There’s already been a lot of exciting tournament action through the first week of the 2026 PokerStars European Poker Tour Barcelona festival. Early highlights include defending EPT Barcelona main event winner Thomas Eychenne earning a high roller title one year later, and Tom Fuchs taking down a €100,000 high roller for a cool $1.3 million. Those are just a small sample of the overall high-stakes action going on at Casino Barcelona.
One of the standouts of the series so far is Vinny Lingham. The Austin, Texas resident has a win and a final table appearance in recent high roller action at this stop, and he’s one of several players who will have at least one spade trophy in their suitcase once they head home.
It’s also been a strong series for Ottomar Ladva, who has just shy of $1 million in earnings thanks to a win and two runner-up finishes thus far at EPT Barcelona.
Here’s the latest dispatch of notable results from EPT Barcelona.
Ladva Keeps Leveling Up
It’s been a 2026 to remember for Estonia’s Ladva. After starting 2026 with a $1,150,000 Onyx High Roller win, Ladva added a $1,145,686 victory in a €100,000 high roller at EPT Paris.
Ladva secured his third trophy of the year at EPT Barcelona, taking down a €50,000 no-limit hold’em high roller for another piece of hardware and $507,616. He emerged victorious despite the second-highest payout of the tournament, following a heads-up deal with online poker standout Niklas Astedt, who banked $606,494 as the runner-up.
This tournament drew 28 entries and generated a total prize pool of $1,591,682. Ladva added this victory to a pair of runner-up finishes earlier on in the series, and he now has $7,877,039 in lifetime earnings.
Vinny Lingham finished in fourth place for $191,052, straight off the heels of a win of his own (more on that in a moment).
With this victory, Ladva earned 306 Card Player Player of the Year points. That pushed his total to 2,446 points, good for 103rd in the year-long race presented by CoinPoker.
Final Table Results – €50,000 No-Limit Hold’em
| Place | Player | Payout | POY Points |
| 1 | Ottomar Ladva | $507,616 | 306 |
| 2 | Niklas Astedt | $606,494 | 255 |
| 3 | Arthur Conan | $286,520 | 204 |
| 4 | Vinny Lingham | $191,052 | 153 |
Lingham Gets His Licks In
Lingham has had several close calls in major live tournaments in recent years, including a fifth-place finish in a $50,000 no-limit hold’em bracelet event in 2025.
This trip to EPT Barcelona proved fruitful, as he earned his first major live trophy in the €30,000 no-limit hold’em event. Against a field with 21 entrants, Lingham defeated pot-limit Omaha standout and three-time WSOP bracelet winner Eelis Parssinen heads-up to secure the victory.
Lingham earned $355,656 to bring his total recorded earnings to $2,686,812. Parssinen cashed for $213,440, clearing $24 million in total for his career in the process.
This triumph came with 252 POY points for Lingham, increasing his total for the year to 858 POY points. Parssinen tacked 210 POY points, which brought him to 6,291 points for the year, good for fourth place in the rankings overall.
Final Table Results – €30,000 No-Limit Hold’em
| Place | Player | Payout | POY Points |
| 1 | Vinny Lingham | $355,656 | 252 |
| 2 | Eelis Parssinen | $213,440 | 210 |
Sipila Stacks Another PLO Title At EPT Barcelona
Finland’s Samuli Sipila has enjoyed success in major pot-limit Omaha tournaments all over the world, including multiple Triton Super High Roller PLO titles, a PokerGO Tour trophy, and a seven-figure Onyx PLO score.
Sipila added a spade trophy to his growing list of PLO tournament achievements, taking down the €25,000 PLO event at this stop. He outlasted a field of 34 to win the $358,834 first-place prize. Sipila defeated fellow PLO specialist and bracelet winner Lautaro Guerra heads-up to lock up the victory. Another Finnish player, Lauri Saaskilahti, fresh off his $6 million second-place finish in the 2026 WSOP main event, secured his first post-main event tournament result, finishing fifth for $90,480.
After this win, Sipila’s total career earnings sit at $5,706,948. Sipila earned 336 POY points in his first qualifying result of 2026. Saaskilahti tacked 140 POY points to his total for 2026, and now sits in 65th place overall.
Final Table Results – €25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha
| Place | Player | Payout | POY Points |
| 1 | Samuli Sipila | $358,834 | 336 |
| 2 | Lautaro Guerra | $232,000 | 280 |
| 3 | Sampo Ryynanen | $154,280 | 224 |
| 4 | Laszlo Bujtas | $111,360 | 168 |
| 5 | Lauri Saaskilahti | $90,480 | 140 |
Photo credits: Manuel Kovsca, Danny Maxwell / Rational Intellectual Holdings Ltd.
