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Thomas Eychenne Wins Barcelona High Roller for Six Figure Score

Written by: Paul Seaton 5 min read
The French professional Thomas Eychenne beat his countryman Virgile Turchi to the latest European Poker Tour title as 1,551 entries populated the €2,700 ($3,150) buy-in PokerStars Open High Roller in Barcelona. With a prizepool of $4.39 m, nine poker greats battled it out for glory at the final table, with Eychenne’s latest major score rubber-stamping his growing reputation in the game.
Thomas Eychenne Headline

A final table including bracelet winner and backgammon champion Zdenek Zizka and two EPT Main Event winners in French duo Gilles Simon and Thomas Eychenne saw the latter become champion again. The PokerStars Open High Roller featured over 1,500 entries and saw Eychenne take home the top prize of $688,200 after he beat another countryman Virgile Turchi to the title in Barcelona on the European Poker Tour.

EPT Barcelona 2026 €2,700 PokerStars Open High Roller Final Table Results:
PlacePlayerCountryPrize
1stThomas EychenneFrance$688,200
2ndVirgile TurchiFrance$433,200
3rdLars TungelDenmark$309,940
4thMarwan Walid SalamounLebanon$238,340
5thChristian KaufmannSwitzerland$182,970
6thGilles SimonNetherlands$140,160
7thHak-Hyun LeeSweden$108,050
8thDavid DjianFrance$82,200
9thZdenek ZizkaCzechia$63,240

Fantastic Field Demonstrates Unique Attraction of EPT

The field of 1,551 was reduced to nine players by the time the final table was reached, and Eychenne led from that point on. Taking out the WSOP bracelet winner and backgammon grandmaster Zdenek Zizka in ninth place for $63,240, Eychenne won the key flip with his pocket nines holding against the ace-ten of the Czech player to take a commanding lead into the latter stages of the event.

Out in eight place was French player David Djian, who cashed for $82,200. All-in with ace-king, he was way behind Hak-Hyun Lee’s aces and never caught up. Soon, the field dropped from seven to six as the Swede Lee bowed out himself for $108,050. It was a big flip that went against him as his ace-king fell to Turchi’s pocket queens and left the French player on 13.9m chips only behind Eychenne at the top of the chip counts.

With six players remaining, the only former EPT Main Event winner other than the eventual champion was busted. Dutch pro Gilles Simon tried his own luck with ace-king but lost to Turchi’s pocket queens too, meaning that he slid out in sixth for a score of $140,160 and the second-in-chips player took a surprising lead.

Turchi Overtaken

Swiss player Christian Kaufmann was running short on chips when he shipped his chips holding just ace-high. Eychenne made the call and paired his four on the river to eliminate the Swiss player for $182,970 in fith place. In doing so, the French player retook the overall chip lead from his compatriot Turchi.

Lebanese player Marwan Walid Salamoun had ace-jack and saw it as a chance to put himself back in the conversation. Sadly for him, Thomas Eychenne’s pocket queens had other ideas and held with ease, flopping a set to safely negotiate the hand and send play three-handed as Salamoun bowed out with $238,340 in fourth place.

Lars Tungel was the player who missed out on the heads-up battle, finishing third for $309,940. The Danish player pushed all-in with ace-six but ran into Eychenne’s pocket eights. The French pro’s ‘snowmen’ froze out Tungel, as the Danish player fell flat on the flop, another eight completing Eychenne’s set.

Thomas Celebration
Thomas Eychenne celebrates by lifting the Spadie trophy.

All-French Affair Goes to Eychenne

Heads-up, a massive lead of better than 6:1 put Eychenne in a very commanding position to seal the title and lift a Spadie trophy one year on from his EPT Main Event heroics, when he turned his €5,300 Main Event entry fee into the top prize of €1.21 million. On the very first hand of heads-up play, Turchi moved all-in with nine-ten and once again Eychenne had pocket queens.

The flop brought and ten and after the turn, Turchi still had outs of a gutshot to the river for a priceless double-up. The river was a blank, however, and Eychenne’s pocket ladies held to give him the latest major title of his career, and this time a top prize of $688,200. Eychenne’s fellow French professional Virgile Turchi earned a runner-up score of $433,200.

In the last year, Thomas Eychenne has dominated European competition and won over half of the $6.34 million in live tournament earnings he has amassed in his career. Beating Sebastian Ionita to the 2025 EPT Barcelona Main Event title, Eychenne then pushed on at the end of 2025 and earlier this year won over $500,000 with two final table appearances, first in the WSOP Europe Main Event and then in the EPT Monte Carlo High Roller event earlier this spring. In last year’s EPT Barcelona Main Event, he outlasted 1,489 others to lift the famous EPT trophy. Now he’s claimed another big PokerStars title, taking down the 2026 PokerStars Open High Roller event.

Eychenne Family
The Eychenne family celebrate a big win.

Photographs courtesy of Danny Maxwell/PokerStars

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Paul seaton

Paul seaton

Author

Paul Seaton has written about poker for over a decade, reporting live from events such as the World Series of Poker, the European Poker Tour and the World Poker Tour in his career to date. Having also been the Editor of BLUFF Europe magazine and Head of Media for partypoker, Paul has also written for PokerNews, 888poker and PokerStake, interviewing many of the world’s greatest poker players. These include Daniel Negreanu, Erik Seidel, Phil Hellmuth and all four members of the Hendon Mob, for which he was nominated for a Global Poker Award for Best Written Content. 

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