Heater of the Year? Chip Leader Jorge Abreu Obliterates EPT Paris Main Event Final Table
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The final hand of the PokerStars European Poker Tour Paris €5,300 Main Event felt like a carnival atmosphere. There was Felix Schneiders and his passionate and boisterous rail, who constantly broke out in chants and songs. But on the other side of the table sat Jorge Abreu, and for Abreu, the moment didn’t seem to be too big at all.
Abreu barely had any reaction when he spiked two pair on the river to crack Schneiders’ queens and capture the Golden Shard trophy and €1,148,600 top prize out of the staggering €7,075,200 total prize pool, capping off one of the most dominant final table runs in EPT history. Abreu tried his best to remain focused, to stay present in the moment, and recognize the role that pure fate had in getting him here. The last hand was just one step in that process for the new EPT champion, who still doesn't feel he belongs in that company.
EPT Paris Main Event Final Table results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jorge Abreu | Portugal | €1,148,600 |
| 2 | Felix Schneiders | Germany | €717,350 |
| 3 | Enrico Coppola | Italy | €512,400 |
| 4 | Casimir Seire | Finland | €394,150 |
| 5 | Nazar Buhaiov | Ukraine | €303,150 |
| 6 | Tomas Jozonis | Lithuania | €233,200 |
| 7 | Thierry Gogniat | France | €179,350 |
| 8 | Sami Bechahed | France | €137,950 |
“It’s an interesting choice of words. I don’t see myself as an EPT champion. I mean, I think there’s a lot of luck involved in this event, obviously. And for you to get to the final table, for you to win, you have to be really lucky. I really want to focus myself on being the best I can. Not just with my work, poker, but with the people around me. It means a lot to me to be able to be here, and I’m enjoying it, but I really try to not focus on the luck I had because I’m not taking full responsibility for this win,” he said after prevailing over the 1,474-player field.
“The poker gods helped me a lot, you know what I mean? So what I want is to do the best I can, see what I can get better at, because I made a lot of mistakes throughout this six days. Is that it? Obviously, I’m an EPT champion, but I don’t hold myself to that. But, obviously, it feels incredible to be able to have the luck to be here.”
The 35-year-old came into the final table in a commanding position to capture the title, holding half the chips in play as seven players returned to Le Palais des Congres for the final table. He never once came close to losing it and was on the fortunate end of several big pots that allowed him to eventually hold every chip in play. He scored a double knockout by going from third-best to the nuts. He hit trips on the river to crack jacks. And then, in the fateful last hand, he ended Schneiders’ dream-like run with a lucky river.
But Abreu still wasn’t feeling confident during the final table. He admits he started to lose his focus, to let the distractions creep into his game. He spent part of a break repeating a mantra he has for himself: "come back."
“I really wanted to focus on my decisions. Focus on really taking in all the information that I had, being focused on all the chip stacks and not getting distracted with the noise, which was a little challenging. I did my best. I got really tired, like two or three hours in, and luckily I had a break, like 40 minutes after I started to get tired,” he said.
“In the break, I started breathing. I started to say this mantra that I have, like come back, come back, come back, which for me means to come back to the present moment. Because sometimes you get, you know, really distracted and stressed out and anxious. I felt myself getting distracted. I felt my confidence was sliding away, slipping away, you know what I mean? And, after that break, I became more composed, and I felt way better. And I had a lot of luck to win it pretty quickly."
The native of Guimaraes, Portugal, has been a pro since he was 18, focusing mainly on online. He’s already had some success this year playing as “Joringho88,” capturing two SCOOP Warm-Up titles right before coming to Paris. He and a group of friends, part of the Polarize Poker team, usually head off to the Austrian mountains to grind SCOOP and WCOOP events.
Despite the success that he’s had, which has allowed him to play this game professionally for nearly 20 years, Abreu still wasn’t satisfied. He admits he took a long, hard look at his goals at the end of last year, and decided that what he was doing just wasn’t enough. He made an effort this year to get better, not just with his studying and playing but with the mental side of the game as well. With new intentions and a reinvigorated mindset, his journey was capped off this week in Paris.
“At the end of 2025, I decided that I was reviewing my goals and my values and what I wanted to do, and I realized that I was not doing enough for my standards. I wanted to play more. I wanted to study more. I wanted to be more focused. And, I mean, I got really lucky, but I’m pretty sure that my focus, my intention, in the past two months paid off,” he said.
“It’s been a really good year for me, online the first two months, and now this. I’m just really focused on getting back and keeping getting better. Not just as a poker player, like mainly as a person. That’s what’s most important to me, to be an inspiration to other people, all the people around me, and to uplift people around me. That’s what matters to me, and that’s why I do this. That’s why I’m so focused."
"Still Have a Job to Do;" Schneiders Basks In His The Moment
Schneiders’ magical run may have come up one spot short, but that wasn’t going to stop the celebrations on the German rail. His supporters were each sporting a shirt that read, “Make the Dream Come True,” and for the GRND on Tour pro, this week felt like a dream.
“It’s insane. I’m just exhausted. Super happy, super relieved. I got a monkey off my back,” Schneiders said. “We started this journey, like, three years ago, with the stream going on live events, and dreaming of one day playing the EPT. Then I qualified for the EPT. Then I started to get my first cash, then my deeper runs, then Malta was my best run. And I wouldn’t have believed if you told me that Paris would be the one that I would finish second. I just still can’t believe what happened.”
Schneiders’ journey was chronicled the entire way by his crew, who live-streamed the tournament to his legion of online followers that includes more than 70,000 subscribers on Twitch and 30,000 on YouTube. Schneiders has built an online community, and they came out to support and celebrate with him today.
“Everything that happened was so crazy, because so many things had to go right for me to end up in that heads-up coming into the day as the short stack,” he said. “I just feel happy and proud and relieved. And I’m the most happy about this amazing rail. All the Germans coming here to support me and my friends. All the community and the people from the community, they have become my friends, and they are here for me. They were here when it wasn’t going well, and they’re here when it’s going great. So this is what matters to me. The money, the trophy, doesn’t matter, but now to celebrate this second place feels like a big win to me.”
The €717,350 top prize is the biggest score of Schneiders' career, validating all the work he’s done to improve at the game. “It pretty much gives me the confirmation that we were all the time on the right path. We were believing, we were doing what we could. We were putting in the work, we were putting in the hours. We never stopped believing, and all the people from the community and my friends were there to support me. They never stopped believing, even when it seemed impossible, even when it seemed like we couldn’t win a single dime, and we couldn’t cash a single event, that this was the one just goes to show, it just needs one tournament to prove yourself.”
Despite the career-changing run, Schneiders says not much is going to change for him. He’s still going to make videos. He’s still going to work at his game. He’s still going to engage with his online fans. The work, after all, still isn’t done.
“To be honest, it won’t change too much. We will just keep doing what we do, because I still have a job to do. I have to win the trophy. The trophy is not here in my hand, so I still have that to win. And I never did this for the money. So this won’t change a thing. I will probably be happy to have some savings and be happy to support my family a little bit or to support building a family myself, stuff like this. So this helps, but, yeah, we will just keep going.”
Day 6 Action
The seven finalists returned to the main feature stage inside Le Palais des Congres at 12:30 p.m. local time to play down to a champion. Abreu began with 22,425,000, 16,000,000 ahead of his closest challenger, while Schneiders was the short stack with 1,950,000.
That changed quickly. On the first hand of the final table, Schneiders got his stack in and Thierry Gogniat reshoved, forcing out the rest of the table. Schneiders was racing with ace-king against Gogniat’s tens, and Schneiders hit two pair to win the pot and double up.
The wild start to the final table continued on the next hand, when Enrico Coppola spiked top set with a pair of queens and improved to a full house to crack Abreu’s aces and double up. Abreu’s fortune seemed like it was starting to change, and the field would actually have a chance to catch him today…for about five minutes. He then four-bet to 1,400,000 and Gogniat, left with just 600,000 after dropping the pot to Schneiders, stuck his last chips in on the button. Tomas Jozonis also reshoved for 2,750,000, and Casimir Seire laid down two queens while Abreu called. Jozonis was ahead with two kings, Gogniat had ace-jack, and Abreu was third-best with ace-eight suited. The flop gave Gogniat top pair, but the turn improved Abreu to the nut flush and left both opponents drawing dead. Gogniat finished in seventh place, while Jozonis claimed sixth as the bigger stack.
Abreu vaulted up to 26,280,000 with that pot, nearly 60 percent of the chips in play five-handed and 20,000,000 ahead of the rest of the table. Coppola, meanwhile, wasn’t afraid to tangle with the chip leader, moving into second place when he got a bluff through Abreu and playfully shoved his cards in Abreu’s face.
Coppola’s rise continued when he raised to 450,000 in the small blind and Nazar Buhaiov came along from the big blind. The flop came eight-high, and Coppola bet 350,000. Buhaiov then moved all in for 3,175,000, and Coppola snap-called. Buhaiov had flopped top pair, but Coppola had a set of eights and had Buhaiov drawing only to a straight draw to stay alive. The turn and river were no help, and the Ukrainian busted in fifth place while Coppola moved past 10,000,000.
Coppola inched closer to Abreu when he found an ace on the flop against Abreu’s queens. Seire, who began the day in second place, had fallen to the short stack when he moved all in for 3,375,000 from under the gun. Abreu called with ace-queen, and Seire turned over pocket tens. Abreu took the lead on the ace-high flop and improved to trips on the river as the young Finnish high roller was sent to the rail in fourth place.
Abreu had moved up past 30,000,000 when the remaining three players headed off on what would be the last break of the tournament. Coppola was in second place with 9,900,000, while Schneiders was nursing a short stack of 1,825,000, less than ten big blinds. Schneiders fell down to four big blinds, but then picked up two queens and improved to a full house on the turn to double up off Coppola.
Abreu, still exerting max pressure on his opponents, then shoved from the small blind. Coppola woke up with two jacks in the big blind and snap-called for 4,750,000. Abreu had queen-ten and picked up some outs on the ten-high flop. The turn was safe for Coppola and left him a card away from a double-up, but Abreu spiked another ten on the river to make trips and bust Coppola in third place, one spot higher than the Italian finished at EPT Monte Carlo last year.
Abreu had a nearly 10-1 chip lead over Schneiders to begin heads-up play, with 39,950,000 to 4,250,000. Schneiders got a few shoves through, but on the 11th heads-up hand and 93rd of the final table, he picked up two queens and raised to 900,000 in the big blind after Abreu limped the button. Abreu called to see a jack-high flop, and Schneiders continued for 450,000. Abreu then raised to 950,000, and Schneiders called. Abreu bet 700,000 on the turn, but this time Schneiders moved all in for 2,100,000. Abreu called with jack-eight and needed help as Schneiders' rail rose to their feet. “Hold, hold, hold,” they chanted, but their pleas went unheeded as Abreu hit an eight on the river to make two pair and capture the title.
That still didn’t silence the German contingent, who continued chanting “Felix Schneiders! Felix Schneiders!” long after Abreu had claimed the title. Schneiders had the support of his extended community with him, but fate, helped by a renewed focus, was on Abreu’s side today.
