PokerStars announces stop in Berlin

(PRESS RELEASE) -- For the first time, Berlin will be the venue for the biggest professional poker tournament ever held in Germany when the PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) visits the city from March 2 to March 7, 2010. With 13 stops, the PokerStars EPT is the biggest tournament series in Europe and Berlin is now taking its place alongside cities like Barcelona, London and Monte Carlo.

"We are excited to be making our first stop in the beautiful city of Berlin. We have experienced great success throughout the first half of EPT Season 6, with thousands of players competing in the initial six events," said John Duthie, CEO of the PokerStars.com EPT

Poker at the Potsdamer Platz
In the centre of Berlin, on the prestigious Marlene-Dietrich-Platz at Potsdamer Platz, a two story glass palace will be built especially for the PokerStars EPT. With an area of 2,000 m² the venue will offer enough space for a thousand players to take part. In partnership with "SPIELBANK BERLIN & POKERFLOOR", the Berlin EPT Main Event will take place here - as well as a variety of side events that will start on the third day of the tournament.

Biggest poker tournament ever held in Germany Up to 1,000 players are expected to play in the Main Event, including numerous international and national top players. Among those set to play are tennis legend and Team PokerStars SportStar Boris Becker, all of Team PokerStars Germany - including the Season 5 Germany winner Sandra Naujoks, who comes from Berlin and Jan Heitmann from Munich who is Boris Becker's poker coach, as well as all the other guests from "TV Total PokerStars.de Nacht".

For the first time: 1 Million Euros guaranteed for first place Besides the expected record numbers and the spectacular glass palace, there will be another highlight at this season's German EPT -guaranteed prize money for the winner. PokerStars, the sponsor of the EPT and the world's biggest online poker room, guarantees the winner of EPT Berlin one million euros. This enormous first prize is certain to draw the attention of the poker world to PokerStars' EPT Berlin.

Next stops on the EPT circuit
Before heading to Berlin, the PokerStars European Poker Tour will first visit the Bahamas for the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure held from Jan 4 - 14, 2010 - players can qualify online at www.pokerstars.com until Dec 27, 2009. From the Bahamas the EPT will then head onto Deauville from Jan 20 - 25, 2010 and Copenhagen from Feb 16-21, 2010. For more information on all EPT Season 6 tournaments please see www.ept.com