WSOP Europe on the move to Berlin for 2015

As Martin Jacobson etched his name in history as the 2015 World Series of Poker main event champion in Las Vegas on Tuesday, the organisers of the series decided it was a good time to announce that the European version would be moving to Berlin in 2015.

Since its inception in 2007, WSOP Europe has awarded 38 gold bracelets across the pond from its Las Vegas version.

In each of the seven years it has been held, a first-place prize of well over US$1m has been awarded to the winner of the WSOP Europe main event, of which previous winners include Annette Obrestad, John Juanda, Barry Schulman, James Bord, Elio Fox, Phil Hellmuth and Adrian Mateos.

Although the WSOP has yet to release the official schedule for the event, executive director Ty Stewar did say the target date is October 2015, which would fall in line with previous WSOP Europe schedules and the 2014 WSOP Asia-Pacific.

Germany will be the third country to host the festival after England played host from 2007-2010 before the event moved to France for 2010-2013.

Stewart also hinted at the announcement of a European WSOP circuit that will be coming soon.

WSOP Europe started out in London in 2007 at a trio of London Clubs International casinos when there were just three events, including a £10,000 main event, but it was the first time that any official bracelet events had been held outside of Las Vegas.

The highlight of the first WSOPE was the crowning of internet phenomenon Obrestad as the main event champion.

She became both the first woman to win an open WSOP event and the youngest person ever to win a bracelet, just a day short of her 19th birthday.

The 2008 WSOPE stayed in London, but stuck to one casino, the Casino at the Empire in Leicester Square. It was another WSOP of firsts: Jesper Hougaard became the first player to win a WSOP bracelet and WSOPE bracelet in the same year and Ivan Demidov was the first player to make the final table of the WSOP and WSOPE main events.

The Casino at the Empire was again the host venue for the 2009 and 2010 events, but in 2011 a switch was made to two casinos in France: the Majestic Barriere Cannes and the Le Croisette Casino Barriere.

In addition to this series being the first WSOPE held outside of London, it was also the first to feature tournament buy-ins in euros and the first year that WSOPE events counted toward the World Series of Poker Player of the Year standings. By this time, there were seven bracelet events in the schedule.

The 2012 event saw the WSOPE stay at the two casinos in Cannes and while the 2013 WSOP Europe was also in France, it moved to Casino Barriere in Enghien-les-Bains. A high-roller event was added, bringing the total number of events to eight.

In November 2013, the World Series of Poker announced a significant change to its international schedule, deciding to not hold the WSOP Europe every year. It was in April 2013 that the WSOP Asia Pacific (WSOP APAC) made its debut and the powers that be made the decision to move it to October the following year, the time that the WSOP Europe was normally held.

The WSOPE was not held in 2014 and from here on out, the two international versions of the World Series of Poker will be held in alternating years. So the WSOPE will run again in 2015, while the WSOP APAC will sit out and resume in 2016.

And now the WSOP Europe will head to its third country, Germany. Berlin has hosted major poker tournaments in the past, serving as the location for the European Poker Tour (EPT) Berlin stop from 2010-13. The events were held at the Grand Hyatt Berlin, though no announcement has been made yet as to where the 2015 WSOP Europe will take place.

EPT Berlin was also the site of one of the more infamous moments in live tournament history, as four armed men robbed the event, getting away with €242,000. They were caught several days later.

Seth Palansky, vice president of corporate communications for Caesars Interactive Entertainment, said that 10 events could be expected in Berlin and mentioned players should be excited not only for the poker to be played, but that it will all take place around the same time as Berlin's famous Oktoberfest.