The European Poker Tour’s annual visit to Barcelona has become one of the most celebrated and best-attended stops on the global circuit.
With the action at Casino Barcelona kicking off this weekend and running through to August 29, now’s the perfect time to take a closer look at how this poker festival has come to be held in such high regard, what to look forward to across two weeks of competition, and why Barcelona has become a can’t-miss destination for tournament players of all levels.
And don’t miss our exclusive free-to-enter Pick 3 fantasy contest, which will award prizes for picking the right trio of players in the EPT Barcelona Main Event.
The top prize is a package worth $8,000 to play the EPT Prague Main Event later this year. Read on for more.
A sense of occasion
There’s simply no EPT tour destination that’s bigger, more prestigious or better established than EPT Barcelona.
It’s the oldest stop on the tour, hosting the very first EPT series ever held back in 2004, and has also built a reputation as the biggest. Of the top 10 biggest fields in EPT Main Event history — across all years and destinations — the top seven have all been held in Barcelona.
The biggest so far was the 2022 Main Event, which attracted 2,294 entries, but it’s closely followed by the 2023 and 2025 editions, with 2,120 and 2,045 respectively.
Prizepools for the main events routinely top €9M, and the high quality of the venue, dealers, staff and facilities only add to the appeal. But the poker is just one aspect of EPT Barcelona’s allure.
Casino Barcelona is not tucked away in the suburbs or near the airport — step outside its doors and you’ll find yourself in the heart of one of the world’s most exciting cities.
The world-famous Sagrada Família, the tapas bars of the city’s Gothic Quarter and the sandy beaches of Barceloneta are all within walking distance.
Shops, parks, museums, galleries, a zoo and an aquarium are also on your doorstep, making this a destination with plenty to occupy any non-poker-playing friends and family who may be accompanying you.
And the weather? It’s predicted to be in the mid-80s, sunny with a gentle breeze. Any thunderbolts and lightning are more likely to be found at the tables. Speaking of which…
There are 79 events to choose from
From this Sunday’s event #1 — the €1,650 PokerStars Open Main Event — to the €1,050 Last Chance Super Hyper Turbo on August 29, there are 79 different live events on the schedule at Casino Barcelona.
These range in buy-ins from €330 to €100K, and include a number of game variants from no-limit hold’em to pot-limit Omaha, Omaha hi/lo, and three different mixed game formats — HORSE, 8-Game and 9-Game.
With the PokerStars Open running in parallel with EPT Barcelona there are two main events on the schedule, and no matter how deep you run you’ll be able to play them both if you want to:
- The €1,650 PokerStars Open Main Event features eight starting flights and runs August 16-22.
- The €5,300 EPT Main Event has two Day 1s and runs August 22-29.
And while the tournament options for more recreational players are plentiful, there are still a good number of high rollers on the schedule which should attract many of the game’s elite players.
Events at the €10K, €15K, €20K, €25K, €30K, €50K and €100K price points mean that, whatever stakes you play, you’re likely to be rubbing shoulders with poker celebrities.
Expect to run across high rollers and poker ambassadors, with the likes of David Lappin, Ben ‘Spraggy’ Spragg, Maria Konnikova and Sebastian Huber all confirmed at the time of writing.
The reign of Spain?
From the WSOP to the FIFA World Cup, it’s been a memorable summer for the Spanish.
The men’s national soccer team may have seized the spotlight with World Cup victory in New Jersey, but poker fans were likely just as impressed by a feat achieved further west, in Las Vegas.
It was there at the WSOP, in mid-June, that Spain’s number one ranked tournament player Adrian Mateos won the second largest first prize of the summer series. His victory over Bryn Kenney in the $250K Super High Roller brought him his sixth WSOP bracelet and over $4.3M in prize money.
Will Spain’s homegrown heroes continue their winning summer on home soil? Given the traditionally international make-up of the fields at EPT Barcelona, it’s far from a given.
We expect to see many of the world’s greatest players in action over the next two weeks, from the USA, Europe and far beyond.
Last year’s series featured winners such as Jeremy Ausmus and Brock Wilson of the USA, Samuel Mullur and Klemens Roiter of Austria, the UK’s Benny Glaser and Japan’s Shiina Okamoto.
France, meanwhile, was well represented, with Alexis Nicolai winning the PokerStars Open Main Event and Thomas Eychenne taking down the EPT Main Event. Altogether, players from over 100 countries came together to compete in the Catalan capital.
The last US winner of the EPT Barcelona Main Event was Stephen Song in 2024, who collected a career-best $1.4M. Will we see another American winner this summer?
PokerOrg’s Pick 3 is back
Whoever ends up taking the crown in Spain this month, you could also be a winner.
That’s because we are once again running our Pick 3 fantasy contest, exclusively available to members of The Org, with real prizes up for grabs — and all for free.
All you need to do is pick a team of three players for the EPT Main Event, selected from our list of the best and most accomplished players in the field.
The better your chosen players do, the more points you’ll earn and the higher you’ll rise on our leaderboard, with the overall winner bagging a free package to EPT Prague.
Click here to pre-register, with the full player list available for team selection on Monday.
Not a member of The Org yet? All you need is 20 seconds and a valid email address to join.
Hit ‘Register’ at the top of this page now to get it done.
Time to tick this one off your bucket list?
The EPT is undoubtedly one of the world’s premier live poker tours, and Barcelona is the jewel in its crown. It has everything a tournament player could want, and much more besides.
If playing an EPT event is on your poker bucket list, it’s difficult to recommend a better stop to experience.
Cards are in the air from noon on Sunday.
Additional images courtesy of Rational Intellectual Holdings Ltd/Dimitry Anikin.
