This year marks the 10th anniversary of the PokerStars European Poker Tour and here at PokerPlayer we have enjoyed every year of it. The tour quickly gained popularity and approval, providing a quality television production and endless hours of fantastic entertainment.
While you can now watch the action in real time on EPT Live – a sleek broadcast with James Hartigan and Joe Stapleton (amongst others) as your guides – the highlights packages have always been a sure bet for some stellar hands. With EPT Deauville in full swing, here are our favourite EPT hands up until now…
5. Ben Wilinofsky vs. Joep van den Bijgaart – EPT7 Berlin
There have been countless coolers in EPT history and some of the best have probably gone unnoticed away from the feature table. The difference here is the introduction of a world class fold into the mix. While cold three-betting the flop and folding is perhaps the wrong way to play top two pair, you can’t deny van den Bijgaart has come out quite the hero…
4. Jake Cody vs. Teodor Caraba – EPT6 Deauville
On his way to a stunning victory, Jake Cody is heads-up and raises his button. He finds a call from Teodor Caraba who cautiously calls down the Englishmen, until the river where he is faced with a difficult decision…
3. Vanessa Selbst vs. Kevin MacPhee – EPT8 Berlin
There’s not much we like better than a good old fashioned pre-flop levelling war. Add in a quite frankly excellent speech from MacPhee, a genius Vanessa Selbst reaction and shocked caught-in-the-middle onlooker Liv Boeree and you have EPT gold…
2. Benny Spindler vs. Paul Foltyn – EPT8 London
We did say there wasn’t much we liked better than a good old fashioned pre-flop levelling war! A fight breaks out between the uber-aggro Benny Spindler and UK pro Paul Foltyn which results in this from Joe Stapleton: “10 years ago the third bet was Aces, now the seventh bet is King Jack off. I need a cocktail.”
1. Jason Mercier vs. Eric Koskas – EPT4 San Remo
So it turns out there’s only one thing we like better and that’s a hero call at the toughest possible moment. Jason Mercier burst onto the scene in 2008, winning €869,000 at EPT San Remo. And it was largely thanks to one of the greatest calls we have ever seen. What started out as a speculative raise pre-flop resulted in a two million chip pot and one hell of a fistpump…
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