Manuel Ferrari won the EPT Barcelona Main Event on Saturday, taking down the trophy after a deal chopped up three-handed play at the end.
Ferrari entered the final day's livestreamed final table as the chip leader, ahead of Spain's Jose Criado and China's Xaosheng Zheng on a final leaderboard of six. It was the second day in a row that Ferrari started with the chip lead, and he was charged with holding off the homegrown Criado and his country's first-ever EPT Main Event title.
Van Eeden forces stalemate
Elsewhere in the final six were Nederlander Lukas van Eeden, Ireland's Michael Dwyer, and Lebanon's Nicolas Chouity. Chouity would bounce away first, followed by Dwyer and Zheng, leaving a short-stacked Dutchman to deal with frontrunners Ferrari and Criado.
The leading pair had a firm grip on things, but Van Eeden doubled himself back into contention with a lucky pair of sevens.
Criado had opened before Van Eeden moved in for almost five million. After a quick count, Criado turned over 
and called. Van Eeden's 
held tight to bring his stack back to health.
Ferrari drifted back to the pack, and Van Eeden continued to crawl back into it, and eventually the players were all near equal in stack size.
Stalemate conditions kicked off discussions, and the final three struck a deal after the short talk. From there, Criado faded fast, handing his final chips to Ferrari for a third-place finish. Ferrari used the advantage to pick apart Van Eeden, and the ordeal was over quickly.
The million-euro win is Ferrari's best ever, joining only 579K American dollars worth of winnings in a career that goes back to 2018. But the Italian has been red-hot on the PokerStars tour lately, with wins in January of this year and June of last year, both his only other six-figure scores.
The EPT will now head to Prague for the final leg of its 2026 season, while the series once again occupies its popular spot on the winter schedule from December 2-13.
2026 EPT Barcelona Main Event final table results
- Manuel Ferrari - €1,002,488*
- Lukas van Eeden - €927,420*
- Jose Criado - €910,642*
- Xiaosheng Zheng - €471,250
- Michael Dwyer - €362,500
- Nicolas Chouity - €278,950
Images courtesy of PokerStars/Manuel Kovsca.
