Elvir Nuhiu came into 2026 with just a handful of live tournament results to his name. The Swiss player’s largest score was recorded in the final weeks of 2025 at the European Poker Tour Prague festival, with a fifth-place showing in a €1,100 side event. He stepped his game up in a major way at the PokerStars Open Campione in Italy. Nuhiu outlasted 1,582 entries in the €1,100 no-limit hold’em championship, striking a three-way deal at the end that saw him secure the title and $236,755 in prize money.
“I’m mostly a cash-game player but I was at EPT Prague and cashed some events,” Nuhiu told PokerStars staff after coming out on top. “I was not planning to come here, but I had to drive a friend to Milan and saw this festival nearby and decided to come. It feels really special to reach this kind of final table. I wanted, so badly, this victory.”
In addition to the hardware and the money, Nuhiu also scored 1,080 Card Player Player of the Year points as the champion. This was his first POY-qualified score of 2026, but it alone was enough to move him into 13th place in the overall standings presented by CoinPoker.
The strong turnout at Casino Di Campione easily surpassed the €1 million guarantee, with $1,792,889 in total prize money paid out between the top 223 finishers. The final three-player deal that brought the tournament to a close saw France’s Christian Stantchev (3rd – $177,748) and Italy’s Vincenzo Petruzziello (2nd – $197,692) both secure career-best scores.
Michele Brandes finished fifth for $78,081. Just days earlier, Brandes took down a €220 pot-limit Omaha side event for just over $5,400, bringing his total haul for the festival to over $83,000.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Payout | POY Points |
| 1 | Elvir Nuhiu | $236,755 | 1080 |
| 2 | Vincenzo Petruzziello | $197,692 | 900 |
| 3 | Christian Stantchev | $177,748 | 720 |
| 4 | Eduard Fondos | $101,504 | 540 |
| 5 | Michele Brandes | $78,081 | 450 |
| 6 | Renzo Pedrotti | $60,074 | 360 |
| 7 | Thomas Olivieri | $46,197 | 270 |
| 8 | Giorgio Favotto | $35,553 | 180 |
| 9 | Tanmmay Jhunjhunwala | $27,352 | 90 |
Photo credit: Rational Intellectual Holdings Ltd. / Manuel Kovsca.
