Eight years ago, during the European Poker Tour’s 11th visit to Barcelona, PokerStars Blog published an article titled “Those broken records in full“. It detailed 11 EPT attendance records that had fallen during that 2014 festival, literally a new record smashed every day.

Here we are eight years later learning that the numbers that were so startling in 2014 were positively quaint. You probably know by now that this EPT Barcelona festival, the first since 2019 after an enforced absence, is setting new records once again. And they take everything we’ve seen before and consign it to a footnote in history.

We now have confirmation of just how enormous the EPT Main Event is: registration closed at the start of Day 2 with 2,294 entries on the board. That’s the first time we’ve passed 2,000, and we absolutely soared past it.

This is the biggest European Poker Tour Main Event in history, by an enormous margin — and including the times that the EPT’s definition of Europe stretched to the Bahamas. The previous biggest, here in Barcelona in 2019, had 1,988 entries. That event that broke records in 2014? A mere 1,496.

The prize pool for this tournament is €11.47 million, with at least €1.5 million going to the winner. (To be confirmed soon.) All we can suggest is that you strap in for quite an extraordinary ride coming up over the next few days as we hunt for the player who will win it.

EPT BARCELONA MAIN EVENT HISTORY

2004: 229 players, €229,000 prize pool, Alexander Stevic (Sweden) for €80,000
2005: 327 players, €1,300,000 prize pool, Jan Boubli (France) for €416,000
2006: 480 players, €2,304,000 prize pool, Bjorn-Erik Glenne (Norway) for €691,000
2007: 543 players, €4,181,100 prize pool, Sander Lyloff (Denmark) for €1,170,700
2008: 619 players, €4,952,000 prize pool, Sebastian Ruthenberg (Germany) for €1,361,000
2009: 479 players, €3,832,000 prize pool, Carter Phillips (USA) for €850,000
2010: 758 players, €3,790,000 prize pool, Kent Lundmark (Sweden) for €825,000
2011: 811 players, €4,055,000 prize pool, Martin Schleich (Germany) for €850,000
2012: 1,082 players, €5,247,700 prize pool, Mikalai Pobal (Belarus) for €1,007,550
2013: 1,234 players, €5,984,900 prize pool, Tom Middleton (UK) for €942,000
2014: 1,496 players, €7,255,600 prize pool, Andre Lettau (Germany) for €794,058
2015: 1,694 players, €8,215,900 prize pool, John Juanda (Indonesia) for €1,022,593
2016: 1,785 players, €8,657,250 prize pool, Sebastian Malec (Poland) for €1,122,800
2017: 1,682 players, €8,157,700 prize pool, Sebastian Sorensson (Sweden) for €987,043 *
2018: 1,931 entries, €9,365,350 prize pool, Piotr Nurzynski (Poland) for €1,037,109
2019: 1,988 entries, €9,641,800 prize pool, Simon Brandstrom (Sweden) for €1,290,166
2022: 2,294 entries, €11,470,000 prize pool, Winner TBC.
* held as PokerStars Championship in 2017

MORE TO COME?

This incredible EPT Main Event was only to be expected, of course, following the Estrellas Main Event, which shattered all other attendance records for PokerStars tours.

Back in 2014, the Estrellas event also set a new mark when 2,736 players showed up. This year, there were 6,313 entries (from 2,765 players) to that one, and so the increase in numbers is broadly similar between the two tournaments.

That surely means we’ll be breaking more records. The other events we looked at back in 2014 included the €100K Super High Roller, the €25K High Roller and the Women’s Event. The Super High Roller is the only equivalent tournament that has already been played this time, and there were 68 entries, compared with 58 in 2014. That’s not a record, but it’s an obvious increase on eight years ago.

All the evidence does indeed suggest that the record breaking isn’t over, and the High Roller and Women’s Events, which both start on Friday, are very likely to set new marks. It’s time to start playing that favourite tune again and enjoy.

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FULL EPT BARCELONA STATS
Compiled by Jan Kores, EPT Media Co-ordinator

The EPT Barcelona 2022 Main Event is the biggest EPT Main Event in history in terms of total entries with 2,294 (from 1,686 unique players).

It is a 15% bigger field than in the previous largest EPT Main Event; EPT Barcelona 2019 (1,988 entries)

EPT Barcelona 2016 remains the biggest EPT Main Event in terms of unique entrants (1,785)

Top 10 EPT Main Events in history in terms of entries:
EPT Barcelona 2022 — 2,294 entries, €11,125,900 prize pool
EPT Barcelona 2019 — 1,988 entries, €9,641,800 prize pool
EPT Barcelona 2018 — 1,931 entries, €9,365,350 prize pool
EPT Barcelona 2016 — 1,785 entries, €8,657,250 prize pool
EPT Barcelona 2015 — 1,694 entries, €8,215,900 prize pool
PCA 2011 — 1,560 entries, $15,132,000 prize pool
PCA 2010 — 1,529 entries, $14,831,300 prize pool
EPT Barcelona 2014 — 1,496 entries, €7,255,600 prize pool
PCA 2009 — 1,347 entries, $12,674,000 prize pool
EPT Sanremo 2010 — 1,240 entries, €6,014,000 prize pool

The prize pool stands at €11,125,900.
The top 327 finishers will be paid, with €1,714,000 for the winner.
Min cash: €8,860

Entries: 2,294
Unique players: 1,686
Re-entries: 608
Countries represented: 78

Top five nations: France (210 players or 12.4% of the field), Italy (136 or 8.1%), Spain (115 or 6.8%), Brazil (85 or 5.0%), the Netherlands (84 or 5.0%)

For reference, the EPT Barcelona Main Event 2019 featured 1,489 unique players from 75 countries. The top five nations back then were France (156 players), Spain (92), the USA (96), the United Kingdom (85), and Spain (75).

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