Big poker names like Jason Mercier and Liv Boeree made their careers there, more or less, and it remains one of the busiest, best-value stops on the EPT.
Dates, events, fun facts and how to qualify for 2014 - here's where you can find out more.
Big Money in Little San Remo
With a population of just 50,000 San Remo is one of the smaller cities on the EPT schedule. Nonetheless it has seen the largest EPT Main Event on European turf with 1,178 players.
That was in 2009 and the winner of €1.5 million – the largest prize on the tour aside from the PCA and Monte Carlo – was Constant Rijkenberg.
The Dutchman became famous not only for his aggressive, almost-erratic playing style, but mostly for having sold more than 100% in shares – the latter maybe being connected to the former.
However there have also been several illustrious winners at the Italian stop of the EPT. The inaugural event was taken down by then-unknown Jason Mercier, who won €869,000. He was followed by the above-mentioned Rijkenberg.
Liv Boeree won EPT San Remo in 2010 for €1.25 million and earned herself a contract with PokerStars, just as Mercier two years before.
In 2011 it was Rupert Elder, one of the top players of the British Isles, who lifted the trophy. Russia’s Andrey Pateychuk, who final-tabled virtually every event he played that year, followed in 2012.
Last year France's Ludovic Lacay was the last man sitting. It was his second EPT final table and his first win in the prestigious tournament series.
Main Event Starts April 14
This year's Season 10 EPT San Remo main event runs from April 14-20 and has a €4,600+300 buy-in. Satellites are still running on PokerStars but you’ll have to hurry because the last direct satellites run on Monday, April 7.
There will also be a €10,300 High Roller event with a single re-entry option.
Before the EPT main event starts the local Italian Poker Tour series will serve as a warm-up.
The €770 IPT San Remo Main Event goes April 9-14 with three starting days. To make for a higher prize pool it will use the accumulator format which means you can buy-in on any of the starting days with a new chip stack and then play on with all the chips you earned during days 1A-C.
You can still qualify online for this event, too. Check the PokerStars lobby at Events > More. The last qualifier is running on Sunday.
If you don’t have an account yet sign up via our PokerStars review. Find a complete overview of the schedule on europeanpokertour.com.
Did You Know?
- The Casino San Remo is one of only four all over Italy – and that includes the Italian exclave Campione. The other casinos are in Venice and Aosta.
- Side-event buy-ins which usually cost €1,100 are reduced to €990 mainly because Italian legislation says you can’t buy-in with cash for more than €999.
- One of the most famous murders in literary history takes place on the shores of San Remo. It happens in the story of The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith.
- San Remo is called “the city of flowers” and is famous for its roses and carnations. There are over 200 companies in the city involved in the flower business.
- Alfred Nobel, initiator of the Nobel Prize, lived and died in this small city on the Riviera. Empress Elisabeth (“Sissi”) of Austria-Hungary spent some leisure time there and the last sultan of the Osman Empire, Mehmed VI, picked San Remo as his exile home.
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