Finland's Elias Suhonen Captures a Six-Figure Haul as EPT Barcelona Begins

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Aug 18, 2026 3 min read

The 2026 PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) Barcelona festival is only a couple of days in, but already champions have been crowned, five, to be exact. Finnish star Elias Suhonen won the largest prize of the spadie-winning quintet; he raked in the fourth six-figure score of his live career.

Suhonen was one of 31 entrants in the €10,200 No-Limit Hold'em event. After the final hand played out, he was the last man standing and the recipient of €114,200 of the €310,000 prize pool.

Brandon Wilson was the first player to cash, his fifth-place finish coming with €28,600. Morocco's Mehdi Chaoui (€35,300) was the next to fall before French veteran Jean-Noel Thorel (€48,900) busted and sent the contest into the heads-up stage.

Here, Suhonen defeated Nicholas Seward (€73,700) to clinch the title and the largest prize of the 2026 EPT Barcelona festival at this early stage.

€10,200 No-Limit Hold'em Final Table Results

The €5,200 No-Limit Hold'em 6-Max event was another that saw a compact field take to the felt. Including re-entries, 37 entries were processed, creating a €185,000 prize pool.

After Cherish Andrews (€17,050), Kyosuke Nagami (€21,100), and Toni Kaukua (€29,150) were eliminated inside the money places, Sweden's Erik Lindqwist came out on top in a one-on-one battle with Luka Sorainen (€43,950) and collected the €68,200 top prize, a new career-high for the Swede.

€5,200 No-Limit Hold'em 6-Max Final Table Results

Follow all the 2026 EPT Barcelona action

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Spain's Francisco Iwan Molina only had one result on his Hendon Mob profile before heading to 2026 EPT Barcelona. It was a sixth-place finish in a €250 buy-in Mystery Bounty event during the PartyPoker Tour Madrid stop. Now, Molina has a €42,635 score on his resume after coming out on top of a 251-strong field in the €1,100 No-Limit Hold'em Single Re-Entry event.

Making Molina's victory more impressive was the caliber of opponents he faced at the final table. Jessica Vierling (5th - €13,450), Jamie Dwan (4th - €17,480), Mathias Siljander (3rd - €22,720), and then Simone Demasi (2nd - €31,810) were left in the Spaniard's wake.

€1,100 No-Limit Hold'em Single Re-Entry Final Table Results

The €1,100 No-Limit Hold'em Seniors event proved popular, with 280 entrants building a €280,000 pot. Some €55,650 of that sum now belongs to Dutch player and WSOP bracelet owner Antoine Vranken.

Popular Irish pro Dara O'Kearney reached the final table, falling in fourth for €19,220. Estonian veteran, Igor Pihela, a player with more than $1 million in cashes, was the third-place finisher and netted €24,480.

Vranken defeated Timur Sattarov (€34,680) heads-up to claim the title and the lion's share of the prize pool.

€1,100 No-Limit Hold'em Seniors Final Table Results

Italy's Youness Barakat pushed his lifetime earnings ever-closer to the $3.5 million mark by taking down the €2,100 No-Limit Hold'em Hyper Turbo Freezeout. Only 42 players fancied battling against the supercharged blinds, and Barakat outlasted them all.

Barakat eliminated Japan's Sho Homma heads-up. Homma won the €2,700 PokerStars Open High Roller at the 2025 EPT Prague stop for €454,385, so defeating him heads-up was no mean feat.

€2,100 No-Limit Hold'em Hyper Turbo Freezeout Final Table Results

The 2026 EPT Barcelona festival continues until August 29. PokerNews' live reporting team is at the Casino Barcelona, bringing live and exclusive coverage of the following events:

• €1,650 PokerStars Open - Live Now
• €3,250 Senior's High Roller - Live Now
• €30,000 Super High Roller Warm Up - August 20
• €2,700 PokerStars Open High Roller - August 21-23
• €100,000 EPT Super High Roller - August 21-23
• €5,300 EPT Main Event - August 22-29
• €25,000 PLO High Roller - August 22-23
• €50,000 Super High Roller Second Chance - August 23
• €2,700 EPT Second Chance - August 24-25
• €3,250 EPT Mystery Bounty - August 25-27
• €1,650 EPT Mystery Bounty - August 27-28
• €2,200 NLHE – In the Money at 180,000 - August 27-28
• €10,300 EPT High Roller - August 27-29

Matthew Pitt hails from Leeds, West Yorkshire, in the United Kingdom, and has worked in the poker industry since 2008, and worked for PokerNews since 2010. In September 2010, he became the editor of PokerNews. Matthew stepped away from live reporting duties in 2015, and now concentrates on his role of Senior Editor for the PokerNews.

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• Tags Antoine Vranken Brandon Wilson Cherish Andrews Dara O'Kearney Elias Suhonen Erik Lindqwist European Poker Tour Igor Pihela Jamie Dwan Jean-Noel Thorel Jessica Vierling Kyosuke Nagami Luka Sorainen Martin Nielsen Mathias Siljander Mehdi Chaoui Nicholas Sew
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