The European Poker Tour, and Young Players Shine

As you are reading this, the second season of the European Poker Tour (EPT) has just reached its conclusion. In the January 2006 issue, the founder of the EPT, John Duthie, talked about the past, present, and future of the Tour. In the beginning, people were somewhat skeptical about both the Tour and the TV coverage. Nowadays, however, these skeptics are just a minority.



As was the case with the first season, Duthie and his team have been able to strike a deal with Eurosport, which in Duthie's view is "the most logical platform, and the binding factor that European poker needs." As simple as this may seem to people in the United States, who are used to seeing poker on TV in prime time, in Europe, making this happen was far from easy. Problems included the game's legality in some countries, the many languages in Europe, making it very hard to produce a successful product for the market, and a sports TV station that had never broadcast any poker before, let alone at the heart of the channel's schedule. Despite the fact that the first few shows got lots of criticism – and the commentators in the various countries received the same unflattering remarks that Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten received when they began their highly successful World Poker Tour broadcasts – it seems that everyone now agrees that these shows are great.



Just as the first season of the EPT produced new stars like Alexander Stevic and Brandon Schaefer, and had a superb winner in Dutchman Rob Hollink, the second season has also put some new players on the European poker map. One of the players who impressed me the most was Patrik Antonius, a young man from Helsinki who won the EPT Baden event and took third place in Barcelona. While many young players are able to book some occasional good results through sheer aggression, Patrik seems to have much more than that. He plays with a smooth rhythm and calmness that are very unusual for a man of his age. In this issue, you will read an extensive story about this man, one of the best young players in European poker who is also a great example of the way someone should behave at the table: calm, friendly, never sour after losing a pot, and never one to brag after winning one.



Just after completion of my story on Patrik, he took second place in the $15,000 buy-in main event at Bellagio's Five-Diamond World Poker Classic, and took home more than $1 million. He was beaten by Rehne Pedersen from Aalborg, Denmark, who pocketed more than $2 million, while another one of my favorite young players finished eighth: Bengt Sonnert from Linköping, Sweden. It was a great performance by these Europeans, who – despite an incredibly tough field of 555 players, and facing the best Americans on their turf – managed to come out on top.



A large compliment should also go to Londoner Mark Teltscher. After what was considered by many as a fluky win at the EPT event in London, he proved otherwise by taking the $5,000 no-limit hold'em event at Bellagio for a $374,965 first prize. It was one more strong performance from another of these up-and-coming young players, all of whom have a very bright future ahead of them.