Mega Poker Series
It is becoming more and more difficult to get a unique live poker tournament format running these days because the quality itself has increased a lot over the last few years. The Mega Poker Series is attracting the poker purists with a starting donation of 77,000 Chips for a moderate Buy-In of 700+70€ in its Main Event and further Side Events with a reasonable structure make for plenty of time to showcase your poker skills at the table.
About one year ago, the initial Mega Poker Series kicked off in Vienna and nobody really knew at the Montesino, how many participants would show up in the Austrian capital. After the registration with one single starting day had closed, an unexpected 390 players were on the scoreboard and generated a prize pool of more than €250,000. The participation in the second stage at the Dusk Till Dawn in Nottingham was considerably lower with 227 players, but it also saw the introduction of two starting days and Britain's got talent with the likes of Charles Chattha, Craig McCorkell, Simon Deadman, Andrew Hulme, Daniel Carter, Steve Watts and Sam Trickett at the tables.
Madrid in June 2012 – during the World Series Of Poker – exceeded all expectations with a bumper field of 507 Entries and also saw the rise of a very young and super aggressive Spaniard: Samuel Bernabeu. He assumed control on Day 3 and despite heavy swings to his Chip stack, the trophy and €65,000 would end up in his hands when the last hand was over. Only two months later he also reached the Final Table of the Estrellas Poker Tour in Barcelona and added a 5th place for €44,200 to his profile.
In the middle of October last year, the Mega Poker Series was heading to beautiful Opatija with excellent 20 Degrees Celsius outside in the middle of autumn. The Grand Hotel & Casino Adriatic was the host of the final stage in 2012 and 284 Entries were by far more than the 178 participants for the Main Event of the Eureka Series last April on Croatian soil. For the first time, a Feature Table including Live Stream was available and the last eleven players all had a different nationality.
Among them was once again Samuel Bernabeu and he started the Final as Chipleader. The Spaniard dominated the table with his usual aggressive style and entered Heads-Up in the lead after sending local hero Sasa Zorc to the rail. His opponent was the Swede Christer Lagerstrom and the most important person on the winner picture was the same as on the previous stop at the Casino Gran Madrid: Back to back win for Bernabeu!
Will the young Spaniard make it three in a row? As winner of the yearly ranking he will experience the return of the Deepstack Festival to the Montesino Vienna from January 30th to February 3rd 2013 for free. This time there will be two starting days and re-entry is available once per day until the end of Level 4, various Austrian Live Satellites still offer the opportunity to enter the 770€ Main Event for less. You can find the full schedule of the 2013 Mega Poker Series – Vienna by clicking on the link, all further information can be found on www.megapokerseries.com.
If you make it to the Montesino and participate in any of the Events, feel free to say hi – I will be the blogger with the black hoodie and the note pad as well as camera attached to my body.
