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The eighth season of the European Poker Tour (EPT), sponsored by PokerStars, continues on September 29th, and the professional poker community is gearing up for what could be the best event of the series. The event in question is the EPT London Festival of Poker, which will be held through October 6th at the famous Hilton London Metropole. The Festival of Poker’s Main Event comes with a 5,250 pound buy-in.

A number of Team PokerStars Pros have finalized their plans to register for the EPT London Festival of Poker, including Liv Boeree, Jason Mercier, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier (who currently tops in EPT Leaderboard in terms of points), Daniel “KidPoker” Negreanu and online poker phenom Viktor “Isildur1″ Blom. Fatima Moreira de Melo and tennis legend Boris Becker of Team PokerStars SportStars are also set to make appearances.

There’s still no definite word on whether David Vamplew, the winner of the 2010 EPT London Main Event, will return to defend his title. Vamplew earned the title and an incredible 900k pound grand prize after besting 848 runners, including John Juanda in heads-up play. Other former champions including PokerStars pro Vicky Coren along with Joseph Mouawad, Michael Martin and Aaron Gustavson.

Aside from the aforementioned Main Event, EPT London will feature a 5,250 pound Heads-Up event, a 550 pound Women’s Event, a 2,150 pound 8-Game Championship and a ridiculously-priced 20,500 pound High Roller. A number of NLHE and PLO events with more affordable buy-ins are planned as well.

Three additional EPT Season 8 events are scheduled for 2011: EPT San Remo in Italy from October 21st through 27th, EPT Loutraki in Greece from November 15th through 20th, and EPT Prague in the Czech Republic from December 5th through 10th.