Manuel Ferrari Triumphs in Barcelona for His 1st EPT Title

Young Italian player Manuel Ferrari sealed the deal at the EPT Barcelona Main Event and secured the biggest payout by far of his poker career, worth just over a million Euros, after defeating a field of 1,823 players.

Ferrari scored his victory following a three-way deal with Lukas Van Eeden and Jose Criado, which secured over €900,000 for each of the players, taking a significant amount of pressure off during three-handed play.

The Italian dominated the tournament for three days, keeping the chip lead throughout late-game play, with the deal coming after the stacks evened out in the final stages of final table play.

With his victory, Ferrari took his lifetime earnings to a grand total of $1,750,528, according to Hendon Mob, with a massive chunk of that coming from his EPT Barcelona run last week.

From Low-Stakes Local Tournaments to an EPT Champion

Manuel Ferrari isn’t exactly a newcomer to live poker, as he’s been playing live tournaments since 2018, when his first live cash was recorded at an Italian Series of Poker stop in Nova Gorica, Slovenia.

Over the next few years, Ferrari recorded a number of other small cashes in low-to-mid stakes events in Nova Gorica, Prague, San Marino, and even Las Vegas, but a big score continued to elude him until 2025.

A 4th place finish at the Skill Poker Master event in Nova Gorica scored him €60,000, enough of a bankroll to start playing bigger buy-in events on a more regular basis. Just a few months later, Ferrari was triumphant at the 1,100 €PokerStars Open in Malaga, taking home €206,300, a true breakout result.

Bigger results started coming on a regular basis for Ferrari from there, and in January 2026, he won his second PokerStars trophy at PokerStars Open Campione, winning the €2,200 High Roller for €86,800.

All of those results, of course, fade in comparison with his most recent result, one that many professional poker players have spent entire careers chasing: a million-euro score on Europe’s biggest stage.

A Dominant Performance Lands Ferrari the Win

When the final day of action started at EPT Barcelona Main Event, Manuel Ferrari was in the driver’s seat, holding a firm chip lead that he had established over several days of play leading up to the final table.

The final table was made up of players from varying backgrounds, as Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, China, Ireland, and Lebanon were all represented, and each player was guaranteed a payout of at least €278,950, a significant ROI on the initial €5,300 investment.

One of the big stories of the final table was Lebanese player Nicolas Chouity, who was chasing his second EPT title in Barcelona. Coming into the final table with a short stack, however, he was unable to spin up a stack and ended up being the first casualty of the day.

Spaniard Jose Criado eliminated Chouity and soon overtook the chip lead from Ferrari for the first time in several days of play, and the two started trading the position back and forth. For the first time in days, the Italian’s position at the top was no longer guaranteed.

As Michael Dwyer and Xiaosheng Zheng got eliminated one after the other, the stacks got fairly even, and a three-way deal was suggested. Despite believing he had an advantage over the other two players, Ferrari agreed to an ICM deal that sealed over €900,000 for each of the players, while another €100,000 was left in play for the champion.

With the pressure off, Ferrari was able to eliminate Criado in third place, take over a 2-1 chip lead, and grind down Van Eeden in a heads-up battle. Here is a look at the final results of the 2026 EPT Barcelona Main Event final table:

EPT Season Continues in Prague

Following another successful edition of EPT Barcelona, PokerStars’ most anticipated live poker festival of the year, the Tour is set to move to the Czech capital for one final stop of 2026.

This year’s EPT Prague festival is scheduled to play out from December 2 to 13, bringing another round of world-class tournament poker, blended with the winter charms of Prague, one of the most beautiful cities in all of Europe.

Players from across Europe and beyond will get one last chance to win both a PokerStars Open and an EPT Main Event trophy at Kings Casino Prague, as another season of Europe’s most prestigious live poker tour approaches the finish line.