WSOP Circuit Madrid 2026: Salvador Sala Garcia Takes Down the €300 Mini Main Event

There’s something special about the very first ring at a brand-new WSOP Circuit stop. Nobody has a history in the room yet, nobody knows how the structure will play out, and every local regular wants to be the name people remember. In Madrid, that name is Salvador Sala Garcia.

The Spaniard outlasted a field of 1,279 entries to win the €300 Mini Main Event at Casino Gran Vía. He banked €48,200 and the first WSOP Circuit gold ring ever handed out on Spanish soil. He did it in front of what was essentially a home crowd: seven of the nine players at the final table were from Spain.

Below, we break down the result, the full payouts, what the numbers tell you about the value of this event, and what’s coming next as the festival builds toward its €1,500 Main Event.

Quick Facts: €300 Mini Main Event at a Glance

Detail	Figure
Event	Ring #1 – €300 Mini Main Event
Venue	Casino Gran Vía, Madrid
Dates	October 23–25, 2026 (4 starting flights + final day)
Total entries	1,279
Prize pool	€312,587
Places paid	195 (about 15.2% of the field)
Minimum cash	€600 (2× buy-in)
Winner	Salvador Sala Garcia (Spain) – €48,200
Runner-up	Carlos Perez (Spain) – €32,200

A Historic First Stop in Spain

This isn’t just another Circuit date. Madrid marks the first time the WSOP Circuit has ever come to Spain, and the schedule reflects that ambition. There are more than 50 tournaments between October 23 and November 2, with 11 gold rings on the line and buy-ins from €300 up to €2,500.

Casino Gran Vía was a sensible pick. It sits right in the middle of the city, a short walk from Sol and Callao. It has also hosted big international festivals before, including Triton, WPT Prime, 888poker LIVE and the PartyPoker Tour. The room knows how to handle a crowd, and the Spanish poker community already treats it as home turf.

Madrid is also one of six European stops on the 2026 Circuit calendar, which together will hand out 67 rings across the continent. For European players who can’t justify a trip to Las Vegas, these stops are the most realistic shot at WSOP hardware.

How the Final Table Played Out

After four starting flights over Friday and Saturday, the survivors returned on Sunday to play down to a winner. The final table had a heavy Spanish flavour, and the crowd made sure everyone knew it.

In the end, it came down to an all-Spanish heads-up between Sala Garcia and Carlos Perez. Sala Garcia closed it out, and the gap between first and second was a meaningful €16,000. That’s a typical spread for a Circuit payout structure, which rewards the winner without completely flattening the ladder below.

Third place went to Fernando Fernandez Sedano (€22,700), and Carlos De Santos Moreno took fourth for €16,200. International players who went deep included Rahul Sujanani Sujanani in eighth, Young Lee in ninth, and Ukraine’s Ihor Kotyk in tenth.

Full Payouts: Top 11 Finishers

Place	Player	Prize	Return on €300
1	Salvador Sala Garcia	€48,200	~161×
2	Carlos Perez	€32,200	~107×
3	Fernando Fernandez Sedano	€22,700	~76×
4	Carlos De Santos Moreno	€16,200	54×
5	Elias Abdallah	€11,800	~39×
6	Miguel De Barrio Herranz	€8,650	~29×
7	Miguel Hernandez Pinero	€6,450	~22×
8	Rahul Sujanani Sujanani	€4,900	~16×
9	Young Lee	€3,750	12.5×
10	Ihor Kotyk	€2,928	~10×
11	Nicolas De Serdio Van den Wall Bake	€2,928	~10×

What the Numbers Really Tell You

Results tables are nice, but if you’re deciding whether to play an event like this yourself, the useful part is what sits underneath them. Here’s how we read it.

1. The fee is higher than it looks.
1,279 entries at €300 means €383,700 came through the door, and the prize pool was €312,587. So roughly 81.5% went back to players, and about 18.5% covered entry fees, staff and the casino’s costs. That’s normal for a low buy-in live event, because dealers cost the same whether the buy-in is €300 or €3,000. Still, it’s worth knowing. The higher the buy-in, the smaller that percentage usually becomes.

2. Your odds of a cash were solid.
With 195 places paid, about one in every 6.5 entries cashed. The minimum cash was €600, double the buy-in. For a recreational player, that matters: if you play patient poker and avoid big early risks, a min-cash covers your entry plus a re-entry.

3. The money is concentrated at the top.
The winner took about 15.4% of the entire prize pool, and the final table alone shared close to half of it. That’s the nature of large-field tournaments: most of the money lives at the very top, and variance is enormous. A strong player can fire several of these and never get close to the final nine, so bankroll for that.

How Madrid Compares to Other Recent Events

Event	Buy-in	Entries	Prize Pool	Winner’s Prize
WSOP Circuit Madrid Mini Main (Oct 2026)	€300	1,279	€312,587	€48,200
888poker LIVE Madrid Main Event (2026, Casino Gran Vía)	€888	360	€273,600	€50,000
PartyPoker Tour Madrid Mini Main (May 2026, Casino Gran Vía)	€150	—	€50,000 GTD	—
WSOP Circuit Austin Main Event (2026, record field)	$1,700	2,090	—	—

The comparison with 888poker LIVE is the most telling. That €888 Main Event at the same casino drew 360 entries. The WSOP Circuit Mini Main, at a third of the price, attracted more than three times as many runners and built a bigger prize pool. That’s the power of the WSOP brand in a market seeing it for the first time. It’s also a strong signal that the €1,500 Main Event could post a healthy number too.

Still Running: The €550 Seniors Event

While the Mini Main wrapped up, the €550 Seniors (50+) event was reaching its business end. From a field of 126 entries, 26 players came back for the final day. Ukraine’s Sergii Karpov held the chip lead with 448,000, ahead of Spain’s Alfonso Martinez Recuenco (417,000). Lonny Weitzel, Tom-Aksel Bedel and Alexander Stevic were also among those chasing the ring. We’ll update this page once a champion is crowned.

What’s Next: The €1,500 Main Event

The headline event of the festival is Ring #7, the €1,500 Main Event:

• Day 1 flights: October 28 to October 30
• Day 2: Saturday, October 31
• Final day: Sunday, November 1
• Satellites: €180, running daily (usually midday and 9 p.m. sessions)

Practical Tips If You’re Heading to Gran Vía

• Satellite in rather than buying in directly if €1,500 is a big chunk of your bankroll. A €180 satellite is a far gentler risk, and these fields tend to be softer than the Main itself.
• Pick an early flight. Later flights often get bigger and tougher as pros arrive for the weekend. Early flights also leave you time to re-enter if allowed.
• Register in advance via the WSOP+ app where possible. Registration lines at popular first-time stops can be long.
• Bring ID. Spanish casinos require identification at the door, so foreign visitors will need a passport or EU ID card.
• Plan for late nights. Madrid runs late, and so do the tournaments. Eat properly before you sit down; restaurants near Gran Vía stay open well past midnight.

Our Take

For a debut stop, Madrid has made a statement. A 1,279-entry opener tells you two things. Spanish players were hungry for a WSOP event on home soil, and the €300 price point hit the sweet spot for recreational and semi-pro players alike. Salvador Sala Garcia now owns a small piece of Spanish poker history, and the room will be buzzing for the Main Event.

If you’re a recreational player, this is exactly the kind of event worth targeting. It has a low buy-in, a real chance of cashing, and the thrill of playing for a WSOP ring. Just go in with realistic expectations about variance, and treat a deep run as the bonus, not the plan.

Keep checking PokerClubGames for live updates from WSOP Circuit Madrid. For official results and the full schedule, visit the official WSOP website.

FAQs