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Inaugural European Mixed Poker Championship Details Released for October Stop in Estonia

4 hours ago

Samantha Doyle 4 hours ago

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12 mixed-game poker events scheduled for Oct 26-31, 2026, in Tallinn.
Main Event: €800 8-Game, designed for deeper/faster play by Tobias Leknes.
EMPC emphasizes accessibility and sociability, held at Olympic Park Casino.

The schedule for the first European Mixed Poker Championship (EMPC) has been officially released, scheduling 12 tournaments from October 26 to October 31, 2026. Held in Tallinn, Estonia, the festival focuses exclusively on mixed-game variants and limit disciplines rather than standard Texas Hold'em.

The upcoming series aims to establish a recurring European gathering point for alternative poker formats.

Key Events & Tournament Highlights

The central tournament of the festival is the €800 buy-in 8-Game Main Event. The tournament features two separate starting flights on Friday, October 30: Day 1A opens at 11:30, and Day 1B begins at 18:30.

The structures for all 12 events on the schedule were created by Tobias Leknes, a 13-time World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) winner. The blind and limit progressions are modeled to give players deeper stacks during the final stages of each event while keeping total tournament runtimes predictable so players can participate in consecutive daily rotations.

Notable side events include the €200 Welcomer Big Bet Mix on opening night, a €700 Dealer's Choice tournament on October 28, a €1,500 S.O.R.B.E.T. High Roller on October 29, and a €300 6-Game Mystery Bounty event on the final day.

Official Tournament Schedule

Date & Time	Tournament	Buy-in
Oct 26, 18:30	#1 Welcomer Big Bet Mix	€200
Oct 27, 12:00	#2 Lowball Draw Mix	€555
Oct 27, 18:00	#3 Nordic Blood Mix	€300
Oct 28, 12:00	#4 Dealer's Choice	€700
Oct 28, 16:00	#5 S.O.R.B.E.T.	€200
Oct 28, 20:30	#6 T.O.E. Turbo	€800
Oct 29, 14:00	#7 S.O.R.B.E.T. High Roller	€1,500
Oct 29, 18:00	#8 Senkel's Paradise Pick'em	€300
Oct 30, 11:30	#9A 8-Game Main Event 1A	€800
Oct 30, 18:30	#9B 8-Game Main Event 1B	€800
Oct 31, 12:00	#10 6-Game Mystery Bounty	€300
Oct 31, 16:30	#11 6-Game High Roller	€1,500
Oct 31, 18:00	#12 Omaha Dealer's Choice	€200

Tournament Venue and Travel Logistics

The entire festival will take place at the Olympic Park Casino, located inside the Hilton Tallinn Park hotel in central Tallinn. The venue operates the largest poker room in the Baltic region and regularly hosts international series such as the Kings of Tallinn and The Festival.

For traveling players, the casino is situated approximately 5 kilometers from Tallinn Airport, which equates to a 10-minute taxi ride. The property is within walking distance of the city center and Tallinn's historic Old Town district. Public transit options, including bus and tram lines, stop directly outside the hotel entrance.

Collaborative Roots and Tournament Philosophy

The event was created as a joint venture between Frode Fagerli, the founder of the Norwegian Poker Championship, and Norwegian mixed-game strategist Tobias Jelsa Leknes. The tournament model reacts to a sustained interest in non-Hold'em variants across Northern Europe, where the Norwegian 8-Game championship event regularly draws fields of over 100 unique players.

Fagerli and Leknes designed the EMPC to emphasize lower, accessible buy-ins and a highly interactive, conversational environment at the tables, contrasting with the quieter atmosphere found in mainstream poker tournaments.