EPT’s Record and Phil Ivey Gives Up Alcohol

EPT Continues to Grow

The European Poker Tour‘s tenth season got underway earlier this week in Barcelona but before the festivities started the organisers announced an important milestone the EPT was close to reaching.

Having been operational since 2004 the EPT has hosted a total of 1,095 tournaments across 16 countries and in that time its welcomed 111,389 players to the felt.

As impressive as these stats are, they pale in comparison to the total amount of prize money handed out by the organisation.

To date players have walked away with €499,908,225 in prize money and with this season’s EPT Barcelona expected to attract a number of pros the half a billion Euro mark will be easily breached.

One of the main focuses of EPT Barcelona today is the start of the 1,100 Estrellas Main Event which will take much of the focus of the players inside Casino Barcelona today until the EPT Main Event begins on Sunday.

Phil Ivey’s Latest Prop Bet

According to recent tweet Phil Ivey sampled his last sip of alcohol last night before a “big no drinking bet“.

Phil is certainly no stranger to food-related prop bets but many players, including Tom Dwan, feel that abstaining from alcohol for an entire year is something beyond even his powers.

Indeed, after learning of Phil’s bet, Dwan was quick to say: “Hey @philivey if u couldn’t go without chicken how are u gonna pull off no alcohol? #wantmoreaction?”

Of course Phil and Tom are no strangers to each other’s prop betting prowess as they once wagered $1 million that Phil couldn’t eat meat for a year.

Initially Phil believed the bet would be easy and tried to make the bet $2 million however after agreeing terms the conditions were set at half that.

However, despite his confidence, Phil soon pulled out of the bet after being unable to resist a tasty looking piece of chicken and incurred a $150,000 penalty.

Can Phil resist the temptation of alcohol for 12 months? Only time will tell.