Last Updated on August 24, 2026 by Bala Kumar
American pro Jason Wheeler has won the PokerStars Open Barcelona Main Event, topping a 4,333-entry field for a career-best €731,000 ($847,960) at Casino Barcelona. The win was confirmed on August 23, 2026, as the opening marquee event of this year’s EPT Barcelona festival reached its conclusion.
The Numbers That Matter
The €1,650 buy-in event ran across eight starting flights before whittling down to a single winner. Entries were down roughly 14% from last year’s 5,036 in the same event, but the field still generated a prize pool of nearly €6.24 million — a reminder that even a smaller field at a marquee EPT stop still produces massive money on the strength of buy-in volume alone.
| Metric | 2026 PokerStars Open Barcelona | 2025 PokerStars Open Barcelona |
| Total entries | 4,333 | 5,036 |
| Buy-in | €1,650 | €1,650 |
| Prize pool | €6,239,520 (~$7.3 million) | €7,251,840 (~$8.5 million) |
| Winner’s share | €731,000 ($847,960) | €772,000 ($903,950) |
| Champion | Jason Wheeler (USA) | Alexis Nicolai |
The year-over-year dip in both entries and total prize pool tracks with a broader pattern seen at several 2026 live series compared to 2025 — fields are still enormous by any historical standard, just not quite at last year’s record pace.
How The Final Table Played Out
Eight players returned for the final day of action, led by American Han Feng, who had set the pace through much of Day 3. Full final table results, in finishing order:
| Place | Player | Prize (EUR) | Prize (USD approx.) |
| 8th | Felipe Boianovsky (Brazil) | €87,910 | $101,976 |
| 7th | Grégoire Jarry (France) | €114,290 | $132,576 |
| 6th | Han Feng (USA) | €148,610 | $172,388 |
| 5th | Mahersh Selvakumaran (Netherlands) | €193,190 | $224,100 |
| 4th | Bogdan-Petru Petrascu (Romania) | €251,120 | $291,299 |
| 3rd | Darko Svesko (Serbia) | €326,200 | $378,392 |
| 2nd | Alexander Ivarsson (Sweden) | €457,000 | $530,120 |
| 1st | Jason Wheeler (USA) | €731,000 | $847,960 |
Feng, who had entered the final table as chip leader fresh off a fifth-place finish in the 2026 WSOP Main Event, was eliminated in sixth — still the second-largest score of his career, pushing his lifetime earnings toward $4.3 million. Svesko’s elimination in third set up a heads-up battle between Wheeler and Ivarsson. Ivarsson actually held the chip lead heading into the final stretch of heads-up play, but Wheeler clawed it back to close out the win.
Why This Win Matters For Wheeler
This is Wheeler’s first PokerStars Open Barcelona title and his fifth final-table finish of the calendar year — a strong indicator of sustained deep-run form rather than a one-off score. It’s also the largest single cash of his career, topping the $671,591 he earned as runner-up in the 2017 PokerStars Championship Prague Main Event, a score that had stood as his career-best for nearly a decade.
The Chicago-based pro, who already holds WSOP bracelet hardware, now has more than $6.7 million in career earnings across roughly 350 tournament cashes. The win also added 1,320 Card Player Player of the Year points, a meaningful boost in a season-long race where deep runs at major series like this one carry significant weight.
For Ivarsson, the runner-up finish is the second-largest score of his career, trailing only the €553,357 he won at this same Barcelona stop back in 2019 — meaning Casino Barcelona has now produced two of his three biggest career results.
The Bigger Picture: EPT Barcelona 2026
The PokerStars Open Main Event is just one piece of a packed EPT Barcelona festival running from August 16–29, 2026. The same week produced another headline result: Tom Fuchs took down the €100,000 Super High Roller on August 22 for €1,126,540, and the €2,700 High Roller was still playing down to its own final table as the Main Event wrapped. With the festival running through the end of the month, more significant results are still to come out of Barcelona this year.
What This Means If You’re Following The 2026 Live Circuit
Wheeler’s win is a useful data point for two ongoing storylines. First, it continues a trend of 2026 live tournaments drawing slightly smaller fields than their 2025 equivalents across several major stops, worth watching as the fall series calendar ramps up. Second, it reinforces the kind of prize-pool upside that continues to attract players to EPT-branded events even as fields normalize slightly from last year’s peak — a €1,650 buy-in turning into a €731,000 top prize is exactly the multiple that keeps recreational and professional players alike coming back to multi-flight structures like this one.
FAQs
How much did Jason Wheeler win at PokerStars Open Barcelona?
Wheeler won €731,000 ($847,960) for first place, the largest single score of his career.
How many players entered the 2026 PokerStars Open Barcelona Main Event?
The event drew 4,333 total entries across eight starting flights, down about 14% from 5,036 entries in the 2025 edition of the same event.
Who did Jason Wheeler beat heads-up to win?
Wheeler defeated Sweden’s Alexander Ivarsson heads-up. Ivarsson earned €457,000 ($530,120) as runner-up.
Was this Jason Wheeler’s biggest career score?
Yes. It surpassed his previous best of $671,591, earned as runner-up in the 2017 PokerStars Championship Prague Main Event, and pushed his career tournament earnings past $6.7 million.
What was the total prize pool for the event, and who else made the final table?
The €1,650 buy-in event generated a prize pool of €6,239,520 (roughly $7.3 million). Alongside champion Jason Wheeler and runner-up Alexander Ivarsson, the final table included Darko Svesko (3rd), Bogdan-Petru Petrascu (4th), Mahersh Selvakumaran (5th), Han Feng (6th), Grégoire Jarry (7th), and Felipe Boianovsky (8th).
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