Don’t believe the naysayers who say worldwide interest in poker has peaked and is now declining.

That doesn’t appear to be the case, at least not in Europe.

Because of the unexpectedly high number of people who want to compete in the European Poker Tour (EPT) Grand Final, starting later this month in Monaco, tournament organizers have added an extra day to the event.

The EPT’s third-season Grand Final, which begins March 28, 2007, was originally intended to be only a five-day affair, lasting through April 1.

But now, because of unanticipated extremely high interest in the tourney from eager entrants, tourney organizers have added an additional day of competition to the event and made it a six-day affair.

The EPT Grand Final, dubbed by organizers as “Europe’s Richest Poker Tournament,” will now run from March 28 through April 2.

The event, a 10,000-euro buy-in tournament, is scheduled to be held at the Monte Carlo Bay Hotel and Casino in Monte Carlo, capital city of Monaco.

According to tournament organizers, over 550 players have registered so far for this year’s Grand Final.

“We are expecting over 600 players,” one organizer predicted. “That will produce a prize pool over 5.5 million euros and a first prize of over 1.55 million euros (about 2 million dollars).”

Some entrants to the 2007 Grand Final won their seats by winning online poker tournaments.

Last year’s Grand Final, also held at the Monte Carlo Bay Hotel and Casino, had 298 entrants and a prize pool of 2.98 million euros.

That event was won by 19-year-old Jeff Williams, a college student from Atlanta, Ga., USA, whose top prize was worth 900,000 euros, or about 1.1 million dollars.

Finishing second last year was Arshad Hussain of the U.K., who earned 492,000 euros.

Coming in third was Aleksander Strandli of Norway, who took home 251,000 euros.

The top 27 finishers ended up in the money.

The 2006 EPT Grand Final drew participants from 25 different countries, including the USA, the U.K., Sweden, France, Denmark, Norway, Russia, Paraguay, Belgium, Austria, New Zealand, Israel, Australia, Ireland, Canada, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain and Switzerland.

P.S This is the first post of a series of weekly poker news articles written by Tom Somach, exclusively for the Cardschat Blog.