EPT Barcelona has reinforced its position as the biggest stop on the European Poker Tour after the 2026 Main Event became the seventh-largest EPT Main Event in history.
A total of 1,823 entries were recorded in the €5,300 tournament at Casino Barcelona, generating an €8,841,550 prize pool. The field included 1,297 unique players and 526 re-entries, with players representing 79 countries.
Those numbers are impressive on their own. Put into the wider history of the European Poker Tour, they reveal just how dominant Barcelona has become.
Barcelona Has Nine of the 10 Biggest EPT Main Events
Nine of the ten largest Main Events ever staged on the European Poker Tour have now taken place in Barcelona.
The only exception is EPT Paris 2024, which attracted 1,747 entries and currently sits ninth on the all-time list.
Barcelona holds every other position.
| Rank | EPT Main Event | Entries | Prize Pool |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Barcelona 2022 | 2,294 | €11,125,900 |
| 2 | Barcelona 2023 | 2,120 | €10,282,000 |
| 3 | Barcelona 2025 | 2,045 | €9,918,250 |
| 4 | Barcelona 2019 | 1,988 | €9,641,800 |
| 5 | Barcelona 2024 | 1,975 | €9,578,750 |
| 6 | Barcelona 2018 | 1,931 | €9,365,350 |
| 7 | Barcelona 2026 | 1,823 | €8,841,550 |
| 8 | Barcelona 2016 | 1,785 | €8,657,250 |
| 9 | Paris 2024 | 1,747 | €8,385,600 |
| 10 | Barcelona 2015 | 1,694 | €8,215,900 |
The 2026 turnout is actually lower than each of the previous four Barcelona Main Events. However, it still comfortably ranks among the largest fields the EPT has produced during more than two decades of competition.
That makes Barcelona’s consistency arguably more significant than any individual attendance record.
EPT Barcelona Has Grown Dramatically Since 2004
The scale of the modern tournament looks even more striking compared with the first EPT Barcelona Main Event.
Just 229 players competed in 2004, creating a €229,000 prize pool. Sweden’s Alexander Stevic won that inaugural tournament for €80,000.
The field reached four figures for the first time in 2012, when 1,082 players entered. By 2015 it had climbed to 1,694, beginning the run that would eventually give Barcelona nine places inside the current all-time top ten.
The high point remains 2022.
That year’s 2,294 entries generated an €11,125,900 prize pool, with Giuliano Bendinelli eventually collecting €1,491,133 for winning the title. No EPT Main Event has subsequently surpassed that attendance.
The latest edition was the 21st EPT Barcelona and took the stop’s cumulative Main Event attendance to 27,395 entries, with more than €136.9 million awarded through its Main Event prize pools.
Huge Poker Fields Were Everywhere in Barcelona
The Main Event was not the only indication of the scale of the 2026 festival.
Jason Wheeler had already defeated an extraordinary 4,333-entry field to win the PokerStars Open Barcelona Main Event for €731,000. The €1,650 tournament generated a €6,239,520 prize pool of its own.
Thomas Eychenne then added another huge Barcelona title. The defending EPT Main Event champion came through 1,551 entries to win the PokerStars Open High Roller for €589,395.
Those tournaments meant thousands of entries had already been recorded before the flagship event was decided. Even elsewhere on the schedule, sizeable fields and major prize pools continued to appear, including a 122-entry €10,250 Pot-Limit Omaha tournament won by Ralfs Blumbergs for €303,300.
Barcelona was not simply hosting one enormous poker tournament. It was supporting large fields across multiple buy-in levels and formats throughout the festival.
Manuel Ferrari Adds His Name to EPT Barcelona History
Eventually, 1,823 Main Event entries became one champion.
Italy’s Manuel Ferrari completed a rapid rise through the PokerStars live tournament circuit by winning the EPT Barcelona Main Event for €1,002,488.
Ferrari defeated Lukas van Eeden heads-up after the final three players agreed a deal. Van Eeden collected €927,420, while Spain’s Jose Criado earned €910,642 for third place.
It was Ferrari’s third major PokerStars title in little more than a year, following victories at the 2025 PokerStars Open Malaga Main Event and the 2026 PokerStars Open Campione High Roller.
For Barcelona, however, the bigger story extends beyond the identity of its latest champion.
Across 153 EPT Main Events staged in 22 countries and 28 cities, no destination has produced fields on the scale Barcelona has managed repeatedly.
The 2026 Main Event did not break the record.
It did something almost as significant. It showed that even a Barcelona field well below the city’s own record can still rank among the biggest EPT Main Events ever played.
