EPT Barcelona | David Lappin discusses tournament upgrades, The Chip Race Episode 200, and poker industry ethics.

On August 27, 2026, PokerStars Ambassador David Lappin gave an interview to PokerNews during the EPT Barcelona, discussing the recent adjustments made to this classic European poker series, the important milestone of The Chip Race Podcast reaching its 200th episode, and his views on the regulation and ethical issues of the online poker industry.

Although Lappin described his individual performance at this year's EPT Barcelona as rather unsatisfactory, his live tournament career earnings are just one prize lap away from breaking the $1 million mark. More than individual results, he's focused on how Barcelona can improve the player experience amidst its continued high popularity.

EPT Barcelona's popularity continues, but capacity presents a new challenge.

EPT Barcelona has long been one of the most popular stops on the European Poker Tour. The 2026 series continues to boast strong attendance figures, including the PokerStars Open Main Event which attracted over 4,000 players, and a record-breaking €825 buy-in Cup event.

Lappin believes that this popularity also brings another problem: venue capacity and operational resources are beginning to be under pressure.

In previous editions, the large number of participants led to waiting lists and the need for some tables to be set up with 10 players. The 2026 schedule will be improved by adjusting the buy-ins and schedule structure of some events to create more space in the venue.

We'd rather have fewer participants than compromise on the player experience.

For the PokerStars live tournament team, the biggest challenge is not simply pursuing more participants, but rather finding a balance between scale and player experience.

Lappin pointed out that if a large number of participants leads to excessively long registration lines, increased waiting times, or even forces participants to wait in the corridor, then even impressive event statistics do not necessarily indicate a true success for the event.

Therefore, slightly raising the buy-in threshold for some tournaments is, to some extent, a way to control player flow. The cost is that it may deter some players who have progressed from lower buy-in tournaments, but the benefit is that it can maintain a more reasonable table density and registration process.

He specifically mentioned team members such as Toby Stone, Nick O'Hara, and Kenny Hallaert, believing that arranging different price ranges and schedules to maintain high table utilization without overloading the venue is one of the most important tasks in the entire tournament design.

The €825 price point is a highlight, setting a new record for Cup events.

One of the notable events at this year's Barcelona Open was the record-breaking participation in the €825 Cup event.

Lappin believes that this buy-in price may be in the ideal range between player acceptance and event size, so how PokerStars uses this price range in the future will be a key area to watch.

This also reflects the core issue facing EPT Barcelona: popularity itself is not the problem; the real challenge is how to translate huge demand into a better live experience.

The Chip Race reaches its 200th episode.

Besides his work at live tournaments, Lappin also has another important role as co-host of the poker podcast, The Chip Race.

The Chip Race, which he co-hosts with Dara O'Kearney, recently aired its 200th episode. For Lappin, reaching 200 episodes from the show's inception is quite surreal.

Each episode of The Chip Race typically features about four interviews, and based on this estimate, the show has interviewed nearly 1,000 people in the poker world.

Lappin stated that they have always wanted to continuously seek out new interviewees from diverse backgrounds, rather than focusing solely on the same group of well-known players. For him, The Chip Race is essentially a long-term project: to gradually reach out to different people and stories within the poker industry through interviews.

From independent podcasts to brand collaborations, Lappin emphasizes content first.

When discussing the growth of his podcast, Lappin also mentioned that recently someone on social media questioned whether he should be doing both sports commentary and podcast work.

His view is that there are almost no barriers to entry for creating content like podcasts and blogs; the real difficulty lies in producing content and building your own audience over the long term.

Only when content is continuously accumulated and an audience is gradually formed can popularity attract the attention of brands, and finally have the opportunity to develop into a job that can be paid.

The Chip Race has grown from its early days as standalone content to 200 episodes, becoming a real-world example of this growth model.

Lappin on the ethics of online poker: Regulatory fairness should not be ignored.

The final part of the interview addressed the more controversial issue of the poker industry.

Both Lappin and O'Kearney advocate prioritizing support for online poker operators who comply with local laws and regulations. Regarding unregulated offshore platforms operating in the form of cryptocurrencies, Lappin's stance is clear: these platforms may gain an unfair competitive advantage by not incurring the same regulatory costs as compliant companies.

He also distinguished between his attitude towards "players" and "companies".

Lappin stated that he understands players may be attracted by a larger player pool or other conditions, and therefore does not want to overly criticize individual players; however, he takes a tougher stance on platforms that deliberately circumvent regulatory rules.

In his view, when some companies choose to comply with the regulatory system while others reduce costs by circumventing the rules, it is not only a legal issue, but also directly involves the commercial fairness and ethical responsibility of the poker industry.

David Lappin's Three Key Milestones

EPT Barcelona shifts from pursuing scale to emphasizing experience balance.

The focus of David Lappin's interview was not just that EPT Barcelona's entry numbers remained strong, but rather the new challenges that mature, large-scale series face after rapid growth.

From increasing buy-ins and reducing venue overcrowding to controlling the number of registered teams and tables, PokerStars is trying to shift from simply pursuing the largest possible tournament size to balancing capacity and player experience.

On the other hand, The Chip Race's completion of 200 episodes and nearly 1,000 interviews reflects Lappin's long-term commitment to poker media content beyond the poker table.

For him, whether it's live tournaments, podcasts, or the online poker industry, the core issue is actually quite similar: as poker continues to grow, how can we build a more sustainable, fairer ecosystem that also prioritizes player experience?

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