nacht.”

As if that’s not enough, PokerStars is making a promise (and it’s a big one):

The winner of EPT Berlin will win at least one million euros.

That, folks, is quite a guarantee.

In the meantime, the EPT has several more fantastic stops.

We’re all headed to the Bahamas in a couple of weeks for the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure held from Jan 4 - 14. It’s then onto Deauville January 20 - 25, then Copenhagen February 16-21.

For more information on all EPT Season 6 tournaments, head on over to the EPT tournaments web page.

Just a few weeks backk, Dustin Mele won the PokerStars Passport. He has already started his trips around the world. His first journey took hm to Dortmund, Germany for the European Poker Tour event there. This is his account of his first trip.

By Dustin Mele

EPT Dortmund was a great experience. I had a great time and made some new friends. Right from one of our connecting flights from Munich to Dortmund my girlfriend and I met fellow poker stars players who had also won satellites to the event on poker stars, and were also staying at the Hilton hotel near the casino. We arrived in Dortmund on Monday, January 28th and took a cab to the Hilton hotel. The Hilton was very nice and the people who worked there were very helpful.

The first night there PokerStars was hosting a party for all the players at the Bay Club, Nightrooms. It was a very nice club in downtown Dortmund. When we arrived there was complimentary food and open bar all night. There was also entertainment including podium dancers and snake performers. We had so much fun, we missed the shuttle back to the hotel.

The following day was Day 1 of the tournament. We were ready to deal the first hand at 3:30. From the beginning I could tell that my table was pretty loose. I played pretty tight in the beginning, picking my spots and getting a feel for each player at the table. When the blinds started getting bigger, I kicked it into gear and started chipping away as much as possible building my stack to about 19,000 from the 10,000 starting stack. As players were getting eliminated, tables were being broken down and new players were coming to the table. One player was playing about 9 out of 10 pots and put several bad beats on the table. He was calling all-ins with bottom pair and hitting two outers to eliminate players from the tournament.

So, I decided to tighten up a bit with about an hour of play left on Day 1. I was being patient and sitting with the 19,000 chip stack for a while, because it was a four-day tournament and I was card dead for a while during the last few hours on Day 1 until, with about 20 minutes of play left, I picked up pockets kings.

The table was still playing loose, so I raised four and half times the big blind. The only player that called was the same player that was calling all-ins with bottom pair and was accumulating a big stack by getting lucky. So, I knew I had to play this hand strong against him. The flop came 8h6s2d–nothing to worry my pocket kings with a rainbow flop like that. He checked to me and I bet more than what was in the pot so I wouldn’t give him pot odds to call with a weak hand.

He called and the turn came 6d. He checked to me instantly. Watching him play for a few hours I knew it was very possible he could have any garbage hand with a 6 in it, so I decided to play it safe and just check. The river came Ah. He bet 3,500. At this point the pot sat some where around 22,000 and my stack sat around 8,000. So, a few things I have to think about. One is that I am getting ridiculously good pot odds to call, but also, why would he bet so little with so much in the pot. He must want me to call.

He has just turned over so much garbage that he could have easily been beat by my kings-up with and there was just far too much in the pot to fold for 3,500. So I call him and he flips over 6h3s. Figured he had it, but couldn’t bring myself to fold getting almost 7 to 1 odds. I was thinking risk over reward. I either go into Day 2 with over 30,000–above average–or I have to comeback from the short stack regardless. Unfortunately my stack only sat at 4,300 at the end of Day 1.

Going into Day 2, blinds were 400, 800, with a 100 ante. So, I only had about five times the BB. The button started giving me one free hand until my big blind. I knew that if I picked up any pocket pair or any decent hand, I would have to go all-in and try to double up and get back into the tournament. The very first hand I picked up was pocket twos, the worst pocket pair possible. But I knew I had to do it. I am not the type to just dwindle away so I go in firing. I go all-in and one player calls me. He unfortunately had an over pair. He flipped over pocket sevens and turned a set. I was eliminated.

When all was said and done I still had a great time. Unfortunately I did not get my first EPT title yet, but just two weeks after getting home I am getting right back on a plane and going to play in EPT Copenhagen. I am very determined to get my first EPT title under my belt.

Here’s Mele’s first interview from his Passport travels