button in SafariSpanish Hopes Run Deep as Jose Criado and Gerard Carbo Chase €5,300 EPT Barcelona Main Event Glory
After five days and 28 levels of play inside Casino Barcelona, the €5,300 Main Event at the PokerStars European Poker Tour Barcelona has reached its penultimate day, with just 13 players left standing.
What began as a field of 1,823 entries has been whittled down to a select group, with the field set to be cut further on Day 6, which is scheduled to play until just six players remain. Each of the returning players has already locked up €81,350, but the €8,841,550 prize pool has plenty more to give, with €1,370,050 waiting for the player who goes all the way.
Sitting atop the leaderboard, Manuel Ferrari bagged 10,625,000 after four levels of play on Day 5. The Italian surged to the chip lead late in the day after making a hero call on the river, with the chips gained in that pot contributing to his eight-figure stack.
One look in Ferrari's rearview mirror will show two Spaniards in hot pursuit. In second place, Jose Criado continues his fairytale run after qualifying for the Main Event via an online satellite, and he has since turned it into his first-ever EPT Main Event cash. Right behind him is Gerard Carbo, a man who is no stranger to running deep in an EPT Main Event. In 2023, Carbo finished 11th in the EPT Cyprus Main Event, and has redemption on his mind, while the chance to compete for an EPT title on home soil makes this run all the more special, as he shared with PokerNews after bagging his chips on a previous day.
"My mind is on beating that Cyprus result; I will try to win it, to bring it back home. An EPT anywhere is so special; [it does mean] a little bit more being in Spain. It has been my goal to try to win it once. I will try my best, but it is special being here because I have more friends supporting me on the rail"
Full Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manuel Ferrari | Italy | 10,625,000 | 106 |
| 2 | Jose Criado | Spain | 8,950,000 | 90 |
| 3 | Gerard Carbo | Spain | 8,325,000 | 83 |
| 4 | Joris Ruijs | Netherlands | 5,950,000 | 60 |
| 5 | Xiaosheng Zheng | China | 4,225,000 | 42 |
| 6 | Michael Dwyer | Ireland | 3,475,000 | 35 |
| 7 | Barbara Akemi | Brazil | 3,300,000 | 33 |
| 8 | Matas Cimbolas | Lithuania | 2,675,000 | 27 |
| 9 | Nicolas Chouity | Lebanon | 2,000,000 | 20 |
| 10 | Edward Pak | United States | 1,850,000 | 19 |
| 11 | Vasyl Pidhrusnyi | Ukraine | 1,475,000 | 15 |
| 12 | Lukas van Eeden | Netherlands | 1,175,000 | 12 |
| 13 | Toni Kaukua | Finland | 650,000 | 7 |
Sitting just outside the top five when play resumes, Michael Dwyer has been a mainstay at the top of the leaderboard since the very beginning. After bagging the Day 1a chip lead, Dwyer hasn't looked back. Already enjoying his deepest run in an EPT Main Event, Dwyer bagged 3,475,000 when all was said and done on Day 5 and will return to the felt in the middle of the pack, with 35 big blinds to work with.
A couple of spots further back on the leaderboard sits the only remaining former EPT Main Event champion, Nicolas Chouity. The Lebanese player won EPT Monte Carlo in 2010, taking home €1,700,000, the biggest score of his career to date. Now, 16 years on, Chouity has another shot at EPT glory and the chance to become just the fifth player to win two EPT Main Event titles.
The Day 6 schedule will see four more 90-minute levels played, with play ending sooner should the field reach six players. The action will recommence on Level 29, with blinds of 50,000/100,000 and a 100,000 big blind ante. A short break will be taken after each level, with no plans currently in place for an extended dinner break. The PokerStars live stream will follow the action on a dynamic delay starting at three hours, and the PokerNews live report will adhere to the same delay to prevent spoilers.
Each of the players returns safely in the knowledge that they have already locked up €81,350, but knowing just four more eliminations sit between them and a six-figure payday. Once that is achieved, all eyes will be on the mouth-watering €1,370,050 awaiting the champion.
Remaining Payouts
| Place | Prize |
|---|---|
| 1 | €1,370,050 |
| 2 | €857,800 |
| 3 | €612,700 |
| 4 | €471,250 |
| 5 | €362,500 |
| 6 | €278,950 |
| 7 | €214,600 |
| 8 | €165,050 |
| 9 | €126,950 |
| 10-11 | €97,700 |
| 12-13 | €81,350 |
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Keep it locked in with PokerNews as we bring all the action live from the felt until a champion is crowned in the 2026 EPT Barcelona Main Event.