Farbod Nazari is the latest player to have his name engraved on the Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup. The Iranian player navigated his way through a field of 520 entries in the 2026 World Poker Tour Cyprus Championship $3,500 no-limit hold’em event at Chamada Prestige Hotel to earn the title and the first-place prize of $368,900.
This was by far the largest live poker tournament score for Nazari, easily surpassing the $22,581 he took home for a 33rd-place finish in the 2025 European Poker Tour Prague main event. This breakthrough victory in Cyprus pushed his lifetime earnings over $415,000.
Nazari surged inside the top 500 in the 2026 Card Player Player of the Year race standings presented by CoinPoker thanks to the 1,260 points he earned with this win.
The event guaranteed a $2 million prize pool, awarding payouts to the top 65 finishers. Among those who ran deep were seven-time WPT main event final tablist Ray Qartomy (55th), 2019 World Series of Poker main event champion Hossein Ensan (42nd), WPT champion Thomas Bichon (17th), 2009 WPT Championship runner-up Ran Azor (14th), and Niko Koop (13th).
Closing Out The Win
Nazari was in the middle of the pack among the six contenders who returned for the final day of play. Sami Ayyoub (6th – $73,000) lost a preflop race with K♠Q♠ against the 5♦5♣ of bracelet winner Weiran Pu. The flop brought a set for Pu, who made a full house on the turn to lock up the pot and the knockout. Sergiu Cornea (5th – $97,000) soon followed, with his pocket sevens losing to the pocket queens of Chadi Rizk.
Pu then eliminated Mihai Trofim (4th – $130,000), who had been ground down to just over a big blind. The final three battled for about 90 minutes before the next knockout blow was dealt. Pu got the last of his stack in on J♠J♦9♠3♥ board with 9♥4♠. He was up against J♣10♣ for Nazari, which meant he was drawing dead. The 7♥ completed the board, and Pu hit the rail in third place ($175,000). He now boasts over $4.4 million in career cashes.
Nazari had roughly a 5:3 chip lead going into heads-up play against Rizk. Nazari pulled further ahead and nearly closed out the win on hand no. 114 of the day with pocket tens against A-5, but Rizk rivered an ace-high straight to double back into contention. The very next deal saw the chips get in again, this time after a flop of 4♦3♣2♠. Nazari bet a single big blind with 6♥5♥ for the flopped nut straight, and quickly called when Rizk shoved for around 16 big blinds total. Rizk was drawing to a chop with K♥5♠. The 3♠ turn and K♠ river kept Nazari’s hand best, earning him the pot and the title.
Rizk was awarded $238,000 as the runner-up. This was his first recorded score in a major event.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Payout | POY Points |
| 1 | Farbod Nazari | $368,900 | 1,260 |
| 2 | Chadi Rizk | $238,000 | 1,050 |
| 3 | Weiran Pu | $175,000 | 840 |
| 4 | Mihai Trofim | $130,000 | 630 |
| 5 | Sergiu Cornea | $97,000 | 525 |
| 6 | Sami Ayyoub | $73,000 | 420 |
| 7 | Bernardo Neves | $56,500 | 315 |
| 8 | Rayan Jawhari | $44,000 | 210 |
| 9 | Nariman Yaghmai | $36,000 | 105 |
Photo credit: WPT.
