Trio of High Rollers Provide Thrills on European Poker Tour

During a week where a European Poker great sadly passed away, there were winners at EPT Barcelona who showed just what good hands the game is in. Three massive high roller events came to a conclusion, while more big names battled in a second chance No Limit Hold’em event with a smaller buy-in but huge top prizes.

Fuchs and Ladva Among High Roller Winners

Three big high roller events produced three different winners over a trio of tournaments in Barcelona. German player Tom Fuchs took down the €100,000 Super High Roller, the largest of the events, beating the Norwegian player Kayhan Mokri heads-up for the title and over $1.2m in winnings up top. Byron Kaverman snuck into the money for America and the British tournament crusher on a heater right now, Jamie Dwan, proved yet again just how strong he is, banking over half a million dollars in third place.

In the €50,000 Super High Roller Second Chance event, Estonian chess prodigy turned tournament crusher Ottomar Ladva hoovered up the top prize of €437,600. Swedish online phenom was the unlucky player to lose the heads-up battle this time, but in cashing for €522,840 after a deal, he won the most money. Frenchman Arthur Conan (3^rd for €247,000) and United States player Vinny Kingham (4^th for €164,700) both made it into profit after a gruelling day-long event.

Finally, the €25,000 Pot Limit Omaha High Roller saw five players make money instead of four and among them were the Hungarian Laszlo Bujtas (4^th for €96,000) and Finnish player Sampo Ryynanen (3^rd for €133,000). Another Finnish player came fifth as the 2026 WSOP Main Event runner-up Lauri Saaskilahti – who lives in Spain – banked €78,000, a drop in the ocean of the $6 million he won in Las Vegas this summer in the World Championship. Incredibly, a third Finnish player won the event, with Samuli Sipila coming back from a 5:1 chip deficit to claim €309,340 up top, beating the PLO expert Lautaro Guerra into second place for €200,000.

Ladies Take Center Stage in Second Chance

In the €2,700 ($3,150) Second Chance No Limit Hold’em event in Barcelona, a field of 844 meant that 127 players made the money.  Players like Martina Adeniya (104^th for $5,360), Dominik Panka (100^th for $5,360), Govert Metaal (98^th for $5,360) and Martin Zamani (75^th for $6,200) all made returns, while French EPT heavyweight Thomas Eychenne (40^th for $8,180), backgammon grandmaster Zdenek Zizka (26^th for $12,420), and Benoit Fiasson (10^th for $31,295) won profits before the final nine were in seats.

The first player to exit was the Russian poker pro Maksim Paniak, who cashed for $38,900 in ninth place, before Polish player Maciej Komorowski (8^th for $50,570) was followed from the felt by the Italian player Fabio Peluso who won $65,720 in seventh place. Romanian player Cristinel Dumitru (6^th for $85,480), Canadian Sanjaya Wadhwani (5^th for $111,115) and Frenchman Julien Thorne (4^th for $144,415) also busted, leaving three players to fight for the title.

With two of the three final players being ladies, Cherish Andrews was the victim of her fellow female player Natasha Mercier. The Lebanese player, wife to husband Jason, is a great tournament player in her own right and eliminated Andrews for a score worth $187,760 in third place. Heads-up, Mercier took on British player Scott Margereson but Mercier fell short, cashing for $262,850 as runner-up. Margereson took the latest EPT ‘Spadie’ trophy and $420,710 up top.

Pierre Neuville Passes Away

Known as ‘The Serial Qualifier’ to people in the game, the Belgian poker legend Pierre Neuville died this week at the age of 83 after a long battle with prostate cancer. A friendly player who got on with everyone he met at the felt and off it, Neuville once qualified for 23 straight EPT Main Event through satellite tournaments, a record which earned his nickname and endeared him to fans and players alike.

Winning over $5 million in the game at ranking tournaments, Neuville had been fighting prostate cancer for a while, writing earlier this month on social media that he intended to “continue living as long as possible”. A games enthusiast almost from the cradle, Neuville’s main career came in games development, where a board game he created led to a long and distinguished calling at Hasbro, to whom he sold the game and eventually became Vice President.

After his retirement from the games industry, Neuville turned his attentions to poker and in the twilight years of his life, became something of a phenomenon. Falling short of winning a WSOP bracelet twice heads-up might have been painful, but the books balanced in his favor. Two more runner-up appearances and a seventh-placed finish at the WSOP Main Event final table of 2015 cemented his legacy and his is mourned by all poker fans.

Pierre Neuville, who is survived by three children and his wife Claudine, was truly one of a kind, and an ace at that.

Photography by Eloy Cabascas and Tomas Stacha for the European Poker Tour.