Although the European Poker Tour Budapest event, the Hungary Open, was not televised as part of the 2009 EPT season, the success of the Barcelona and London events was enough to bring plenty of competitors out to this storied Slavic city to try their luck.

The 4,350 Euro entry fee was no deterrent as 532 poker players from all over the world put their money down (or cashed in their satellite entry) to take their shot at EPT fame and fortune, specifically, a piece of the 2,128,000 Euro prize pool.

Budapest Highlights

Some of the highlights of the event included the participation of Norwegian Johnny Lodden in his debut as a PokerStars sponsored player. Lodden has been made famous recently for his engaging style of play as well as for being the inspiration for the Antonio Esfandiari-Phil Laak-created prop betting game known as "Lodden Thinks." Other exciting features were the impressive performances of Italian Gino Alacqua and Danish Pro Albert Iverson.

Budapest Results

Lodden ended up heading home in eighth place, while Hungary's own representative Zoltan Toth made it as far as seventh, and Denmark's Iverson finished fourth. Although the final table was an impressive mix of European players, the ultimate winner was Will Fry of Britain, who weaved his way through a tough field to collect a first prize totaling 595,839 Euros by emerging victorious from his heads up battle with Romanian player Ciprian Hrisca.

Moving on From Budapest with the European Poker Tour

From Hungary it was a short trip to the European Poker Tour's next stop, Warsaw, Poland, where a mix of PokerStars satellite qualifiers and regular entrants produced a prize pool of over one million Euros. After Poland, EPT players headed to Prague, then an off European stop in the Caribbean for PokerStars signature Caribbean Adventure and PCA High roller events, then to France, Denmark, Germany, Italy, and the big Grand Final in Monte Carlo, Monaco, where players would put up 10,000 Euros for a massive first prize and the opportunity to call themselves the 2009 European Poker Tour Grand Champion.