PokerStars has announced that the recently postponed European Poker Tour Prague live stop has been rescheduled to March 5-16 at the Hilton Hotel Prague.

EPT Prague, which was originally scheduled to be held from December 8-19, was postponed in late November citing the new restrictions by the government of the Czech Republic imposed in an effort to address a surge in the coronavirus. The restrictions limited the number of people for any given cultural or sporting event to 1,000 and placed a 10 p.m. curfew on all restaurants and bars.

PokerStars quickly pivoted and within two weeks of announcing that EPT Prague was postponed, has now given players a new date to look forward for the return of the EPT.

“I am pleased that we have been able to adapt so quickly to the ever-changing situation and provide our players with new dates for EPT Prague already,” said Severin Rasset, Managing Director and Commercial Officer of Poker at PokerStars. ”A big thanks to our partners at Kings Casino and Hilton Prague for working with us to ensure that we found an alternative solution for the event.”

In the meantime, PokerStars will shift the focus of their players to their upcoming EPT Online series which will run from December 8 -19 with $17 million in total guaranteed prize money.

EPT Online will feature 68 different events with buy-ins starting at just $5.50 and will give players the shot of winning an actual EPT trophy, with 20 of them up for grabs.

Highlights of the schedule include the $5,200 buy-in EPT Online Main Event with $1.5 million guaranteed, $55 buy-in Mini Main Event with $1 million guaranteed, and a $10,300 buy-in Sunday Super High Roller with another $1 million guaranteed.

Satellites for most major events will be readily available in the PokerStars client as is the entire 68 event schedule of EPT Online.

The EPT branding isn’t the only tie-in between EPT Prague and the upcoming EPT Online series. It’s not only the players who will be missing out on EPT Prague this December, but also the support staff who planned on the work, and, quite possibly, was counting on the money from working to help get them through the holidays and the rest of the year. To that end, PokerStars is allocating $100,000 from the rake collected from EPT Online to be paid out to the Live Event Staff that has been affected by the live event’s postponement.

“We know that there’s a huge demand from the PokerStars community to see our live events return in full and we are excitedly working towards that, but we must be flexible along the way to ensure our players stay safe and healthy, and the experience is an unforgettable one for all the right reasons,” Rasset said. “We understand the impact of not running these events has on our players and staff, and we hope that the upcoming EPT Online series will provide players with an enjoyable alternative this December.”