PokerStars, king of the novelty cash game, has launched another novelty game, but this time, it is as new Spin & Go variety. Well, “Grand Tour” is not exactly a Spin & Go, but rather a progressive knockout series of Sit & Go’s with Spin & Go traits.
How to get to the game
When you click on the Grand Tour tab in the lobby (congrats, Grand Tour, you have your own tab!), you arrive at a cartoon landscape with a bicycle road race course that starts in the country and ends in Paris. At this point, it should be obvious that this is Tour de France-themed. On the course are six spots, each corresponding to a buy-in: $1, $2, $5, $12, $25, and $50. You can start at the lowest one or skip to any of the others.
Once you select a buy-in, you will jump right into a game (called a “sprint”), which is a four-handed, hyper-turbo Sit & Go. It is progressive knockout, though, meaning that part of the buy-in is a bounty on each player’s head and part is awarded as cash prizes.
One important note: there is no actual prize pool for each single-table tournament. The only way to win money is to knock players out (with one exception, which we will get to). Winning a Sit & Go does not award you any sort of prize pool beyond the bounties you collected.
Bounty math
The way the bounties are calculated is a little convoluted, so bear with me. Keep in mind that everything is determined after the 10% rake is taken out.
If the average bounty value at the table is between $0.90 and $10.80, you will take 50% of an opponent’s bounty when knocking them out and receive 25% of their bounty in cash. That cash portion is then multiplied by a randomized number to determine the actual cash award. That cash goes directly into your account.
The possible multipliers for average bounty values of $10.80 and below are 1x through 5x in increments of 0.5x, 6x through 10x, 100x, and 300x. 1x will occur about 26% of the time, 1.5x about 33%, 2x about 16%, and 2.5x about 7%.
If the average bounty value is $10.81 and up, you win 60% of a player’s bounty upon elimination and the starting cash award is 20%. The two top multipliers switch to 25x and 6,000 for average bounties of $10.81 and above.
Go all the way
If you win a sprint, you can enter another one against players with like bounties for free. This can be done immediately or you can save your progress for later. The ultimate goal is to end up with a value – the ever-growing bounty on your head – of at least $100 and win the sprint. This is the only scenario in which you win an additional prize upon winning a Sit & Go. In this case, the prize is your own bounty.
As mentioned, you can start at any buy-in, but no matter where you start on the course, the object is to win a sprint with your own bounty adding up to at least $100.
Grand Tour is available on the .COM, .UK, and .EU clients, but as of this writing, just before midnight ET April 30th, it has not actually launched for real money play. Attempts to play Grand Tour direct players to try it for play money. It is also available for play money on the .NET client.