EPL is one of the hottest new poker tournaments

2011 was the year of the largest-ever World Series of Poker Main Event ever recorded. This proves that the demand for online poker is larger than ever, and the numbers speak for themselves. Apart from the breathtaking number of players who actually registered in the tournament, close to a million viewers were active, on average, watching the events live via the WSOP Main Event coverage. The two hours that ESPN gave to the event gathered more than 640 thousand viewers.

There’s one major conclusion to be drawn from here: there’s plenty of room for major poker tournaments. And the former WSOP bigwig Jeffrey Pollack, along with Annie Duke saw the potential behind such an event and thought that the poker industry deserved another large poker tourney, in the shape of the newly formed Epic Poker League.

The Epic Poker League’s first season is set to make its debut in Las Vegas next week. It has already started to generate some buzz, making it one of the most discussed poker tournaments in the world, right along with the World Series of Poker or World Poker Tour events. The tournament will be composed of four events, each with a $20,000 buy-in and $400,000 additional prize money. Unlike other major events, this one has very strict criteria regarding who is allowed to enter the competition – players are carefully selected, so we won’t see a very large turnout no matter what.

Even before the first hand of the tournament has been dealt, there are signs that this will make it big. The first hint lies in the contract signed with CBS and the Discovery’s Velocity Network for the show’s TV coverage. This means that the show will have a lot of media exposure, introducing a lot more people to poker and online poker.

And since we’re discussing the good news behind the tournament, it will also mean that a lot of poker players will get some well-deserved publicity as well. New players will get the chance to make a name for themselves, and older players will get the chance to prove they still have it in them. Either way, we can’t wait for the show to start and we’ll bring you updates from the tournament once the action starts. So stick around!