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Arguably the largest ever media hype surrounds this year’s EPT Prague with a charity event starring Rafael Nadal and soccer legend Ronaldo. Meanwhile, the Eureka Prague Main Event seems to boast the largest ever turnout in its history.
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The Eureka Prague €1,100 Main Event kicked off this weekend with a total of over 1,200 players, a record number in the history of the series. Organisers even had to add more tables in the tournament hall to be able to host all the entrants of Day 1B. What is more, the Eureka is but the first of a series of high volume poker action in Prague, with the EPT €5,300 PLO Championship, the Eureka €2,200 Highroller and the EPT €5,300 Main Event still coming up.
It is this festival that hosts the charity event with the highest media hype of late on 12 December; in the centre of attention are tennis legend Rafael Nadal and his live tournament debut. The PokerStars Team Pro Spanish ace has previously only participated in smaller stakes online tournaments; for instance, he took down a €10 NLHE event in January at PokerStars.es. Additionally, he has been featured in a number of PS advertisement videos.
Nadal’s first online tournament victory as a sponsored PS Pro:
Even though Nadal’s debut is the highlight of the show, he will be accompanied by a number of renowned stars at the table: Andriy Shevchenko, Alberto Tomba, Fatima Moreira de Melo and a true icon of football, Brazilian Ronaldo. Of the poker community, Daniel Negreanu has the honour of playing against the illustrious set of opponents.
“Ronaldo has always been a hero of mine and I’m looking forward to taking him on at the poker table. The great thing about poker is that it’s a common ground for us to compete on, and there are many similarities between sport and poker strategy, so it will be good to see how he translates his game from the football field to the poker felt,” Nadal said.
PokerStars grabs the opportunity to shoot a spectacular ad and they are going to use the latest CGI technology to produce what seems to resemble a Matrix-like scene. At least, this is what the incredible camera setup indicates, the photos of which being publish online by stunned players at the venue.
Parallel to the EPT/Eureka events runs the Prague Poker Festival at the Card Casino, until 20 December, sponsored by Everest Poker, 888Poker and bwin and including the bwin WPT Prague €3,300 Main Event.