by Mario Alfonsi | Published on May 4, 2012 | Updated on May 4, 2012The European Poker Tour has constantly tweaked its formula in order to adjust to the changing poker world. However, their plans for Season Nine, which will begin later in 2012, may mark one of their largest changes in years.EPT officials announced this week that the ninth season of the popular tour will feature just eight tour stops, a large drop from the 13 seen during Season Eight. In fact, eight tour destinations is the lowest number for the tour since the EPT’s third season.However, that shouldn’t necessarily be considered a cutback for the tour. Each of the eight tournament locales will feature not just a Main Event, but also preliminary tournaments that are more integrated with the EPT as a whole.Most notably, the tournament will now feature a Championship Series. These side events will feature €10,000 buy-in tournaments at each location, beginning with a heads-up tournament during the tour’s first event – a stop in Barcelona this August. Future Championship Series events are likely to include mixed game and pot-limit Omaha tournaments.The EPT also announced that they’d like to work hand-in-hand with some of the regional tours in Europe. Both the EPT and some of these tours – such as the UK and Ireland Poker Tour, as well as the Estrella Poker Tour in Spain – are sponsored by PokerStars, so having a more synergistic relationship would make sense for all parties. The idea is to have regional tour events as preliminary tournaments at the EPT events, giving local players a way to play on their “home” tour while at an EPT series.The ninth season of the EPT will start in Barcelona on August 15. Later events will take place in Prague, Deauville, London, Berlin, and – as always – will include the 2013 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in January. The series will once again end in early May with a Grand Final in Monte Carlo.
