EPT Paris 2026 has reached its day 4 with two important tournaments entering decisive phases today, and always with Italian players as major protagonists. The PokerStars Open Main Event has Lulei Hu in the top 10 and 2 other Italians still in the running with 44 left, while the PokerStars Open Cup will have 18 Italians at day 2, including the overall chipleader Gianluca Fichera!
EPT Paris: Lulei Hu wants to impress again in the PokerStars Open Main Event
We have reached day 3 of the 1.650€ PokerStars Open, which yesterday saw a very important day 2 that decimated the group of qualifiers, bringing it from 448 to 44. In the lead is the American Brandon Wilson, the only one over 6 million in chips, although the Armenian Bezhanyan also came very close. Our Lulei Hu is still doing great, confirming himself as a very hot player and will resume with 3.1 million in chips.
| POS | PLAYER | NATION | STACK |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brandon Wilson | USA | 6.065.000 |
| 2 | Aren Bezhanyan | Armenia | 5.985.000 |
| 3 | Enzo Nicolas | France | 5.580.000 |
| 4 | Boris Angelov | Bulgaria | 4.480.000 |
| 5 | Arthur Emig | France | 4.170.000 |
| 6 | Sebastien Seguin | France | 3.500.000 |
| 7 | Ilan Cukrowicz | France | 3.200.000 |
| 8 | Lulei Hu | Italy | 3.100.000 |
| 9 | Patrik Demus | Hungary | 2.800.000 |
| 10 | Alf Martinsson | Sweden | 2.545.000 |
The Italians still in play
Lulei Hu has thus confirmed himself in great form, effectively tripling the already substantial stack he held at the end of his day 1. Omero Fadda and Antonio Bari are also holding on, both below the average which currently stands at 2.040.000 chips, but still fully in contention. Play will resume from level 27, 30.000/60.000/60.000, so our players’ stacks range from 19 to over 50 bigs.
| POSITION | PLAYER | STACK |
|---|---|---|
| 8 | Lulei Hu | 3.100.000 |
| 23 | Omero Fadda | 1.590.000 |
| 33 | Antonio Bari | 1.120.000 |
The Italians out during day 2
Yesterday’s day 2 was, as widely expected, quite eventful. After all, the field went from 448 to 44 left, so the thinning out was necessarily heavy and, over the various levels, as many as 32 Italians had to say goodbye. The last ones were Igor Saia and Enrico Camosci, while at the start of the day the shortest stacks had left, specifically Sarro, Fungo and Losi. Below is the detail of the exit position of each Italian player during day 2 of the PokerStars Open Paris, with the relative prize:
| FINAL POSITION | PLAYER | PRIZE |
|---|---|---|
| 67 | Igor Saia | €9.050 |
| 73 | Enrico Camosci | €7.880 |
| 107 | Felice Bucci | €6.850 |
| 116 | Battista Locati | €6.850 |
| 123 | Leonardo Assirio | €5.950 |
| 126 | Luca Sebastiani | €5.950 |
| 129 | Daniele Cuomo | €5.950 |
| 134 | Alessio Peciarolo | €5.950 |
| 141 | Candido Cappiello | €5.950 |
| 159 | Gabriele Guerrini | €5.170 |
| 164 | Marcello Miniucchi | €5.170 |
| 174 | Vasyl Palandiuk | €5.170 |
| 188 | Paolo Gualano | €4.480 |
| 189 | Domenico Di Vito | €4.480 |
| 193 | Paolo Boi | €4.480 |
| 208 | Matteo Cecchetti | €4.480 |
| 210 | Domenico Cascasi | €4.480 |
| 228 | Lorenzo Arduini | €3.880 |
| 254 | Andrea Scarrone | €3.880 |
| 265 | Franco Cozzula | €3.880 |
| 274 | Davide Ingoglia | €3.880 |
| 284 | Giuliano Bendinelli | €3.880 |
| 290 | Daniele Sacchi | €3.360 |
| 302 | Giuseppe Cimelli | €3.360 |
| 309 | Eros Zappacosta | €3.360 |
| 311 | Eros Calderone | €3.360 |
| 320 | Federico Donnini | €3.360 |
| 328 | Gianluca Fichera | €3.360 |
| 365 | Luca Bernardi | €2.930 |
| 366 | Andrea Falcone | €2.930 |
| 381 | Francesco Losi | €2.930 |
| 435 | Mauro Fungo | €2.590 |
| 438 | Alessandro Sarro | €2.590 |
What they are playing for
The 44 remaining players will meet today at 11 in the morning to hunt for the final table. Everyone already has a guaranteed minimum cash of 10.430€ in their pocket, which is the reward for the 44th place finisher, but everyone’s goal is obviously the spade trophy and the 551.090€ that comes with it. The details:
| FINAL POSITION | PRIZE |
|---|---|
| 1 | €551.090 |
| 2 | €346.230 |
| 3 | €247.310 |
| 4 | €190.220 |
| 5 | €146.320 |
| 6 | €112.540 |
| 7 | €86.560 |
| 8 | €66.570 |
| 9 | €51.230 |
| 10–11 | €39.420 |
| 12–13 | €32.870 |
| 14–15 | €27.700 |
| 16–17 | €24.080 |
| 18–20 | €20.940 |
| 21–23 | €18.220 |
| 24–27 | €15.860 |
| 28–31 | €13.790 |
| 32–39 | €11.980 |
| 40–44 | €10.430 |
PokerStars Open Cup: Fichera chipleader with 17 other Italians hunting for the “little spade”
Yesterday, the Palais des Congrès in Paris also hosted day 1 of the PokerStars Open Cup, an 825€ buy-in tournament that had 1.649 entries and 239 qualifiers for day 2, all already ITM. Italy is very well represented here, particularly by Gianluca Fichera who will restart as chipleader with 706.000 in chips, for this top 10:
