Manuel Ferrari Wins EPT Barcelona Main Event for €1,002,488

talian poker pro Manuel Ferrari has completed the biggest result of his career, winning the €5,300 EPT Barcelona Main Event for €1,002,488.

Ferrari overcame a field of 1,823 entries at Casino Barcelona, with one of the biggest events on the European Poker Tour calendar generating a prize pool of €8,841,550. The victory gives Ferrari his first EPT Main Event title and his first seven figure live tournament score.

It also continues a remarkable rise for the 34 year old Italian, who has now won three major PokerStars trophies in just over a year.

Ferrari entered the final day with the chip lead, having reserved the top spot for three consecutive days, but his route to the title was anything but straightforward.

Jose Criado challenged him throughout the final table and the pair exchanged the lead several times. Nicolas Chouity departed in sixth, followed by Michael Dwyer in fifth and Xiaosheng Zheng in fourth, leaving Ferrari, Criado and Lukas van Eeden to play three handed.

With the stacks becoming increasingly close, the remaining players agreed an ICM deal. Ferrari secured €902,488, Van Eeden €927,420 and Criado €910,642, with a further €100,000 and the EPT title left to play for. Ferrari was actually the shortest of the three stacks when the agreement was completed.

Criado was the first to fall after the deal, losing a coin flip against Ferrari and collecting €910,642 for third place.

That sent Ferrari into heads up play against Van Eeden with roughly 60 percent of the chips in play.

The duel lasted around 30 minutes before Ferrari built a commanding advantage. Van Eeden eventually moved all in for 11 million with K♠6♦and Ferrari
called with A♦Q♥.

The A♥4♦6♣flop paired both players but kept Ferrari ahead.
The Q♣turn gave him two pair and the 7♦ river completed the tournament. Van Eeden collected €927,420 as runner up, while Ferrari secured the trophy and the €1,002,488 top prize.

Barcelona represents another major step in what has been a rapid rise for Ferrari.

His first major PokerStars breakthrough came in June 2025 when he won the PokerStars Open Malaga Main Event for €206,300.
That result remained the biggest cash of his career until EPT Barcelona.

In January 2026 he added another title at PokerStars Open Campione, winning the €2,200 High Roller for €86,800. The tournament attracted 214 total entries including reentries and generated a €410,880 prize pool.
Ferrari defeated Thierry van den Berg heads up and became the first player to win both a PokerStars Open Main Event and a PokerStars Open High Roller title.

Barcelona was only Ferrari’s third EPT Main Event appearance and his first cash in one. He had previously played the Main Event in Barcelona and Paris without reaching the money.

His Hendon Mob profile listed 55 recorded live cashes and $579,671 in earnings before the Barcelona result was entered. Adding the EPT victory takes his career live earnings to approximately $1.74 million based on the August 29 euro to dollar rate.

That figure would place Ferrari 23rd on the Italian all time money list once the Barcelona result is incorporated into the rankings. The current Hendon Mob list has Leonardo Drago in 22nd with $1.766 million and Luigi Andrea Shehadeh in 23rd with $1.710 million.

For a player who only began taking the technical and study side of poker seriously in the years following the pandemic, the progression has been rapid. Ferrari now has PokerStars Open Main Event, PokerStars Open High Roller and EPT Main Event titles on his résumé.

Barcelona is comfortably the biggest of them all.