PokerStars Launches New Live Series but Nixes First EPT of 2025
PokerStars Live is known for its European Poker Tour (EPT) tournaments as well as its regional tours, like its North American Poker Tour (NAPT) and Brazilian Series of Poker (BSOP). These tours may not offer the most stops or heart-stopping prize pool guarantees, but they are consistently well-run and reputable, well-attended and player friendly. And as the December poker wars demonstrated, EPT Prague fared quite well by providing a consistent, dependable option.
As PokerStars prepares for its 2025 season of live tours, its EPT schedule actually hit a bump, but the new PokerStars Open series is right on the mark to give the players the options they want.
Introducing PokerStars Open Series
As the European Poker Tour was wrapping its EPT Prague in December, PokerStars took the opportunity to announce its newest endeavor. The PokerStars Open will be a live poker series that resembles the mid-majors that have become wildly popular, such as the Mid-States Poker Tour to RunGood Poker Series in America to the WSOP Circuit and WPT Prime that span the world. As in those series, many of the events at each PokerStars Open stop will be of the low to mid buy-in variety, with a Main Event at the $1K/€1K/£1K range. Even better, each Main Event will feature a €1M/£1M guarantee.
Per the PokerStars announcement, the PokerStars Open will incorporate the most popular elements of former tours like the UK & Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT), France Poker Series (FPS), Eureka, Estrellas, and so forth. Now under the Open umbrella, the series can cover those markets with a singular format.
The 2025 PokerStars Open schedule is as follows:
- PokerStars Open Campione: March 10-16 at Casino di Campione in Como, Italy
- Irish Open: April 10-21 at Royal Dublin Society in Ireland
- PokerStars Open Namur: May 28 – June 9 at Circus Casino Resort Namur in Belgium
- PokerStars Open Malaga: June 16-22 at Gran Madrid/Casino Torrequebrada in Malaga, Spain
- PokerStars Open Manchester: October 20-26 at Manchester235 in UK
- PokerStars Open Cannes: December 8-14 at Palace of Festivals & Congresses of Cannes in France
The Campione stop will be most indicative of a normal PS Open stop, with a week of action including a €1,100 Main Event (€1M GTD, €2,200 High Roller, and €400 Mystery Bounty Cup. The Irish Open is a unique part of the PS Open tour because it is done in coordination with Paddy Power, and this year it will celebrate the Irish Open’s 45th anniversary. This will be a much larger-than-usual event, including a Main Event with a €2.5M guarantee and a Mini Irish Open with a €1M guarantee.
EPT Updated to Exclude Paris
The first stop of the 2025 European Poker Tour was supposed to start in Paris in February. However, in the midst of the EPT Prague festival in December, PokerStars was forced to make a disappointing announcement. PokerStars and Club Barriere had to cancel the EPT Paris due to “unforeseen changes in French government policies and ongoing regulatory developments in Paris, which are entirely beyond our control.”
PokerStars did note that the two entities are staying updated regarding licensing requirements and opportunities, and they want to reschedule EPT Paris if the laws allow.
This means that the first EPT stop of 2025 is in Monte Carlo from April 30 to May 10. Players are likely very hopeful that PokerStars will arrange another stop before then. As it stands, the 2025 schedule includes only two festivals:
- EPT Monte Carlo: April 30 – May 10 at Sporting Monte-Carlo in Monaco
- EPT Barcelona: August 18-31 at Casino Barcelona in Spain
Of course, EPT Prague will almost certainly be added for December, considering its success in 2024 on top of many past years.
BSOP 2025 Starts in February
The Brazilian Series of Poker continues to grow in popularity, so it’s no surprise that the 2025 schedule already shows six major festivals on the calendar. The action will start in Costa do Sauipe in February and continue on through the BSOP Millions in November. The schedule currently shows:
- BSOP Costa do Sauipe: February 6-11 at Sauipe Resorts in Bahia
- BSOP Sao Paulo: March 13-19 at WTC Sheraton in Sao Paulo
- BSOP Gramado: May 1-6 at Wish Serrano Resort in Lawn
- BSOP Winter Millions: July 22-31 at WPC Sheraton in Sao Paulo
- BSOP Foz do Iguacu: October 1-8 at Wish Foz do Iguacu Resort in Iguasu Fog
- BSOP Millions: November 14-29 at WTC Sheraton in Sao Paulo
