Live Poker Worldwide: Whats On In April 2024

April is not the busiest month for live poker in Europe, but it does include several high profile events, including a WPT Prime Championship in Bratislava, a WSOPC in Cannes and undoubtedly the most high profile of them all is EPT Monte Carlo. For those with smaller bankrolls, there are plenty of lower buy-in options throughout the continent, including three affordably priced festivals in Malta. 

The Irish Open takes place over the Easter Weekend and just creeps into April, as that is the final day of the main event. It’s the oldest poker tournament in Europe with a rich history and is sponsored by Paddy Power and PokerStars. Players will have to wait another year before the next edition, but in the meantime, the Irish Poker Tour has affordable poker festivals running all-year-round. This month’s offering on the premier live Irish poker series is the Connacht Festival in Galway, running from 11-14 April, with a €150 buy-in main event.

The WSOPC festival in Cannes is the live poker highlight of the month for events taking place on French soil. It runs from April 12-22 with a €1,100 main event and a festival schedule that includes 12 ring events. However it might not be the highlight of the month for French players, as the long established EPT Monte Carlo festival starts soon after the conclusion of WSOPC Cannes. Featuring both the €1,100 France Poker Series (FPS) main event and the €5,300 EPT main event, it surpasses the prestige of even the World Series in this part of the world. For those who’s bankrolls put the Monte Carlo showpiece out of reach, there is also another Unibet Deepstack Open, this month in Pornic, close to Nantes, in the North-West of France.

It’s a quiet month for live tournament poker in Spain, with just the CNP Barcelona running in April 2024. The festival runs from 8-14 of the month, with a €550 main event. Perhaps it is a month for Spanish players to focus on cash games. If you happen to be in Madrid and want to play, there are two very centrally located casinos with poker rooms, but beware, Madrid cash games play anti-clockwise. 

While it might be a quiet month in Spain, in neighbouring Portugal there is more going on to keep live poker players satisfied. Casino de Troia hosts the low-stakes pan European Vamos Poker Tour from 9-14 April, featuring a €350 main event. While this will be the highlight for the majority of Portugal’s live poker players, there is also a very juicy offering taking place for the country’s high rollers and traveling players who can’t resist great poker mixed with Portugal’s fantastic climate and tasty cuisine. The European Poker Masters is a high-stakes series with a €2,500 buy-in main event running from 17-21 April at Casino Estoril, one of the largest casinos in Europe. Surprisingly this is the event with the second biggest main event buy-in of the month, after EPT Monte Carlo.

One of the smallest and often overlooked countries in Europe is Liechtenstein, nestled on the border between Austria and Switzerland, with a population of just 39,000 residents. The country’s small size doesn’t prevent it from being one of the best poker locations in Europe, with a busy poker room at Grand Casino Liechtenstein, managed by the highly experienced Yalcin Dundar, who always puts on a great show. This month, running from 11-23 the casino is holding an event called the Wolf Millionaire, with a buy-in of 600 Swiss Francs and a 1m guarantee. 

The Casinos Austria Poker Tour holds two festivals in April, one in Salzburg, the other in Velden. each festival runs for a week and includes a €550 buy-in main event.

The Greek Poker Masters takes place again at Casino Loutraki from 27 March - 7 April, with a €550 main event. Loutraki is one of the main poker casinos in the country and is located just over an hour’s drive from Athens.

Bratislava once again steps up to the plate to show its credentials as one of the most active poker hotspots in Europe. Last month (March) the various poker events in the Slovakian capital included the Norwegian Championship, while this month’s offering is headlined by the eye-catching €1,100 WPT Prime Championship, which runs from 5-15 April. 

Circus Casino in Namur is the most renowned and long established poker venues in Belgium. It hosts several poker festivals per year and in April this includes the low buy-in Namur Classics, with a €350 buy-in main event in the opening week of the month.

A WSOPC also runs in April at the Playground Poker Club in Montreal.

The GG Poker sponsored Kings Series of Poker has its second stop of the year at Fortazela, from April 3-9. Other than this, its a quiet month for poker in Brazil, with no BSOP event until May.

The LAPT returns to Panama for its first event of the 2024 season, running from the April 19-23, featuring a $1,500 main event and several high rollers priced at $3,000.

March was a great month for poker in Asia, with the APT Taipei and Triton Jeju Super High Roller Series being the obvious highlights of the month. April also has a lot to offer live poker players in Asia and Australia, with several events of interest going on.

Poker Dream 9 takes place in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur from March 28th until April 8th, with a RM4,800 buy-in main event spanning several days from March 29 - April 4. 

The Okada Manilia Millions takes place at the PokerStars Live Room at Okada Manilia, the largest integrated casino and hotel resort in Asia. The event has a 7,500 Philippines Peso main event, which runs from 1-7 April.

Jeju is the most visited poker destination in Asia so far in 2024 and at the end of April, the Asian Poker Tour arrives for its second event of the year, after the highly successful Taipei event which kicked off the tour’s 2024 season. Running from April 26 - May 4, APT Jeju has a KWR 800,000 main event and as always a very busy schedule of side events.