The PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Grand Final has kicked off in Monte Carlo with 298 players for the €10,000 tournament, generating a top prize of €900,000.
The high turnout has smashed the 2005 record by 87 players, making it the richest tournament ever held in Europe, with a prize pool of nearly €3,000,000 ($3,552,000).
Three world champions - Joe Hachem (2005), Greg Raymer (2004) and Carlos Mortensen (2001) - are among the dozens of world-class players who have turned up for the event, held over five days (March 7-11) at the glamorous new Monte Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort.
As well as Hachem and Raymer, Team PokerStars is also represented by Aussie Millions winner Lee Nelson, French WPT Ladies Champion Isabelle Mercier and Italy's Luca Pagano.
Other top players in Monte Carlo include last year's EPT Grand Final winner Rob Hollink, French singer Patrick Bruel, Andy Black (who won $1,750,000 after finishing 5th in this year's World Series), Dutch star Marcel Luske and WPT champion Martin de Knijff.
Also in the field are several EPT champions including Noah Boeken, Mats Iremark, Mads Andersen, Mark Teltscher, John Shipley, Alexander Stevic and Patrik Antonius. A total of 84 players qualified for the EPT Grand Final online with PokerStars.com.
EPT founder John Duthie said: "This is the biggest concentration of poker talent we've ever had at an EPT tournament. No one is going to get an easy ride in this tournament, however much experience they've had at big events - and whoever picks up the €900,000 top prize will have earned every euro of it".
The Monte Carlo turn-out is the climax to a hugely successful Season 2 for the EPT which has attracted a total of 2,009 players to this year's seven tournaments, generating an overall prize pool of €9,824,000 - a 54% increase on Season 1.
The EPT Grand Final has also attracted record numbers of media to the French Riviera, with more than 80 TV, press and online media from around the world attending the first day - four times the number who came last year.
