Alexis Nicolai Outlasts 5,036 In PokerStars Open Barcelona Main Event

The 2025 European Poker Tour Barcelona PokerStars Open no-limit hold’em main event drew 5,036 entries to Casino Barcelona. Each put up €1,650 to create a final prize pool of $8.5 million.

After eight starting flights and three more days of tournament action, France’s Alexis Nicolai emerged victorious with the title and the top prize of $903,240. This was his first recorded six-figure score. It helped propel his lifetime earnings past the $1 million mark.

Nicolai is now the third consecutive French winner of the kickoff event at the EPT Barcelona festival, with Sylvain Berthelot and Lucien Cohen having won the Estrellas Poker Tour events in 2024 and 2024, respectively. This year the comparable tournament falls under the new PS Open banner. Another change saw the buy-in shift from €1,100 to €1,650.

The increase in buy-in led to the largest prize pool yet for the event, even with a 29.5 percent decrease in turnout year-over-year.

In addition to the title and the money, Nicolai also earned 1,320 Card Player Player of the Year points as the champion of this event. That was enough to move him inside the top 350 in the 2025 POY standings presented by CoinPoker.

Closing Out The Win

The top 753 finishers earned a share of the massive prize pool. At the end of the penultimate day, a baker’s dozen remained with Nicolai in the middle of the pack. He actually slid down to the bottom of the leaderboard by the time the official final table was set, but won an early flip with A-Q against the pocket jacks of Jakub Sterba to begin his surge up the standings.

Bernardo Neves (9th – $83,480) and David Taieb (8th –  $108,541) both wound up on the losing side of preflop races to hit the rail early. Nicolai then held with pocket jacks against the pocket sixes of Kazuhiko Yotsushika (7th – $141,114) to narrow the field to six.

Sterba was then busted by quads. He got all-in with 9♦8♦ facing the [invalid notations] of Mengshi Tian. The Q♣J♣10♥ flop gave Sterba a straight and Tian a set. The 10♣ turn improved Tian to four of a kind, leaving Sterba drawing dead. The 2♣ river was a mere formality to confirm the Czech player’s elimination in sixth place ($183,491).

Nicolai found another big pocket pair in a key spot, with K♥K♣ holding against the A♥9♥ of Daniele Cuomo (5th –  $238,575).

Four To One

Webster Lim

High-stakes tournament regular Webster Lim was the next to fall, with his A♥Q♠ unable to outrun the 10♦10♣ of Nicolai, who made tens full by the river to end Lim’s run in fourth place $310,284. The Malaysian high roller now boasts nearly $16 million in recorded tournament earnings.

Nicolai scored his first knockout of the final table without a pocket pair when his A♠7♠ bested the A♥6♥ of  Germany’s Ben Zech ($403,135). He flopped aces up and held from there to set up the heads-up showdown for the title.

Nicolai had 66,625,000 to start, while Tian sat with 84,400,000. Things evened out a bit before Tian opened up an even larger lead after winning a hefty pot with a turned straight.

A crucial double for Nicolai saw him come from behind with A-3 suited besting A-10, flopping a three and rivering aces up to double into the lead. Not long after that the final hand of the tournament arrived. Tian min-raised to 4,000,000 from the button with 7♠7♦ and Nicolai three-bet shoved with 9♠9♥ from the big blind. Tian made the call for around 50,000,000 total.

The flop came down 10♣7♣4♦ to give Tian a set and the lead, but the 8♦ turn gave Nicolai an open-ended straight draw. The J♠ river completed his straight, earning him the title in dramatic fashion. Tian walked away with $564,279 as the runner-up. This was far and away the largest score yet for the Hong Kong resident.

Final Table Results

Photo credit: Danny Maxwell / Rational Intellectual Holdings Ltd.