EPT Barcelona 2026: Ferrari Takes the Crown as Dwan and Kovalski Shine
Manuel Ferrari’s Million-Euro Moment
The dust has finally settled on another Pokerstars EPT Barcelona, the centrepiece of the European poker schedule each year, and it didn’t disappoint, producing stories aplenty, not least in the Main Event. Italian pro Manuel Ferrari came to the final table as chip leader but he had his work cut out for him with former EPT champion Nicholas Chouity and reigning Pokerstars Open Monte Carlo champion Joris Ruihs also in attendance.
The final table of eight players was whittled down to a sextet on the penultimate day with Ruihs and the talented Spaniard Gerard Carbo bowing out, the former after a classic flip while the latter ran his top pair into pocket Aces. On the final day, Ferrari navigated his stack well, tidily applying pressure on the short-stacks and never blinking in the confrontations versus the other big stacks. The eliminations of Chouity, Michael Dwyer and Xiaosheng Zheng paved the way for a trual between Ferrari, Spain’s José Criado and Dutchman Lukas van Eeden.
The trio tussled for a time, van Eeden chipping up and Criado chipping down to level up the stacks. At that point, numbers were requested and they quickly agreed an ICM deal that locked up more than €900,000 apiece. The title and €100,000 was still up for grabs and it was at this point that Ferrari changed gears. Criado crashed out in third while the heads-up was all one-way traffic. In the final hand, Van Eeden shoved King-Six into Ferrari’s Ace-Queen and that was all she wrote. The winner of last year’s Pokerstars Open Malaga and this year’s Pokerstars Open Campione high-roller this year was an EPT champion too.
Dwan’s Closes Twice and Wheeler Wins Open
If Ferrari provided the festival’s grand finale, Jamie Dwan provided one of its most entertaining subplots. The Englishman has been on a ridiculous heater this year and Barcelona was another reminder that his transformation from breakout name to genuine high-stakes menace is happening rather quickly. He finished third in the €100,000 Super High Roller for €472,000, fifth in the €20,000 High Roller and fourth in a €25,000 event before finally getting his hands on a trophy.
That trophy came in another €25,000 Hold’em event, where Dwan binked a tiny eight-entry field to claim €134,096. Klemens Roiter, himself one of Barcelona’s early stars, finished second with Kayhan Mokri getting third. Then, on the final day, Dwan went and did it again. Attracting 108 entries, the €1,050 Last Chance Super Hyper Turbo is a tournament where patience is not recommended. With a copa de vino tinto in hand, Dwan outlasted Congya Zhang heads-up to collect another €27,110, his tenth cash of the festival and his second trophy.
Meanwhile, Jason Wheeler won the €1,650 PokerStars Open Main Event, defeating Alexander Ivarsson heads-up in the monster 4333-entry field. Banking a whopping €731,000, this was the biggest live score of Wheeler’s impressive career. The result pushed the American pro’s career tournament winnings beyond the $6 million mark.
Eychenne and Kovalski Win (in) Spades
The defending EPT Barcelona Main Event champion was only able to fire a max-late registration bullet in defence of his crown but there was a very good reason for that. While Day 1B was taking place, he was sitting down on the €2,700 PokerStars Open High Roller final table. Fittingly, the final day was on the Pokerstars livestream and I had the great pleasure to commentate on proceedings alongside James Hartigan, Nick Walsh, Sam Grafton, Maria Konnikova and Griffin Benger.
Under the lights and with the cameras rolling, Eychenne put on a masterclass, ultimately defeating his compatriot Virgile Turchi heads-up in the 1,551-entry field. The spoils of victory was the princely sum of €589,395 for a man who is starting to look like poker’s King of Spain. Another player with claims of that monicker is the Brazilian dynamo Fabiano Kovalski, who twice found himself in the winner’s enclosure in the Catalan capital.
Kovalski won the €3,250 Mystery Bounty for €385,430, including €54,000 in bounties but, unsatisfied with that haul, he also took down the 429-runner €10,300 EPT High Roller. It was a star-studded final table with Leo Worthington Leese (8th) Alex Reard (6th) and Gediminus Uselis (3rd) all in the mix but, after a heads-up deal with Igor Picone, it was Kovalski who walked away with €727,280 and his second Spade trophy.
Margereson, Leknes, Fuchs and Blumbergs
Scott Margereson supplied another major side-event story by winning the €2,700 EPT Second Chance. The Brit defeated Natasha Mercier heads-up and collected €361,060 from a field of 844 entries, a result that also pushed his lifetime live tournament winnings beyond $5 million. It was his third-largest live score and another example of how Barcelona’s supporting cast was producing results worthy of headline treatment.
Tobias ‘Senkel’ Leknes reminded everyone that he is one of world’s elite mixed game players. He won the €5,200 T-O-R-S-E event for €52,100 and his tenth PokerStars live title. The Norwegian legend and mastermind behind the upcoming European Mixed Poker Championships (taking place in Tallinn from October 26-31) now boasts a trophy haul covering a wonderfully chaotic assortment of disciplines.
At the sharper end of the festival, Barcelona once again provided the sort of buy-ins that make recreational players check whether somebody has accidentally added a zero. The €100,000 Super High Roller drew 27 entries and eventually produced a victory for Tom Fuchs who bagged €1,126,540 for the largest payday of the fortnight. In other side event news, the €10,250 PLO tournament was won by Latvia’s Ralfs Blumbergs for €303,000.
Barcelona Remains the EPT’s Crown Jewel
There is something wonderfully democratic about the chaos at what is still the jewel in the crown of the European Poker Tour. The €100K ballers gets their nosebleed high-rollers, the mixed-game specialists get the opportunity to flex and the €1,650 Open and €825 Cup give thousands of players their own shot at poker immortality. There was also the premiere of a brand new tournament format where Day 1 bags are found once you reach a fixed target.
Plenty of worthy narratives slip through the cracks at such a gargantuan festival but one that I particularly liked was Jamie Burland’s presence courtesy of a Power Path, a €12,000 package won from a free PokerStars 50c Spin & Go ticket. There was also the story of Dutchman Antoine Vranken who won the Seniors event, outlasting a final table that included Ireland’s Dara O’Kearney and Denmark’s Martin Nielsen, and then hopped straight into the Seniors High-roller event, finishing second to the very deserving Swiss gentleman Yves Thalmann.
The beauty of EPT Barcelona is that the Main Event is the biggest story in the room but not the only story worth telling. While Ferrari was winning seven figures and his third major PokerStars title, Wheeler was posting a career-best score, Eychenne was collecting another Barcelona trophy, Margereson was breaking through $5 million in live earnings while Dwan and Kovalski were treating the side event schedule like their own personal playgrounds.
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