888poker LIVE London will return to the Grosvenor Victoria Casino from October 8-18, with an 11-day schedule built around a £1,250 Main Event carrying a £250,000 guarantee.
The latest schedule adds plenty around the headline event, including a £100,000 guaranteed Crazy 8 opener, a £100,000 Mini Main and a £2,000 High Roller with another £100,000 guaranteed. Players can also qualify online, with routes starting from one cent and packages covering the Main Event seat plus travel and accommodation money.
888poker LIVE London Runs for 11 Days at The Vic
The festival opens on Thursday, October 8 with the £500 Crazy 8, a multi-flight tournament carrying a £100,000 guarantee. Five starting flights are scheduled before Day 2 begins on October 10, with an 88,000 starting stack giving the event a suitably on-brand feel.
The next major stop is the £340 Mini Main, also guaranteed at £100,000, before the festival moves into its higher buy-in stretch. The £550 Big Shot has £30,000 guaranteed, while the two-day £2,000 High Roller begins on October 14 with £100,000 guaranteed.
Key 888poker LIVE London Events
| Event | Buy-in | Guarantee |
|---|---|---|
| Crazy 8 Opening Event | £500 | £100,000 |
| Mini Main 888 | £340 | £100,000 |
| The Big Shot | £550 | £30,000 |
| High Roller | £2,000 | £100,000 |
| Main Event | £1,250 | £250,000 |
| The Dragon | £550 | £50,000 |
The full schedule also includes Pot Limit Omaha, turbo satellites, a charity event and The Dragon, which comes with a £50,000 guarantee. That gives the stop a useful spread of buy-ins rather than turning the trip into a Main Event-or-bust proposition.
£250K Main Event Starts October 15
The £1,250 Main Event begins on Thursday, October 15 with Day 1A, followed by Day 1B on Friday and a turbo Day 1C later that evening. Players receive 30,000 chips, with 40-minute levels in the standard opening flights and 20-minute levels in the turbo.
Day 2 is scheduled for Saturday, with the final day on Sunday using 60-minute levels. A 30-second shot clock comes into play from Day 2, which should keep the later stages moving once the field starts getting into the serious money.
The £250,000 guarantee matches the advertised figure from 2025, when the tournament comfortably cleared it. Last year’s Main Event drew 367 entries and generated a £383,500 prize pool, with Gang Wang beating Calogero Morreale heads-up for £86,600.
Online Qualifiers Start From $0.01
888poker is again feeding players into the live stop through online satellites. The operator says qualification starts from $0.01, with players able to progress toward a qualifier awarding $2,500 packages that include the £1,250 Main Event buy-in plus money for accommodation and travel.
That online route gives the festival some crossover with 888poker’s wider online schedule. Poker Type recently covered the 888poker XL Autumn Series, another part of the operator’s busy autumn calendar, while London itself is already set for a packed month after the recently announced PokerStars Ladies Weekend at the Hippodrome.
A Busy October for UK Live Poker
The Vic remains one of the most recognisable poker rooms in the UK, and an 11-day festival with several six-figure guarantees gives travelling players a reason to build a full London schedule rather than just fly in for one tournament. The Crazy 8, Mini Main and High Roller should also give the series several meaningful storylines before the Main Event begins.
The headline, though, is still the £1,250 Main Event. With three starting flights, a £250,000 guarantee and online packages already available, 888poker has put together a straightforward live-poker offering that should appeal to both regular circuit players and satellite qualifiers taking a shot at a larger buy-in.
