Jonathan Rees Takes €30K as PartyPoker Tour Castellón Beats Its Guarantees

PartyPoker’s third Spanish stop of 2026 ended with a Welsh winner, two headline events well beyond their guarantees and another worthwhile turnout for the tour’s €150 Mini Main format.

Jonathan Rees won the €500 Main Event at Orenes Gran Casino de Castellón for a career-best €30,000, beating 367 opponents and Spain’s Pau Veciana heads-up. Earlier in the week, Marius-Laurentiu Dinu came through a 727-entry Mini Main, while Oliver Hutchins added another PartyPoker Tour trophy in the PLO 7-Max. 

We've prepared a quick recap of everything that happened while PartyPoker was in Spain. 

The €100,000 guarantee didn't come particularly close to being needed. Four starting flights produced 368 entries, lifting the final Main Event prize pool to €163,760. Fifty-five players cashed, with €30,000 reserved for the champion. 

Rees began the final day fifth in chips, while Veciana held a sizeable lead over the remaining 18 players. The Welshman moved up bit by bit and arrived at the final table alongside PartyPoker Tour names Barry Carter and Matt Staples, as well as fellow Brit Ian Simpson. 

One of the biggest pots came against Simpson, who fired three streets before shoving the river with king-high. Rees had turned a straight and made the call, taking over the lead.

He eventually reached heads-up against Veciana. The final hand saw Veciana move in with king-six against Rees’ queen-ten. Rees improved to win the pot and secure the biggest recorded cash of his live career. 

While the Main usually steals the spotlight, it was actually Mini Main that produced the largest field of this time around.

Its four starting flights attracted 727 entries, almost doubling the original €50,000 guarantee and creating a €90,875 prize pool. 

Romania’s Marius-Laurentiu Dinu hadn't played a live tournament for around two years before heading to Castellón. He had recently moved from London to Sevilla and, had even made a €200 side bet with a friend that he would leave the festival with a trophy. 

Dinu stayed near the top of the counts throughout the event. A major turning point came six-handed against Matt Staples, when Dinu turned a straight against Staples’ pocket aces and moved towards the chip lead.

He eventually beat Spain’s Alberto Martinez heads-up for €16,000, comfortably the biggest recorded live score of his career.

The €150 PLO 7-Max was much smaller, but it produced another familiar PartyPoker Tour winner.

A field of 44 entries generated €5,500, with Britain’s Oliver Hutchins beating Siddharth Sudunagunta heads-up for €1,800. PartyPoker Tour team member Sam Acheampong finished third, while Ian Simpson made another cash in sixth. 

This Castellón win is already the third PartyPoker Tour trophy for Hutchins.

Castellón was the third Spanish PartyPoker Tour festival of 2026, following Seville in March and Madrid in May.

Its Main Event ended slightly below Seville’s 383 entries and well short of Madrid’s 535, but still comfortably cleared the same €100,000 guarantee. The Mini Main told a slightly different story, with its 727 entries beating Seville’s 653 while remaining behind Madrid’s tour-high 918.

Spain gets one more PartyPoker Tour stop before the end of the year, with Murcia running from November 30 to December 6. Before that, the tour heads to Cork from November 9-15, again with a €500 Main Event and €100,000 guarantee.