European Poker Tour has amended their Player of the Year leaderboard for Season 11 with a new three-tier structure designed to celebrate the achievements of players across all bankrolls.
The European Poker Tour (EPT) is a name that evokes imagery of class, high quality and big money.
So it comes as a surprise – albeit a nice one – to wake up this morning and read that they have decided to create a new Player of the Year (POY) structure recognizing the achievements of players at the low end of the buy-in scale.
With immediate effect the European Poker Tour (EPT) POY race will be divided into three different categories: Gold, Silver and Bronze. Each leaderboard will continue to be powered by the Global Poker Index (GPI) formula, and the change is good news for the players who frequent the smaller buy-in fields.
- EPT11 Player of the Year Gold — Includes all open events. It is expected the winner of this award will be the player with the best results in EPT Main Events and High-Roller event.
- EPT11 Player of the Year Silver — Includes all open events with buy-in of US $4,000 and below. It is expected the winner of this award will be the player most successful at large side events.
- EPT11 Player of the Year Bronze — Includes all open events with buy-in of US $600 and lower. It is expected the winner of this award will be the player most successful at smaller side events.
“I’m happy that the EPT and Global Poker Index continue to work together to establish industry standards. We share a vision and commitment to promote poker as a global and unified sport to a mainstream audience.” Said GPI President Alexandre Dreyfus.
The EPT changes come two months after Dreyfus and his team announced their plans to launch the GPI Challenger Cup. A new leaderboard ranking system that focuses purely on the lower end of the buy-in spectrum. This unique leaderboard system also honors three different tiers with winners being crowned in North America, Europe and Asia.
The EPTs move is not only in line with GPI strategy; it also makes perfect sense. In recent years the EPT has expanded it’s ‘tour series’ to encompass the smaller buy-in events, with the likes Estrellas, Eureka, French Poker Series (FPS) and United Kingdom & Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT) all part of the bigger picture.
“The European Poker Tour caters to an incredible spectrum of players of all skill levels and bankrolls, and we believe the Player of the Year should reflect that,” said Edgar Stuchly, President of the European Poker Tour. “Each stop of the EPT is a huge poker festival and this change allows us to recognize this diversity.”
The changes to the EPT POY leaderboard come less than a fortnight after the news broke that the World Poker Tour (WPT) were also inking a deal that saw their POY race powered by the GPI formula, and their smaller WPT500, WPT Deepstack and WPT Regional & National events were also included in the rankings.
