A huge field at EAPT Georgia: the EAPT Cup had nearly 450 entries, while the Mystery had more than 300 entries. Check out the best photos from the first days of the festival.

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Let's start with a photo that now seems unbelievable: an empty hall and two dozen tables waiting for the first players to arrive at the EAPT Georgia.

Based on the original plans, this number of tables should be sufficient with a reserve. The guarantee in the inaugural event of the EAPT Cup series with a buy-in of $250 was announced with the expectation of ~150 participants - $30,000. However, it became clear that the final number of players would certainly exceed this figure as early as the first levels of Day 1A.

In the end, the EAPT Cup more than tripled its stated guarantee and collected a total of $110,500 in prize money with 442 registrations. As you can see from these calculations, every single penny of the buy-in went into the prize pool, as the EAPT Georgia offers players an amazing deal at this time of year. In all tournaments and satellites at EAPT Georgia, the organizers do not take any rake. In addition, as it is standard for all live tournaments, percentages for staff fees are not deducted from the prize pools, 100% of the players' contributions go into the prize pool, and 100% of the expenses are paid by the organizers out of their own pockets.

Playing with 0% rake is every player's dream. The lack of commissions was probably one of the reasons for the full house in this series, but there was still a bit of a bump in the road: Georgia collects a 15% state tax from each winner of the series.

After 4 starting flights, 65 players remained in the EAPT Cup. All of them were already in the money, the minimum payout was $455 - almost two buy-ins! The further the players got into the tournament, the more money they earned. The finalists were already guaranteed at least $2,000 each, and the winner was eligible for ten times that amount.

The places in the final of the EAPT Cup were taken almost entirely by residents of the post-Soviet space: five people turned out to be Georgians, two Russians, an Armenian and a Turkish citizen. But in general, the current EAPT is hardly the most multinational in its history. Citizens of 26 countries came to play poker in Batumi, and if the Russians, Armenians or Kazakhs in Georgia are not much of a surprise, but the presence among the winners of "EAPT Cup" citizens, for example, of Japan and the United States, the story is quite striking. Even Jack Sinclair, a world poker star with more than $5,000,000 in live tournament winnings, stopped by.

With such an international line-up, it's not surprising that Oleg ParaMon's keen eye has picked out a lot of colorful personalities:

Some were able to play on a special stage, under the spotlight of TV cameramen, warming up before the start of the main event.

The best among the EAPT Cup participants according to the results of the battle at the final table was local player Tornike Chkonia. Tornike finished Day 1A as the chip leader and at the start of the second day of play he was on top of the leaderboard. Chkonia was able to build on his success and became the winner of the "EAPT Cup" without a deal and took home $20,600. For the Georgian player, this is the best performance in his career. Before today, his total career earnings had barely exceeded $28K, so Chkonia has almost doubled his prize pool. In addition to the record-breaking cash, he also received a championship trophy. Championship trophies are awarded to all EAPT tournament winners.

This seems to be the standard for all live series, but at smaller European festivals, cups are a rarity. At best, winners go home with a souvenir photo. EAPT champions take home trophies. It's a small thing, but it's nice.

The Georgian poker festival in Batumi continued with the second big event - the $235 Luxon Pay Mystery Bounty. The $30,000 guarantee was once again exceeded by a huge margin, with a total of 332 entries and a total prize pool of $78,020. In total, all 25 tables in the Eclipse Club are running at full speed!

In Mystery, the envelopes were popped from the start of day two, with the main entertainment of course being captured by Oleg's lens. You have to agree, it's always nice to get almost 30 buy-ins before the prize zone starts.

It's especially handy for bounty hunting, with a stack so big you can build an entire wall out of it....

... or you can just spend time in pleasant company...

... or imagine yourself as the hero of a Hollywood poker thriller.....

... but you certainly can't do it without luck in coinflips!