Mercier, Busquet to headline EPT Prague festival

(PRESS RELEASE) -- Some of the biggest names in poker will be heading to the Czech capital in just over one week for the EPT Prague Poker Festival. The combined appeal of the Super High Roller, the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) awards ceremony, and a schedule featuring almost 60 events is proving a big lure for players from all over the world.

Super High Roller Debut

The flagship €50,000 Super High Roller event will become the highest buy-in poker tournament ever held in the Czech Republic and will attract the world’s best poker players to Prague. EPT Barcelona Super High Roller champion Olivier Busquet is already confirmed, along with Asia Championship of Poker winner Fabian Quoss, PCA runner-up Mike McDonald, European Rookie of the Year Adrian Mateos and Team Pro players Jason Mercier and Ike Haxton.

Record-Breaking Past

The Prague Poker Festival will feature 59 events at the Hilton Prague and a record number of players are expected to participate. 273 players have qualified for the EPT Main Event, while more than 352 have won their seats for Eureka.

The Prague stop always attracts a large number of players - There were nearly 9,000 tournament entries last season and a massive €12.9 million was paid out in prize money. The €5,300 Main Event had 1,007 runners, while 1,315 players ponied up €1,100 to play the Eureka Main Event.

EPT Main Event

A host of big names are set to play the €5,300 EPT Prague Main Event including Team PokerStars Pros Eugene Katchalov, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, Vanessa Selbst, Chris Moneymaker and WSOP Player of the Year George Danzer, who won three WSOP titles this year.

WCOOP Ceremony

More well-known poker faces will be attending the 2014 WCOOP awards ceremony which is being held on December 8 at the Hilton Prague. Fedor “CrownUpGuy” Holz will be in attendance to collect his prize for winning the $5,000 WCOOP Main Event. Holz bested a 2,142 strong field to bank a cool $1.3 million. Other bracelet winners include 2014 PCA finalist Shyam "G's Zee" Srinivasan who won Event 52, $215 No-Limit Hold'em and Adam “Roothlus” Levy who took down Event 49, $320 Mixed NL Hold'em/PL Omaha.

EPT Live will be covering the EPT Main Event from Day 2 until the cards-up final on December 17. You can watch all the action via the PokerStars Facebook page and PokerStars YouTube channel.