PokerStars Brings Back EPT and More: A Roundup of Poker News

PokerStars has officially announced the return of the European Poker Tour (EPT) in 2018. The series, which was suspended in 2017, will make a comeback with the first event scheduled from March 20 to 29 in Sochi. This news comes as part of a broader restructuring of PokerStars' live tournament offerings, with the PokerStars Championship series ending its run.

In addition to the EPT return, PokerStars has planned several other significant events. The PokerStars Players NL Hold’em Championship (PSPC) with a $25,000 buy-in will be held as part of the PCA-2019 series. Throughout 2018, PokerStars will be awarding Platinum Passes worth $30,000 each, with 320 passes up for grabs. The first recipients of these passes were Andrey Semenyak and Mihai Manole, who received them after finishing just short of the money in the main event in Prague.

Dan Smith and the Crowley brothers have organized a new charity marathon, doubling all donations up to $1,000,000. The marathon, which runs from December 13 to 31, has already raised $304,950. Aleksey Kravchuk and Roman Romanovsky have joined the marathon, tripling donations received through their streams. Gus Hansen, who has been relatively inactive in recent years, has expressed interest in playing more frequently. He recently participated in several tournaments, including the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic in December.