The European Masters of Poker is a relatively new tournament series on the live schedule, it averages around 300 players for the main event (1,100 euros buyin) and is hosted in Tallin, Bulgaria, Spain, Prague and Malta at various times throughout the year.

I was lucky enough to win a ticket to the Bulgarian EMOP hosted in the tourist resort area of Varna, although I managed to screw a few things up such as staying in the wrong hotel, getting ripped of on taxis and 10 hour twisty road bus journeys it was a relatively good tournament. Players get 10k starting chips with blinds starting at 25/50 and increase at a fairly steady pace. There are two starting days with side games available including a 500euro omaha freezeout and 200 holdem.

However one thing that did annoy me was the lack of rule enforcement, at the beginning of Day 1A (my day) the rules were read out by the tournament director which included the two most important rules, English talk only and No mobile phones. At the start of Level 1 3 iPhones were on the table and I hadn’t heard a word of the queens English in almost an hour! Even the dealer chatted in random gibberish languages. At the first break I asked the tournament director two re-itterate the rules to my table but to no avail (it turns out that particular director doesn’t speak English either!)

I busted out on day 1A after shoving preflop with 10’s in the SB, the BB called and hit a Q on the turn , I also had the Jacks full beaing beaten by a rivered Royal Flush! which got a lot of attention from the media  and left me crying in despair.

All in all it was a pretty good event despite the lack of rule obeying, hopefully the English only rule will be more respected in Prague or Spain, The EMOP is organised by the Entraction network which include Devilfish and NoIQ with constant sattelites runnung (I managed to qualify from a 2euro rebuy )

The Next EMOP is in Spain from the 29th July, Qualification are now closed but you can buyin on the day.

Related Posts

No related posts.

................................................................................................................ Comments (0)