Today the sun rises on the first main event of the brand new season of the Estrellas Poker Tour, a five day €1,100 tournament with a €400,000 guarantee attached. It's big, it's bold and it's taking place at the Gran Casino Madrid from 2pm today. The festival may well have begun a couple of days ago with side events and satellites but today ESPT Madrid really starts. Let the Spanish fiesta begin.
Domestic players and jet-setting poker pros will sit down by their hundreds to contest the main event in what's fast become of the most successful tours in Europe. ESPT Barcelona pulled in a staggering field of 1037, the largest tournament ever assembled in Spain. While the collective Day 1 fields may not gather in quite that large a headcount, early indications are that the €400,000 guarantee will be smashed.
If you want to follow the action click on through to the Spanish PokerStars Blog (be warned, it's all in Spanish).
There's also a solid showing of side events over the next few days with a €2,000 High Roller starting this Saturday, 27 January. Check out the full list of events, from the €70 'Sunday Battle' all the way up, by clicking here.
Rick Dacey is a staff writer for the PokerStars Blog.