The high stakes poker event that has been making millionaires for 20 years

Wales Online

16-05-2025

The high stakes poker event that has been making millionaires for 20 years
The PokerStars European Poker Tour has just celebrated its 20th anniversary, and the EPT Monte Carlo festival is still one of the most prestigious events on the calendar
The view from Monte Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort during EPT Monte Carlo
(Image: Tom Victor )
The European Poker Tour is celebrating its 20th anniversary, and the Monte Carlo tournament is a standout event in the poker calendar.
During the recent PokerStars European Poker Tour event at Sporting Monte Carlo, commentator Joe Stapleton named it a quintessential experience for those looking to try their hand against top players. "I think that as far as the way that poker is regarded, there's different ways of looking at it," Stapleton told the Mirror. "Some people look at it as the World Series of Poker and a Vegas thing, some people look at it as a home game thing.
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"Some people look at it as a smoky room kind of thing. But some people look at it like the James Bond, tuxedos, Ferraris type of thing, and you get a little bit of that here.
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"And I think that's the sort of thing that is always going to be appealing - especially to people who haven't ever experienced it for themselves. I think Monte Carlo specifically is a great first experience for an EPT event."
Even seasoned players like Noah Boeken, who attended the inaugural tournament in 2005, remain captivated by the event's atmosphere at the age of 44.
Boeken, clearly still enamoured with the setting, shared his appreciation: "I love this room. I just sent my girlfriend a video of when the roof goes open at the start of the day and the end of the day when the curtains come up. It's beautiful. I love big spaces and this room is amazing."
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Noah Boeken during EPT Monte Carl
(Image: Danny Maxwell/Rational Intellectual Holdings Ltd 2025 )
Having clinched a title in Copenhagen during the tour's first season and pocketing €147,679 twenty years ago, Boeken is among the few from that time still participating.
Reflecting on the early days, he said, "You'll always remember season one. "Rob Hollink won the first one here, a Dutch guy, a friend of mine. I won season one Copenhagen and that was on TV.
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"I remember they built a stage the same as they do now but there were 200 people watching. You can't imagine it now but back then it was like 'oh my god, the final's going on'."
Boeken expressed his amazement at the longevity of the tour and his own journey within it, adding: "It's just amazing that this tour is still going on for 20 years and I'm happy to still be there. I used to be the youngest and now... I'm not the oldest but I'm not the youngest any more.
As the tournament progresses, the stakes rise on day two, with players having invested €5,300 to compete, though some qualify for less through satellite events. The top 175 out of 1,195 will secure at least €8,500, while the champion stands to win a staggering million euros.
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Boeken managed to navigate a tense hour of gameplay, as the player count dwindled from 178 to 175. He clinched 129th place, pocketing just under $10,000 - marking his largest live cash win in 2025 so far, but a modest sum compared to larger earnings from earlier in his career.
Joe Stapleton speaking at EPT Monte Carlo 2025
(Image: Danny Maxwell/Rational Intellectual Holdings Ltd 2025 )
Stapleton is set to join the live broadcast team alongside seasoned host James Hartigan. Hartigan started covering EPT Monte Carlo for PokerStars back in 2008 and describes his commentary role as akin to that of a commentator on Test Match Special, with the aim of enhancing the natural excitement of the players and gameplay while keeping viewers engaged.
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The poker tables often attract celebrated figures from various realms. Chris Eubank Jr has arrived for an exclusively organised cash game, and celebrities from sports and film circles have made appearances in previous years.
"I remember Kevin Hart being here in 2017," Hartigan recounts. "Obviously we've had a lot of sports stars here over the years, Boris Becker, Rafa Nadal... we've had charity events here which people have come in specifically for, Neymar of course has played here for a few years. That's a huge part of poker, the fact that you never know who you're going to be sat down with, it's the only game in the world where you can be playing with elite professionals and celebrities and some bloke who lives three streets from you."
A handful of poker professionals from the early days are still returning to the game. "I would say very few, but ironically what happened... you see people come and go, you see a few consistent faces, but post-pandemic you suddenly saw a lot of the faces you hadn't seen for maybe 10 or 15 years came back," Hartigan explained. "Because they had rediscovered poker online and then wanted to get back on the live circuit," he explains.
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"But there's one name who I'd always say is a consistent thread is Patrik Antonius. He lives here and jokes about the fact that he can literally walk to the venue, but he's also one of those few players who has just consistently remained competitive and relevant for all of those years, playing the highest stakes, still playing the super high rollers here. He is probably the person I associate with Monaco more than any other, partly because it's his home town but also because he still comes here and still plays the events here."
Patrik Antonius has been a fixture on the European Poker Tour for 20 years
(Image: Danny Maxwell/Rational Intellectual Holdings Ltd 2025 )
Antonius, the Finnish pro who clinched his first EPT main event in Baden in 2005, is among the contenders aiming to join the exclusive club of two-time winners. Victoria Coren Mitchell was the pioneer, securing her first win in 2006 and her second eight years later, with only two others achieving the same feat, yet no one has managed to win twice at the same location.
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Despite the high stakes, there's no shortage of eager participants, with the first events split into two sessions across Sunday and Monday. There were several past Monte Carlo champions in attendance, including Nicolas Chouity (who pocketed €1.7m for his victory in 2010), Steve O'Dwyer (€1.2m in 2013) and Adrian Mateos (€1.1m in 2015 and an additional €1.4m in the Super High Roller in 2022).
The 2025 iteration of the Super High Roller is taking place just a stone's throw away in The Americas Room at the Monte Carlo Bay Hotel and Resort, where the atmosphere is decidedly more laid-back. Entry alone costs a cool €100,000, with over €2m up for grabs for the winner and €1.3m for the runner-up.
Yet one of the newly minted millionaires - sporting merchandise from three different poker companies - blends in so well that you could easily mistake him for any ordinary European chap in his twenties if you bumped into him on the street.
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Of course, not all those vying for the big bucks are quite so inconspicuous. "There was one guy - I don't remember his name - he showed up to play the €100k Super High Roller one year and I heard that his boat had docked, he had no plans to play, he heard about it, he drove his Ferrari off the boat up to the front door and entered the event," Stapleton recounts.
"I think he was out in seven or eight minutes, back in his Ferrari, back on the boat an hour later. That's the kind of story you don't really hear that often, especially in places other than this."
Action from the €100k Super High Roller at the 2025 EPT Monte Carlo
(Image: Danny Maxwell/Rational Intellectual Holdings Ltd 2025 )
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Hartigan and Stapleton jest that, armed with their current knowledge as keen amateurs, they could have held their own in the 2005 Monte Carlo poker scene. At that time, even the top players only knew a fraction of what is known about the game today.
"If you look at how it was then, it was cowboys, it was crazy people, it was people with money but people that didn't know much about poker - including the pros," Boeken recalls. "We were pros, we were better than the rest, but if you put us [in games] now with our skill levels from back then, we would stand no chance."
However, one constant remains: the enduring appeal that keeps many returning. The European Poker Tour used to operate like a football season, running from September to May, culminating in a grand final in Monte Carlo. Now, it's just another stop on the tour, but being there makes it feel more than 'just another stop'.
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"I think, having won or final-tabled this event, any time you go back in that room the memories would come flooding back," Hartigan reflects. "Even if you bust day 1, even if it doesn't work out for you this time, it's still going to have a very positive memory to play in that space.
"I think if you look at all of the stops on the EPT they all have their strengths, they all have their plus points, and that's why i can't give an answer to 'which is your favourite EPT, but I say it and i mean it when i say this is the best poker room we play in.
James Hartigan at the poker table
(Image: Danny Maxwell/Rational Intellectual Holdings Ltd 2024 )
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"I call it the most beautiful poker room in the world, and it is. The fact that you have, and I know that for reasons of tv we often have to have the curtains closed and the roof closed, but the fact that you can have that view over Monte Carlo Bay, the fact that you can have that roof open like Blofeld's volcano, it's just amazing, it's an incredible experience."
The final table took place on Saturday, guaranteeing each of the top eight players a six-figure prize. The game was won by Aleksandr Shevliakov, who home the seven-figure grand prize.
Following this events, some participants will compete in other European tournaments, while others may take a break before heading to Vegas in the summer. One certainty was that a new champion would be crowned, as all previous winners were eliminated before the final day.
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Those seeking a second victory will get their next opportunity in Barcelona in August, with additional EPT events lined up in Malta and Prague later in the year. The desire to win remains strong for some, as Boeken states: "I'm still chasing that second win but I'm going to get there one day."
If you think you've got what it takes to sit down with the pros at the virtual tables, check out the PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker from May 11: https://www.pokerstars.com/poker/tournaments/scoop/