Manuel Ferrari Wins the EPT Barcelona Main Event
Manuel Ferrari is the new EPT Barcelona Main Event champion. The Italian pro outlasted a field of 1,823 entries in the flagship €5,300 buy-in tournament, one of the most prestigious stops on the European Poker Tour calendar, converting a wire-to-wire chip lead into a title that had eluded him for years despite a growing resume of live cashes across the continent.
The tournament generated a prize pool of €8,841,550, comfortably one of the largest of the 2026 EPT Barcelona festival. Ferrari’s share came to €1,002,488 after a three-way negotiation at the top of the final table, capping five hours of final-table poker that saw the field collapse from eight players to a heads-up battle for the trophy.
How the Final Table Unfolded
The unofficial final table began with Edward Pak of South Korea (€165,050) and Gerard Carbo of Spain (€214,600) the first to fall in eighth and seventh place. Lebanon’s Nicolas Chouity followed in sixth for €278,950, then Ireland’s Michael Dwyer departed in fifth for €362,500. China’s Xiaosheng Zheng rounded out the min-cash payouts in fourth for €471,250, setting up a three-handed showdown between Ferrari, Dutch player Lukas van Eeden and Spain’s own Jose Criado, who was trying to keep the trophy on home soil in front of a partisan Barcelona crowd.
With the pay jumps growing steep and all three players carrying playable stacks, the trio opted for an ICM-based deal rather than gambling away a career-changing score on a single hand. Ferrari, van Eeden and Criado each locked up more than €900,000, with €927,420 going to van Eeden for eventual second and €910,642 to Criado for third. The players left roughly €100,000 and the trophy on the table to play for, a common structure in modern high-value MTTs that rewards deep runs while still preserving the drama of a genuine finish.
Ferrari’s Third Title in 14 Months
For Ferrari, the win is the latest and largest chapter in a remarkable run of European tour results. It marks his third Golden Shard trophy in just 14 months, following a Main Event title at PokerStars Open Malaga in June 2025 worth roughly €200,000 and a High Roller victory at PokerStars Open Campione. Stacking those results together, Ferrari has quietly become one of the most consistent closers on the mid-to-high-stakes European live circuit, a player who converts deep runs into trophies rather than min-cashes.
“I have yet to realize it. I’m super, super happy,” Ferrari said after the win, according to PokerNews. “It was always a dream for me to win an EPT.” He credited a supportive rail of friends and family for keeping his nerves in check through the closing stages, a common refrain among players who finally break through at a marquee stop after years of grinding smaller festivals.
A Landmark Stop for the European Poker Tour
EPT Barcelona has long carried a special weight on the tour calendar. Held every August at the Casino Barcelona, it routinely draws one of the largest and most international fields of any EPT stop, blending Spanish local talent with a wave of touring pros who treat the late-summer festival as a season centerpiece. This year’s Main Event field of 1,823 entries reflects that pull, and the presence of a home favorite like Criado at the final table only added to the atmosphere inside the tournament arena.
The broader festival also delivered a strong showing for Brazilian players, a trend Poker Pro Academy has tracked throughout the summer. Barbara Akemi made a deep run to a 10th-place finish worth €97,700, while Fabiano Kovalski took down a €3,250 Mystery Bounty side event for €385,430. Those results, combined with Ferrari’s headline victory, underline just how global EPT Barcelona’s appeal has become, with players from Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, China, Ireland, Lebanon, South Korea and Brazil all cashing deep in the same festival.
What the Win Means Going Forward
A seven-figure score changes a player’s trajectory, both financially and competitively. Ferrari now enters the conversation among Europe’s form players heading into the fall festival season, with a track record that suggests this will not be his last deep run on a big stage. For players newer to tournament poker who want to understand how deals, pay jumps and final-table dynamics like the one Ferrari navigated actually work, Poker Pro Academy’s how to play poker guide breaks down the fundamentals that separate a min-cash from a title run.
EPT Barcelona will continue to run its satellite and side events over the coming days, but the Main Event trophy, and the biggest storyline of the festival, now belongs to Manuel Ferrari. As always with tournament poker, results like this are a reminder that even at the highest levels, outcomes carry real financial risk and no result is guaranteed. Poker remains a game for adults 18 and older, and players are encouraged to wager only what they can afford to lose.
