DUBLIN, July 29 /PRNewswire/ -- The European Masters of Poker pulls in to Barcelona, Spain today as up to500 players will take part in the EUR1,150 buy-in event until Saturday August1. The main event will be the largest yet on the tour with an estimatedEUR500,000 prize pool. The previous stop on the tour, Prague, attracted 258players and generated a prize pool of EUR258,000.

Live reports from Barcelona will be available athttp://www.pokeri.com/en/forum/live-reporting-f5/. The final leg of the tourwill see EMOP land in Vittoriosa, Malta from September 23 to 26 where up to500 players will compete in the EUR1,500 + EUR150 buy-in event which islikely to see the prize pool swell to EUR750,000.

Qualification for the Maltese grand final is now underway across theEntraction network where poker players can qualify for as little as EUR2 or200 VIP-points. Premium partners for the European Masters of Poker arei4poker, Pokerihuone, Pinnacle Sports, KickOffPoker, DailyPoker, GoldWinPoker and HA24hPoker.

There are nine daily satellites to the EUR100 Sunday Main Qualifier(19:40 CET) and five daily satellites to the EUR100 Wednesday Main Qualifier(19:40 CET). A total of at least six packages are guaranteed in the prizepool each Sunday while four packages are guaranteed each Wednesday. Playerscan also buy in directly through their Entraction account.

EMOP, held at Casino Barcelona, will also feature a EUR500 + EUR50pot-limit Omaha side event and a EUR300 + EUR30 no-limit hold'em side event.

An additional benefit of the European Masters of Poker is the leaderboard competition where players can win additional prizes beside the regularprize pool. Five percent is taken from each tournaments prize pool and isplaced in the leader board prize pool. The top 15 overall players willreceive cash prizes after the five tournaments are completed.

The estimated first prize is EUR25,000. In addition to this, the winnerwill receive a watch worth EUR10,000 if the player has earned 25,000VIP-points from January 1st 2009 until the start of the last tournament.

The final table in Prague included EMOP Bulgaria winner Reuven Dayan fromIsrael who currently tops the leader board with 55 points, followed by SamiOllia from Finland on 45 points and EMOP Estonia winner Joanna Pyysing alsofrom Finland.

The current prize pool is EUR40,580 and with between 20 and 30 pointsawarded for a top 15 place, the race to top the leader board remains wideopen.

For further information please contactbrendan.murray@pokermediaconsulting.com, +353-863057469 or visithttp://www.europeanmastersofpoker.com