It's just over two weeks until the debut 888Live Make It Big Festival in Barcelona with 12 days of non-stop poker from May 11 to 22, and a staggering total guaranteed prize pool of over €700,000! The festival – the first 888Live Make It Big event in Spain, is being held at Casino Barcelona in the vibrant capital of Catalunya with a €500k guarantee for the €1,100 Main Event.
Fab MainEventTravel service for qualifiers
The new partnership with 888Live Make It Big Festivals also sees the launch of a unique new system for 888poker’s online qualifiers. Instead of the traditional methods used by most sites, MET have created an entirely new concept enabling event qualifiers to fully customize their travel options to get the maximum value from their packages.
Each qualifier will be given a credit on their MainEventTravel account by 888poker and will be able to choose exactly how they would like to spend this from the wide range of hotels available on the MET site. They can choose the exact dates of their stay – to ensure there are no wasted nights, and can also top up their MET account credit should they wish to upgrade their hotel or extend their stay. They can also take advantage of any budget options available, thus leaving them with credit on their MET account to extend their stay without increasing their spending, or perhaps put the funds towards a future leg of the tour.
MainEventTravel.com has literally dozens of hotel options for the 888Live Make It Big Festival in Barcelona festival – ranging from luxury hotels just a stone’s throw from the casino and vibrant Port Olimpic through to budget hotels, apartments and hostels in and around the city. If players want to spend more than they are allocated by 888 – to upgrade their hotel or extend their stay in Barcelona, they can simply top up their MainEventTravel account to pay for it. Alternatively, they can opt for budget accommodation and save credit on their MET account for future trips to 888Live events.
The 888Live Make It Big Festival schedule features a total of 13 events including the €220 buy-in 888Live Barcelona Festival Opening Event (which comes with a €100,000 guarantee), a €2,200 High Roller (with €50k guarantee), a €220 Ladies Event, €333 buy-in “The Whale” tournament (with €10,000 guarantee) as well as knockout, turbo and PLO events.
Since the 888Live Make It Big Festivals began in London last year, guarantees and player numbers have steadily increased – and prize pools have exceeded the guarantees at each of the previous stops.
Barcelona is one of the most exciting cities in Europe to play poker with great sight-seeing, fabulous culture and a wealth of fantastic restaurants, bars and clubs all within easy reach of the Casino. Among those set to compete are 888poker Ambassadors Bruno “Foster” Politano, Kara Scott, Dominik Nitsche, Bruno Kawauti, Nicola Vila lobos, Sofia Lovgren and Natalie Hof.
The 888Live Make It Big festivals were first introduced in September as a “celebration of poker” aimed at giving players of all kinds a fantastic poker experience. All the 888Live Make It Big Festivals offer a greater variety of tournaments, longer structures, a wider range of buy-ins, and bigger guarantees.
At the first 888Live Make It Big festival at Aspers Casino in London, 21-year-old Hong Kong-born Ka Him Li won the £880 Main Event after beating Shah Raza heads-up for £45,300 and his first trophy. Among the 36 players to make the money were 888poker Ambassador Kara Scott, Michael Mizrachi and Leo McLean. There were 288 entries in total, creating a £228,096 prize pool.
The last 888Live Festival, at Kings Casino in Rozvadov, was a hugely successful event with 531 entries for the Main Event creating a €407,596 prize pool. Romanian player Catalin Pop took it down for €80,000 despite fierce competition from top Scottish pros Niall Farrell and Ludovic Geilich. The two Glaswegians found themselves sitting next to each other at the final table, finishing third and fourth respectively.