The PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) Barcelona Main Event continued Wednesday with action on Day 4. When play began, 67 hopefuls took their seats at the tables in the Casino Barcelona.
After a little more than seven hours of play, only 28 remain in the hunt for the €1,370,050 first-place prize.
Jose Criado, of Spain, leads the field with more than 5M chips – but with countryman Gerard Carbo and the Netherlands' Joris Ruijs following closely behind with 4.8M and 4.6M respectively, his lead is anything but secure.
Juanda eyes historic double – as does Malec
2015 EPT Barcelona Main Event winner John Juanda is threatening a return to the final table he conquered 11 years ago. No other player has won the EPT Barcelona Main Event twice.
With 1.8M to work with, Juanda is 12th in the chip counts and clear of the danger zone for now. He'll need to spin up his stack on Day 5 to continue his pursuit of a historic repeat.
And Juanda isn't the only former champion still in the hunt.
Poland's Sebastian Malec sits 17th in the chip counts with 1.4M in his stack. Malec took down the Barcelona crown in 2016, a year after Juanda, for €1,112,800.
After winning his way into the event through a €27 satellite, he outlasted the 1,785-entrant field in impressive and entertaining fashion. Malec's performance at the final table was especially memorable and the final hand of his heads-up battle against Uri Reichenstein is well worth a watch. In the years since, he has become a regular fixture on the EPT circuit.
Now both players are just a handful of eliminations away from poker history.
PokerStars EPT Barcelona Main Event chip counts
- Jose Criado (Spain): 5M
- Gerard Carbo (Spain): 4.8M
- Joris Ruijs (Netherlands): 4.6M
- Edward Pak (USA): 3.5M
- Barbara Akemi (Brazil): 3.4M
- Manuel Ferrari (Italy): 2.8M
- Henok Tekle Mariam (Netherlands): 2.4M
- Matas Cimbolas (Lithuania): 2.2M
- Fabricio Nociolini (Brazil): 2.1M
- Vinicius Goncalves (Brazil): 2M
When Day 4 play began, six draft picks in PokerOrg's Pick 3 fantasy contest were still in the running.
Now, only two remain.
Ruijs managed to continue his late-stage surge at the top of the chip counts, bagging up the third-largest stack in play.
Ireland's Michael Dwyer might not have as many chips to work with, but he's still alive and picking up points for teams that selected him with every pay ladder. With 1M in the bag headed into Day 5, Dwyer sits 21st in the counts.
Brock Wilson's run ends
The action on Day 4 brought about the end of a third deep run in a Main Event for Brock Wilson.
Following a 16th-place finish in the WSOP Main Event back in July and a 24th-place finish in the PokerStars Open Main Event just days ago, Wilson navigated his way to the later stages of the 1,823-entrant field here.
Unfortunately for him, a final table appearance once again eluded him as he crashed out in 41st place for €22,900.
Still, Wilson can rest easy knowing he delivered plenty of points for PokerOrg Pick 3 managers who selected him
Day 4 also saw the eliminations of three other Pick 3 players: Mark Teltscher (34th, €26,350), Antoine Labat (48th, €22,900), and Casimir Seire (63rd, €19,900).
Images courtesy of Eloy Cabacas/Danny Maxwell Photography/PokerStars/Rational Intellectual Holdings Ltd 2026
