World Poker Tour step aside: The European Poker Tour (EPT) has officially superseded the World Poker Tour as the second biggest poker tournament series in the world as of 2008/2009. (The most popular series continues to be the World Series of Poker, however.)

In 2008/2009 the European Poker Tour hosted a total of 11 official events, excluding the European Poker Tour: London Million Pound Showdown or any of the High Roller events. There were a total of 7,768 registrations for these events, which created a total prize pool of around $65.6 million USD.

In comparison, 13 World Poker Tour events in the same year only attracted 5,246 registrations and a total prize pool of around $61 million USD.

This surge in popularity of the EPT is not much of a surprise. Europe is experiencing a poker boom, and online poker has jumped on the bandwagon, hosting countless live event qualifiers for European Poker Tour events.

Two EPT events had more than 1,000 entrants (the PCA and San Remo events, with the PCA event boasting 1,347 registrants), while the largest WPT event had only 696 entrants (the L.A. Poker Classic).

In fact, it seems that the EPT Grand Final has replaced the WPT Championship as the second most prestigious poker tournament of the year, falling behind only the WSOP main event. The WPT Championship this year had a total of 338 entrants which created a total prize pool of $8.17 million dollars, while the European Poker Tour Grand Final had 935 entrants (with a smaller buy-in) and a total prize pool of around $12.43 million dollars.
 

Needless to say, poker is alive and well in Europe!