PokerOrg's free Pick 3 fantasy contest asks you to draft three players to compete for you in the 2026 EPT Barcelona Main Event, with one point awarded for every €1 they win.
Finish top of the Pick 3 leaderboard and you'll win an $8K package including entry to the €5,300 EPT Prague Main Event, flights and accommodation.
It sounds easy. But one look at the draft list might make you wonder how you’re going to pick just three names from over 100 players who could all crush in the flagship tournament.
How do you narrow it down?
We’ve done the research so you don’t have to. Over the next week, we’ll bring you some of the strongest picks, plus a few outside shots to help differentiate your team from the rest. We’re starting with three players who have enjoyed some red-hot form over the past 12 months.
Remember, the draft deadline is open right through the Day 1s, and shuts at 12 noon on August 24, before the start of Day 2 of the EPT Barcelona Main Event. Pick your team and then make sure that all your players have entered the Main Event and that they still have healthy stacks.
These three names are a great place to start.
1. Thomas Eychenne
Who’s going to record a run for the ages in the 2026 EPT Barcelona Main Event? Last year’s event got 2,045 entries and France’s Thomas Eychenne was the last player standing.
Should he be the first name on your three-player list in 2026?
He’s been putting in the volume. Eychenne already has 18 cashes in 2026, and a seventh-place finish in the WSOPE Main Event for €245,000 isn't even his best score of the year.
His best cash of 2026 came in a $100K Onyx High Roller, where he finished fifth for $375,000. He had another deep run in an EPT Main Event, finishing 22nd in Monte Carlo for €28,150.
Only three players have won two live EPT Main Event titles: Victoria Coren Mitchell, Mikalai Pobal and Mike Watson. None successfully defended an EPT Main Event title. Could Eychenne become the first?
He hasn’t recorded a cash since the WSOP, and we can imagine him recharging his batteries after a busy summer in Vegas, ready to give it his all in Spain next week.
2. Adrian Mateos
There are four great reasons to pick Adrian Mateos:
1. He’s fifth on The Hendon Mob’s all-time money list with $67,813,885 in career earnings.
2. He’s third on the all-time EPT cashes list, with 99.
3. He’s in red-hot form in 2026. He’s recorded 19 cashes already this year, including his career-best score of $6,370,000 for winning the $200K Triton Invitational in Montenegro.
Despite a stellar career spanning 14 years, Mateos also secured his second-biggest career cash this summer when he won the $250K WSOP Super High Roller for $4,334,411. At 31, the victory also made him the youngest player ever to reach six WSOP bracelets.
His seven most recent cashes have been:
- 1st – $15K PGT Summer Series High Roller: $155,250
- 3rd – $15K PGT Summer Series High Roller: $67,200
- 2nd – $5K WSOP Online/Live NLH High Roller Championship: $175,150
- 1st – $25,800 Wynn NLH High Roller: $267,185
- 15th – $10K WSOP NLH Mystery Bounty: $31,750
- 1st – $250K WSOP Super High Roller: $4,334,411
- 1st – $15K PGT Summer Series High Roller: $180,000
That’s some seriously impressive form. When Mateos goes deep, he goes deep.
4. He’s Spanish and would no doubt love to win the most prestigious poker title played in his country. He’s cashed the EPT Barcelona Main Event twice but hasn’t finished above 207th. Is this the year for a Mateos run?
3. Juan Pardo
The Spanish pro is currently top of the High tier of the PokerStars Live League, which gives him even more incentive to play EPT Barcelona. There’s a €50K prize at the end of the season for first place and the EPT Barcelona Main Event counts for the High tier.
Pardo crushed it at the first two stops of the 2026 EPT, with seven cashes totaling €915,656. He cashed three times for €527,200 at EPT Monte Carlo and four times for €388,456 at EPT Paris.
Pardo finished 19th in the EPT Monte Carlo Main Event last year, and he cashed in the EPT Barcelona Main Event in 2023.
The beauty of Pick 3 at EPT Barcelona is that you can draft your team now and keep making changes until after the Day 1s have finished. If Pardo has a healthy stack for Day 2, we’d highly recommend he makes your final cut.
Start drafting your Pick 3 for EPT Barcelona team now – it’s completely free to enter and you could win an $8K package to play the EPT Prague Main Event.
