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Casino Square in Monaco

The main event of the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino European Poker Tour Grand Final begins in Monaco today. It’s the flagship final event of the tour’s eighth season, staged in the Salle d’Etoiles at the Monte Carlo Bay Hotel which features a retractable roof which, for a few minutes each day, reveals the Mediterranean blue sky, bright sunshine and horizon of one of the world’s most exclusive, not to mention expensive, coastlines.

The tour is returning to Monaco after a one year hiatus in Madrid in Season 7. There’s certainly something about Monaco that makes it a draw for poker players; it’s ludicrous wealth, stark prices and glorious weather, not to mention the history attached to the place; that of Princess Grace, the Grand Prix, and the ships, described as luxury yachts, moored in the iconic harbour.

The place suits opulence and the celebration of, well anything, which lends credence to the idea of Monaco being European poker’s spiritual home, and the ideal venue for the continent’s biggest live poker event.

Or is it?

Perhaps Monaco is too exclusive, what with astronomical rents and preference for baccarat in Casino square rather than Mind Sport. Is London’s Victoria Casino poker’s real home or maybe even Cannes, along the coast, home to the World Series of Poker Europe?

Who really knows?

Regardless, events in Monaco usually end memorably, as this week’s events should demonstrate. We’ll leave you to decide which destination you would call poker’s spiritual home.