The European Poker Tour has returned to Dublin for the very first time in eight years. The Royal Dublin Society is currently playing host to Europe’s most popular poker tour. And it is interesting to note that Dublin was, in fact, EPT’s third-ever stop back in 2004 when the series kicked off.
The €5,300 Main Event, one of the highlight tournaments on the EPT Season 12 Dublin schedule, began on February 14. The event is set to feature two starting flights and five more days of play, and will be concluded on February 20. Day 2 of the major event was completed yesterday with 127 remaining players contending for the first-place prize, the tournament trophy, and the right to call themselves the EPT Season 12 Dublin Main Event champion.
Registration was officially closed on Day 2 and organizers announced the official prize pool and the respective payouts. A total of 605 entries paid the €5,300 buy-in fee to enter the event. They generated an overall prize pool of €3,025,000. The top 87 finishers will receive a share of the money, with lowest payouts starting from €9,100. The money bubble will likely burst on Day 3 of the event. Cards are to be thrown in the air today at noon local time.
The EPT Dublin Main Event champion will receive €561,900, unless a deal is struck among players. What is more, all top 6 finishers will be secured with a six-figure payout.
Unsurprisingly, the tournament attracted the attention of some of poker’s biggest names at present. Winners of multiple poker titles like Mike McDonald, Anthony Zinno, Dominik Panka, Team PokerStars Pros Liv Boeree and Luca Pagano, as well as Mickey Petersen and Jaime Staples, known to be members of PokerStars Team Online, are among those who will be returning for Day 3 of the event. Irishman Steve O’Dwyer, who won two high roller tournaments in January, will also be seen at the tables.
There were, however, some quite experienced and well-known poker players who could not survive Day 2 of the EPT Season 12 Dublin Main Event, with 2014 WSOP Main Event Champion Martin Jacobson and 2015 WSOP Europe Main Event winner Kevin MacPhee being among those.
And despite the cluster of poker stars at the Royal Dublin Society, a relatively unknown player is leading the final 127 into Day 3 of the Main Event. Croatian Ivan Banic will start the day as the chip leader with 381,200 in chips. So far, the player has cashed in two live tournaments collecting a total of $5,726 in those. On the other hand, his online earnings are much more impressive as he has accumulated more than $900,000 at the tables of PokerStars, Full Tilt, and 888 Poker.
As mentioned above, Day 3 of the EPT Season 12 Dublin €5,300 Main Event is slated to start today at noon local time at the Royal Dublin Society.
