Another day of intense poker action was completed at Orenes Gran Casino on October 8 at PartyPoker Tour Castellón, with the highlight undoubtedly being Marius-Laurentiu Dinu’s Mini Main Event victory.
The Romanian banked €16,000 and the trophy after defeating Alberto Martinez of Spain heads-up, while there were also side event wins for Oliver Hutchins and Alfredo Ruiz.
Meanwhile, the €500 buy-in, €100,000 guaranteed Main Event got underway, and 28 players qualified from 112 Day 1a entrants, led by Alfonso Lapaz.
- Read more: Marius-Laurentiu Dinu Shakes Off Cobwebs to Win PartyPoker Tour Castellón €150 Mini Main Event (€16,000)
- Read more: Christian Martin Holds Slender Lead into Mini Main Event Final Table
- Read more: Christian Martin Holds Commanding Lead as Boatman in the Mix in PartyPoker Tour Castellón Mini Main Event
- Read more: Huge Numbers in Castellón as Hardisty Bags Top Ten Stack and Dinu Leads 41 Qualifiers in Day 1a
- Read more: Rebecca Hardisty on Satellites, Tour Trophies and Playing Outside Your Comfort Zone
- Read more: Seven Things to Do Away From the Felts at the PartyPoker Tour Castellón
- Read more: The 2026 PartyPoker Tour Heads to Castellón in October
- Follow all the action: The PartyPoker Tour Castellón: Live reported at poker.pro.
Marius-Laurentiu Dinu Shakes Off Cobwebs to Win PartyPoker Tour Castellón €150 Mini Main Event (€16,000)
Marius-Laurentiu Dinu had not riffled chips or peeled cards in the live arena for two years before a friend told him about the PartyPoker Tour Castellón. The Romanian had recently moved from London to Sevilla, and vowed to win silverware. His friend wagered €200 that Dinu would not be standing with a trophy.
After three days of play in the €150 Mini Main Event, in which Dinu barely left the top of the standings, the champion made clear he would be collecting his side-bet winnings to add to the €16,000 career-best payday he secured by defeating Alberto Martinez of Spain for the title.
The key hand for Dinu was with six left against PartyPoker Tour ambassador Matt Staples, who topped the standings at the time. Staples had rockets, but Dinu had turned a queen-high straight, and the Canadian called off versus the victor’s turn check-jam, sending Dinu to the top of the counts alongside Christian Martin, who had occupied that spot since the start of Day 2.
From there, Dinu eliminated Konstantinos Vatseris, Fabian Torres and Martinez in a brutal final cooler on the way to victory.
Dinu said “I’m a recreational player, I haven’t really played for two or three years. My friend told me about this tournament and I said ok I’ll go play. I played quite alot in London, mainly cash, for three or four years, and I moved here, and I told my friend I’d win. He said you’ll bust first day, so we bet €200 that I won’t win a trophy, I’ll be calling him soon!”
“I literally haven’t played a hand for two years. I moved to Sevilla a year ago, and I was here to see my friend and he said let’s play, so yeh, amazing. Yes the straight versus Staples was big, I think two or three hands I played bad. It’s impossible to play perfect but I tried my best.
“I’ll be back for the Main Event, maybe I can win two. If I come back to play poker I might have to quit my job because I love it too much!”
€150 Mini Main Event Final Table Results
The event attracted a total of 727 entries, creating a €90,875 prize pool, and the final table results are detailed below:
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
| 1 |  Marius-Laurentiu Dinu | Romania | €16,000 |
| 2 |  Alberto Martinez | Spain | €11,000 |
| 3 | Christian Martin | Spain | €7,500 |
| 4 |  Fabian Torres | Colombia | €5,500 |
| 5 |  Matt Staples | Canada | €3,750 |
| 6 |  Kevin Brzozowski | United Kingdom | €2,685 |
| 7 | Andres Carbonell | Spain | €2,000 |
| 8 |  Konstantinos Vatseris | Greece | €1,500 |
| 9 |  Hugo Gotuzzo | Argentina | €1,200 |
Farrell and Boatman Among 28 Qualifers in PartyPoker Tour Castellón €500 Main Event Day 1a
Day 1a of the Main Event recorded a fantastic total of 112 entries, and 28 players progressed to Day 2, with Alfonso Lapaz (442,000), Francesco Molina (370,000) and Juan Martinez (362,000) topping the counts to make it an all-Spanish top three.
PartyPoker Tour team members Niall Farrell (260,000) and Barny Boatman (104,000) found a bag, as did PartyPoker Tour Glasgow Main Event champion Robbie Bull (165,000).
The full list of qualifiers is set out below:
| Position | Player | Country | Chip Count |
| 1 | Alfonso Lapaz | Spain | 442,000 |
| 2 | Francisco Molina | Spain | 370,000 |
| 3 | Juan Martinez | Spain | 362,000 |
| 4 | Pablo Julian | Spain | 320,000 |
| 5 | Stavros Kokotsakis | Greece | 318,000 |
| 6 | Marino Diez | Spain | 305,000 |
| 7 | Sergio Lopez | Spain | 273,000 |
| 8 | Niall Farrell | United Kingdom | 260,000 |
| 9 | Ionut Gavrila | Romania | 253,000 |
| 10 |  Efrain Castro | United States | 234,000 |
| 11 |  Erico Iervasi | Italy | 211,000 |
| 12 | Borja Sanchis | Spain | 206,000 |
| 13 |  Raphael Garcia | Belgium | 201,000 |
| 14 | Borja Lopez | Spain | 180,000 |
| 15 |  Aleksandar Georgiev | Bulgaria | 174,000 |
| 16 | Robbie Bull | United Kingdom | 165,000 |
| 17 | Manuel Garcia | Spain | 154,000 |
| 18 | Sebastian Ruiz | Spain | 150,000 |
| 19 | Jose Antonio Lopez | Spain | 145,000 |
| 20 |  Baptiste Garreau | France | 131,000 |
| 21 | Alejandro Valdes | Spain | 131,000 |
| 22 | Enrique Garcia-Fioloso | Spain | 130,000 |
| 23 | Ismael Canay | Spain | 105,000 |
| 24 | Barny Boatman | United Kingdom | 104,000 |
| 25 | Hugo Gotuzzo | Argentina | 103,000 |
| 26 | Ruben Cortes | Spain | 101,000 |
| 27 |  Florian Schultheis | Germany | 80,000 |
| 28 | Valentin Dita | Romania | 51,000 |
Oliver Hutchins Wins €150 PLO 7-Max (€1,800)
A total of 44 players created a €5,500 prize pool in the PLO 7-Max, and Oliver Hutchins collected his third PartyPoker Tour trophy after defeating Siddharth Sudunagunta of India in the final showdown, while PartyPoker Tour team member Sam Acheampong had to settle for third.
The full results are below:
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
| 1 | Oliver Hutchins | United Kingdom | €1,800 |
| 2 |  Siddharth Sudunagunta | India | €1,200 |
| 3 | Sam Acheampong | United Kingdom | €800 |
| 4 | Juan Alberto Gomez | Spain | €600 |
| 5 | Giovanni De Feo | Italy | €450 |
| 6 | Ian Simpson | United Kingdom | €350 |
| 7 | Francisco Javier Mendez | Spain | €300 |
Alfredo Ruiz Wins €60 Party Madness NLH Win the Button Bounty (€600)
A total of 93 entries created a €4,650 prize pool, and Alfredo Ruiz of Spain took the trophy after coming out on top against Brit Sam Taylor, with the full results below:
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
| 1 | Alfredo Ruiz | Spain | €600 |
| 2 | Sam Taylor | United Kingdom | €400 |
| 3 | Damon Burch-Hyson | United Kingdom | €280 |
| 4 | James Smith | United Kingdom | €210 |
| 5 | Maria Gallego | Spain | €160 |
| 6 |  Sebastian Hitz | Switzerland | €130 |
| 7 | Luke Bird | United Kingdom | €110 |
| 8 |  Maxim Komolyatov | Russia | €95 |
| 9 |  Zakariae Admi | Morocco | €80 |
| 10 |  Grzegorz Staniszewski | Poland | €70 |
| 11 | Albert Asensio | Spain | €70 |
| 12 | Alvaro Ruiz | Spain | €60 |
| 13 |  Hayk Ghardyan | Armenia | €60 |
PartyPoker Tour 2026 Castellón – Schedule, October 9
The Main Event is the primary focus of the day’s action, with Days 1b and 1c at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. respectively, while side event action is on offer in the form of the €100 NLH at 5 p.m., and the €60 NLH Red River Bounty at 10 p.m.
| Date | Time | Event | Buy-In | Chips | Clock | Late Reg | Guarantee |
| 09/10/2026 | 14:00 | Main Event Day 1B | €500 (€455+€45) | 50,000 | 30 | 10 levels | €100,000 |
| 09/10/2026 | 17:00 | NLH | €100 (€85+€15) | 20,000 | 20 | 8 levels | |
| 09/10/2026 | 20:00 | Main Event Day 1C Turbo | €500 (€455+€45) | 50,000 | 20 | 10 levels | €100,000 |
| 09/10/2026 | 22:00 | NLH Red River Bounty | €60 (€50+€10) | 20,000 | 15 | 8 levels |
poker.pro will be on the floor from 2 p.m. bringing you full live reporting coverage of Day 1b of the Main Event, so stay tuned!
- Article originally produced at poker.pro.
