888poker LIVE

888poker LIVE is online poker site 888poker’s live poker tournament series, which take place around the world. The 888poker LIVE events tend to be at the more affordable end of the buy-in scale, with the majority of the tournaments, especially in recent times, considered low or mid-stakes.

Like with other online poker sites that have live tours, players can qualify for the 888poker LIVE events online at 888poker.

What is 888poker LIVE?

The tour launched in 2015 and saw almost 20 stops during the inaugural season. More than two dozen stops featured in 2016, another 20 in 2017, and 16 during 2018.

888LIVE began being more selective from 2019 onwards, with 2019 featuring nine stops, and only four in 2020, a year hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. 2021 saw the tour resume in Sochi, Russia, in July, and Bucharest, Romania in 2021.

The Massive 888poker LIVE Madrid Main Event in 2020

PokerNews was on the ground for the 888poker LIVE Madrid Main Event, which took place in the Casino gran Via Madrid in April 2020, one of the last events before COVID-19 put the brakes on live poker for several months.

A field of 1,067 players bought in and created an €800,000 prize pool. Italian Marco Biavaschi triumphed in the Main Event and he returned home with the lion’s share of the prize pool, namely €150,000. Amazingly, Biavaschi won his seat via a €100 satellite and he turned that €100 into a score large enough to place him fourth in the tour’s all-time money list.

Ten Biggest Winners on the 888 LIVE Tournament

Ole Schemion is the biggest winner on the 888 LIVE tour courtesy of winning the 2018 WPT European Championship, which came under the 888 LIVE umbrella. Schemion bulldozed his way through 338 opponents, including defeating Michal Mrakes heads-up, and collected €218,435. Mrakes scooped €171,781.

That sole Schemion victory puts him top of the 888 LIVE money list, while Mrakes’ runner-up finish is enough to place him third in the standings, as of August 22, 2021.

Ten Players With the Most 888 LIVE Cashes

Play in any of the 888 LIVE events and you are sure to bump into Trinidad and Tobago’s Ramlal Basdeo. He is the tour’s leading player in terms of in the money finishes, with 13 cashes as of August 22, 2021. Basdeo is yet to win one of the events, but does have several final table appearances.

The rest of the top 10 are all in double figures for cashes. Albu Ion, Sofia Lovgren, Granville Mitchell, and Stephen Smith are all tied on 11 money finishes each.