Poker in Spain

Casinos with Poker

• Casino Barcelona
• Casino Gran Madrid Torrelodones

Spain has a significant role in the world of international poker.

The European Poker Tour’s stop in Barcelona is always a highly anticipated event on the international poker schedule. It usually draws the biggest names which, in turn, draws significant media attention.

Also, Spain was one of the four nations – along with France, Portugal and Italy – who signed the European poker liquidity deal. This has been prominent industry news for years – the four countries agreed to open up their segregated national markets and share their player pools.

Gambling is popular in Spain, especially sports betting. The soccer loving nation’s betting market is even bigger than the UK’s. Poker is also commonly played. According to the World Casino Directory website, there are 43 operating poker rooms in Spain. It may not sound as many, but you can compare that, for example, to the neighboring Portugal, where that number is 5…

Famous Spanish Poker Players

Adrián Mateos has three WSOP gold bracelets. He won the €10,450 WSOP Europe Main Event for €1,000,000 in 2013; the $1,500 Summer Solstice No Limit Hold’em event for $409,171 in 2016; and the $10,000 No Limit Hold’em Heads-Up event for $335,656 the next year. He’s also won one WSOP Europe title. In 2013, he topped the field for €1 million in the €10,450 WSOPE Main Event held in France.

Under the screen name “Amadi_017”, Mateos has seen some success in the online MTT scene on PokerStars. In 2017, for example, he won a $2,100 SCOOP (Spring Championship of Online Poker) 6-max event for $234,030.

David Lopez has cashed for over $1 million total playing MTT’s on both PokerStars and partypoker. His PS alias is “davaman”, while his partypoker screen name is “Sr.Penes”.

Sergio Aido has over $11 million in live tournament earnings. He won the €100,000 EPT Super High Roller for €1.589 million in 2019 in Monte Carlo. He beat a fellow Spaniard, Jesús Cortes, heads-up for that title.

– Playing Live Poker in Spain –

   Live Poker Legislation in Spain

Gambling became legal in Spain a few years after the Franco regime ended, in 1977. Then, all 17 autonomous regions got the right to set up their own licencing and regulatory framework. The 2011 Spanish Gaming Act was the first to introduce standardized nationwide rules, but those mostly pertain to online gambling. Land-based gambling is still under the control of regional gaming authorities.

  Live Poker Venues in Spain

One of the biggest tournament series in the world, the European Poker Tour makes a stop in Barcelona – almost – every year. The venue for the EPT events is usually Casino Barcelona.

The casino also hosts WSOP Circuit and partypoker LIVE events – two of the biggest poker tournament series in the world.

There, the NLHE cash stakes start at €1/€3 and go up to €50/€100. However, if you rent the room out for a private game you can make the blinds as big as €1,000/€2,000! They also offer PLO (from €5/€10 to €50/€100) and Dealer’s Choice (€2/€2 and €5/€5) cash games to their guests. Please note that only games you can pick at a Dealer’s Choice table are Hold’em and Omaha, unfortunately.

They usually have 2-3 tournaments per day on their schedule. Those are sometimes part of some the biggest tournament series – aside from the aforementioned EPT, 888Live also hosts events in the casino. The buy-ins range from €30 all the way up to €1,000.

The biggest casino in Madrid is Casino Gran Madrid Torrelodones. There, you can find Hold’em cash tables with stakes ranging from €1/€2 to €20/€50, and PLO cash tables (from €2/€2 to €20/€50). They put on one tournament per day. The smallest event on their calendar is €35 buy-in, while the largest is €1,100.

– Casinos and Poker Rooms in Spain –

  Online Poker Legislation in Spain

The 2011 Spanish Gaming Act set up a nationwide licencing system. On the plus side, this means online poker is legal everywhere in the country; on the downside, obtaining a licence in Spain is hard. Online gambling sites also pay a 15% tax on their gross game returns.

However, all the major poker rooms are available – PokerStars, partypoker, 888 etc. And, with the liquidity deal, players are now allowed to compete with other players from Italian, Portuguese and French servers.