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WCOOP and EPT London: autumn 2011

Before the fight there was a full poker calendar. In early October 2011 Lex Veldhuis blogged about his plans for the World Championship of Online Poker and EPT London; PokerNews pointed readers to that post [1]. Here is what those two series looked like.

WCOOP 2011

Edition10th World Championship of Online Poker, on PokerStars [2]
Dates4 to 25 September 2011, three weeks [2]
Events62, including stud, Omaha, draw, mixed games and badugi [2]
Guarantees$30 million in total, down from $50 million in 2010 after US players were shut out [2]
Main EventEvent 62, $5,200 no-limit hold'em, $5,000,000 guaranteed, 25 September [2]

For comparison, the 2010 Main Event drew 2,443 players and paid its winner $2,278,097 [2]. The smaller 2011 guarantees were a direct result of Black Friday in April 2011.

EPT London 2011

Dates30 September to 6 October 2011 [3]
VenueHilton London Metropole [3]
Main Event buy-in£5,000 [4]
Entries691 [4]
Prize pool£3,351,350 [4]
WinnerBenny Spindler, £750,000, winning hand A♣ K♦ [4]

EPT London was an early stop of European Poker Tour season 8 [3]. While it was still running, PokerNews reported on 4 October that the date for the Veldhuis vs ElkY fight had been set [1]. Read the full story of the fight.