The €5,300 buy-in PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) Barcelona Main Event kicked off Sunday at Casino Barcelona, and there was a bit of history in play at the start of the major poker tournament.
John Duthie, the poker legend responsible for creating what has become one of the premier poker tours in the world, took his seat for the Day 1a session. The first player to have ever won an event on the tour built by Duthie, Alexander Stevic, is also competing in the Main Event.
Stevic, who spoke with PokerNewson the first break of Day 1a, won the EPT Barcelona Open in 2004 for €80,000. The tournament at the time cost just €1,000 to enter and attracted 229 players, far fewer than what the higher buy-in version brings in annually these days.
"Winning the first one is cool in a way because you will always be the first. But, if I could choose, I would probably choose the third of the fourth one because I would have won like a million and a half," Stevic joked.
Stevic couldn't pick and choose the EPT event he won. His victory in 2004 was for a much smaller amount than, as he mentioned, the 2005 EPT Barcelona winner, Jan Boubli, who took home €426,000. Last year's victor in the now €5,300 buy-in EPT Barcelona Main Event, Simon Wiciak, made €1,134,375. But Stevic is still proud of being an EPT champion and has great memories of that special day.
"It was very different 20 years ago than playing a tournament today, that I remember," Stevic said about his recollection of winning the first EPT. "Because everyone was talking to each other at the table, it was mostly pros in that tournament, actually, because it was so early on that most of the pros traveled back then. But, yeah, everyone was talking. Now, they've played two levels, two hours, and no one has said one word."
"I mean, really, not one word."
The inaugural EPT champion, despite his displeasure with the lack of banter at the poker tables these days, said he's still passionate about poker and his love for the game has never diminished. But he also acknowledges the game is tougher in 2024 than it was in 2004.
"The skill, the players today, or the pros today is much higher. It's much harder. Today, I'd say it's much tougher," Stevic said.
The game and the European Poker Tour has grown almost exponentially in the past 20 years. PokerStars took over the tour in 2011 and it's grown to heights Stevic didn't anticipate when he won the EPT Barcelona Open.
"I don't think anyone did back then," Stevic answered when asked if he saw in 2004 the EPT one day becoming so big. "But television helped a lot, and online helped a lot. It was the beginning of everything, really. But I didn't think it would grow to this."
Stevic, who shared a conversation on break with Duthie, got off to a rough start in the Main Event on Sunday. He said he made a huge fold in a big pot but never saw his opponent's cards. The Swedish poker player was down to less than half his starting stack at the time of publishing.
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