Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Since its inception, Everest Poker has taken an active role in the European poker community by creating the first online poker room to be fully localised in 11 languages with 24/7 customer support in 15 languages. Following the increase in popularity of live and online poker, and the success of Everest Poker's partnership with local European tournaments such as the German Poker Tour 2005 and the French Poker Tour 2005/2006, the site has decided to go a step further in bringing poker to the European community by organising a Europe-wide championship.

The Everest Poker European Championship (EPEC) will take place in 8 countries including France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Holland, and Scandinavia from March to September 2006. The event will consist of a series of free poker tournaments both live and online and run locally throughout Europe. Through these events, 100 players will qualify to represent their country in a European Championship finale which will take place at the world famous Casino de Barcelona in Spain in September 2006.

"We have tailored the local events of the Everest Poker European Championship to the needs and poker level of each market", comments Ken Berman, European product manager for Everest Poker. "Everest Poker is dedicated to making poker a fun and easy to learn game, accessible to all. Our European championship is therefore open to all types of players and all skill levels, and we hope to demonstrate that poker popularity will increase through tournaments such as the EPEC that encourage all types of players to participate."

The winner of the Everest Poker European Championship will win a 50 000 euro prize pool. Winners from local free-roll events and online tournaments will receive a package worth 900 euros which will include a 500 euro buy-in and 400 euros for travel expenses to Barcelona.

The first leg of the EPEC started in Germany on the 3rd March and will run until 28th May 2006. In order to encourage a wider variety of players to participate in the local German events, Everest Poker has partnered with the German Poker Players Association (GPPA) which is the only German poker organization that has official licenses for organising poker tournaments in several German provinces and cities.