Spring has sprung at 888poker with the 2023 XL Spring Series now complete. For a comprehensive look at all the detailed results, head over to the operator’s page for the rundown, but read on below for a deeper dive into the series and how things fared.
Overall, the 2023 edition of the XL Spring Series was a success, with $1,295,038 in prizes awarded in the numbered events on $1,214,000 in pre-series guarantees. A total of 18 out of 28 recorded games broke their promises, and a few did exceptionally well. Four events went more than 50% above their guarantees, and a fifth game just missed that mark by a couple of percentage points.
If there was any dark spot in the XL Spring skies this time, it might result from some of the bigger events. Three of this series’s top five prize pools were played for the guarantee, including the $500k Main Event, which missed its guarantee by about $70,000.
However, the $200k guaranteed Event #19, which played out over multiple flights, ended up with an impressive $211,350 in total prizes for the second-best of the series.
With the big events missing their guarantees, there was slightly less than the total guarantees in money collected, but the difference was a paltry $15k or so. With almost $90k in fees gathered through the series, that likely will not bother the operator much.
2023 XL Spring Series Summary
| Total Gtd | $1,214,000 |
| Total Collected | $1,198,535 |
| Total Over Gtd | -$15,465 |
| Total Prizes | $1,295,038 |
| Prizes Above Gtd | $81,038 |
| Total Fees | $88,712 |
| Missed Gtd | 10 |
| Beat Gtd | 18 |
The XL Spring Sun and Showers
As is typical in the spring, there were sunshine and clouds for the XL Spring. An enormous cloud would likely be the missed guarantee on the Main Event, but the truth is, it was not that far off, missing its promise by only about 14%.
That made it one of the worst performers by the percentage of the prize pool, which means even that cloud had a bit of a silver lining when the best games went well over their guarantees.
In the end, 888poker had to add a bit of money from the fees to cover slightly more than $15k of the guarantees, but that still left more than $70k in tournament fees.
And, as far as the players were concerned, with almost $1.3 million awarded in prizes, it was likely a spring free of foul weather as they either played for guarantee-breaking prize pools or overlays. Few players will see anything wrong with either of those outcomes.
That meant a lot of sunshine all around for this XL Spring. Among the best-performing games were three that got over 60% extra in total prizes, and the top five were within a hair’s width of at least 50% more. The best five games averaged almost 59% above their guarantees for about $116k in total prizes.
2023 XL Spring Series Best % Above Guarantee
| Date | Tournament | Buy-In | Total Entries | Prize Pool | % Diff from Gtd |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tues, 23/5 | Event #6: $6KMystery BountyTurbo Mini Deep | $33 | 337 | $10,110 | 68.50% |
| Tues, 23/5 | Event #7: $15KMystery BountyTurbo Deep | $320 | 84 | $25,200 | 68.00% |
| Wed, 24/5 | Event #9: $12K6-Max | $109 | 194 | $19,400 | 61.67% |
| Sun, 21/5 | Event #1: $25K Mystery Bounty Mini Opening | $55 | 779 | $38,950 | 55.80% |
| Tues, 30/5 | Event #21: $15K8-Max Grand | $320 | 74 | $22,200 | 48.00% |
That brings the 2023 XL Spring Series to a close, but the action continues online. Check out the 888poker app for all the details on regular daily and weekly games with five and six-figure guarantees!
