The tournament
It was supposed to be a gathering of the folk - the poker folk. But not just anybody, the 42 online deserving poker affiliates. These poker-playing folks earned their private seats and when the opportunity for a cash poker tournament arose, they answered the call.
The setting: Hotel Princesa in Barcelona. A freeroll poker tournament - involving cash - outside of casino operations took place. In Barcelona that's a no-go. Naturally both players and organizers alike knew it was illegal, but they went ahead with it anyway. The police were less than impressed. The Affiliate Series of Poker tournament is held during Casino Affiliate Program events and is open to those in the poker ‘loop'.

The prizes
They were big: some $10 000.00 in cash was up for grabs as well as a stylish gold bracelet, embedded with diamonds, to the value of almost $15 000. Players only got a sniff of that before the boys in blue arrived.

Crashing the party
Local authorities raided the Barcelona hotel and confiscated tables and chips from the gambling den. The police put a rapid end to the private freeroll tournament, much to the dismay - albeit not the surprise - of players. Nobody was arrested and no charges were filed, but it serves a warning that the authorities are always just a step behind the players.