Following the news that PokerStars is bringing back the Spin & Go Live Championship in Barcelona this August, more details have emerged about the second incarnation of this online-to-live event.
First played at last year’s European Poker Tour stop in Prague (following a small trial run at EPT Barcelona), the Spin & Go Live Championship brought the fast, high-variance world of jackpot sit & go tournament poker — known as Spin & Go at PokerStars — to a live setting. Special small, three-person poker tables were commissioned, a randomized prize structure was developed, and 81 players qualified for the inaugural event. Spain’s Carlos Gurdiel took home the top prize of €25,000.
Now, the live version of the online hit is coming back for a second version, August 30-31 at EPT Barcelona. For some insights into what we can expect to find in Spain, we spoke to someone intimately connected to the idea — and its execution — PokerStars’ Associate Director Sebastian Pico.
No buy-in, €275K guaranteed
“Everything is gonna be just bigger,” says an excited Pico when we ask what the main difference will be between the 2024 and 2025 versions of the event. “Whatever you saw in Prague, just expect 3x on everything.” We can tell he’s been working with the Spin & Go format for a while — he’s even talking in multipliers. We ask what that will mean in practice.
“The winner in Prague got €25K, it's gonna be €100K in Barcelona. The total prizepool was €100K in Prague; now it's gonna be over €275K.”
While the numbers are going up, some things will remain unchanged. Once again, there will be no buy-in; a capped field of 81 players will consist solely of qualifiers and guest invitees. The shootout-like structure will be back, too, starting with 27 tables of three players each, with the first to five wins advancing to round two. Nine tables then each advance one player to the penultimate round of three tables, before the final three remaining players compete for the €100K top prize.
Prizes are one area where there will be some significant changes made, however, including the attractive notion that anyone can win a randomized prize, even in the very first game. Just one win in round one could result in an instant win up to €5K.
Then there’s the introduction of a new prize-pulling mechanic. In Prague, prizes were pulled from envelopes in advance of each game, in a similar fashion to how online players know the prizepool before the first hand is dealt. In Barcelona, however, winners will receive colored balls which they can trade in for prizes. They will pick balls at random, with different colors representing a variety of prize tiers, each with a spinning wheel to determine the prize.
“There's gonna be a big one,” explains Pico, “there's gonna be medium ones, and there's gonna be small ones, but whenever you hit a small one that one is replaced by a medium one for the next round. And there’s going to be an added twist because, depending on the color of the ball, you may get a blank! So there’s a new element of ‘do I spin or not?’ You could spin and hope to hit a big prize, or wait for smaller prizes to be replaced with bigger ones.”
The ‘lucky losers’ final
While regulatory reasons prevented the use of a wheel in Prague, the Barcelona stop will see prize wheels making their debut. But what if the fates conspire to keep the big prizes unwon? It turns out there will be plenty of people hoping that happens — because even if they’re knocked out, they’ll have another chance to win.
“We’re going to make sure that every prize on the wheels is given away,” explains Pico. “Whatever is left over, and doesn’t get awarded to a Spin & Go winner, we’re going to put aside. Then, on the last day when the final is taking place, we will have a ‘lucky losers’ final for all the other players.
“Anyone who didn’t make the final can come, we’ll play crazy pineapple until we’re down to the last three players, and those players will play for everything that was left from the prize wheels.”
And what if there are no prizes left?
“If we spend more than we planned to in prizes, we’ll add another €10K for the lucky losers. Whoever is not playing that final will have the chance to play, it should make for a really fun atmosphere.”
PokerStars’ embracing of the luck element inherent in Spin & Go tournaments will be reflected in a new, bespoke trophy for the event. We’ve not seen it yet, but we’re promised it will live up to the twisting tales that are spun at every Spin & Go table.
A new twist on online qualification
Leaning into the idea of random chance, PokerStars is also offering a novel twist on the qualification route for the Spin & Go Live Championship.
20 packages will be awarded during several periods, with the first running from today, June 23 to July 7. Each period will see daily and overall leaderboards operate, but points will not be awarded in the traditional way.
Instead, each time you play a Spin & Go online you will receive a random amount of points, with lower multipliers likely to award more points. Keep playing to accumulate more points until — once again at the whims of fate — you see the ‘Game Over’ screen. It could be a couple of games, it could be more, and you don’t need to win the games to collect the points; the element of luck is once again at play.
Three attempts per day are possible, with the highest-scoring run being entered on the leaderboard. Four leaderboards will run, reflecting different stakes, with packages awarded to the top ranked players at the end of each period, which run for the following dates:
- June 23 to July 7
- July 7 to July 21
- July 21 to August 4
More way to win packages to the Spin & Go Live Championship will be announced at PokerStars.
An ambassador showdown
As mentioned above, some of the seats in the Championship will be reserved for special guests, and we can expect to see some PokerStars ambassadors in the field.
Which ones? That may come down to who has the skills to earn their way there, thanks to the Spin & Go Showdown.
This series of live-streamed Spin & Go matchups will see various ambassadors compete against one another, while also tipping another nod to the hands of fate by using a novel forfeit wheel. This wheel will be spun by the winner of each round and includes handicaps such as:
- Shove or fold only
- Fold every ace
- No raising, just limp or call
- Fold every button
Ambassadors will stream the action on their own channels, with those confirmed to be taking part so far including: Ben ‘Spraggy’ Spragg, Marle Spragg, Sebastian Huber, Lasse Jagd Lauritsen, Parker Talbot, Fintan Hand, Adam McKola, Rory Jennings and Nick Walsh.
PokerStars operates in regulated markets, including Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ontario and much of the rest of the world. Find out more at PokerStars.
Additional images courtesy of Eloy Cabacas/Manuel Kovsca/Danny Maxwell/Rational Intellectual Holdings Ltd.
