The Castellón stop of the 2026 PartyPoker Tour kicked off with a bang at the Orenes Gran Casino on October 5, as a huge field of 279 entries gathered for Day 1a of the €150 buy-in, €50,000 guaranteed Mini Main Event, making it the third-largest Mini Main Event starting flight field in tour history, bettered only by two flights in Madrid.
When the dust settled after 18 levels of play, Marius-Laurentiu Dinu of Romania (775,000) led 41 Day 2 qualifiers, after a double knockout on the bubble brought play to a close.
Dinu is closely followed by Spanish duo Rafael Lopez (745,000) and Alberto Martinez (717,000), while PartyPoker Tour team member Rebecca Hardisty (401,000) found a top-ten stack. Hardisty recently won the Sunday Party online at PartyPoker and will hope to follow up with a victory in the live arena.
Dinu accumulated his chips after he pulled a miracle river on the bubble against fellow big stack Axel Reese, making a superior full house to vault him to the top of the counts.
- 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.
Top Ten Chip Counts – €150 Mini Main Event Day 1a
The top ten counts from the flight are as follows:
| Position | Player | Country | Chip Count |
| 1 |  Marius-Laurentiu Dinu | Romania | 775,000 |
| 2 |  Rafael Lopez | Spain | 745,000 |
| 3 | Alberto Martinez | Spain | 717,000 |
| 4 | Hady Sirbu | Romania | 601,000 |
| 5 | Radu Angel | Romania | 500,000 |
| 6 |  Axel Reese | Germany | 481,000 |
| 7 | Jose Maria Sanchez | Spain | 480,000 |
| 8 | Daniel Bellovi | Spain | 435,000 |
| 9 |  Rebecca Hardisty | United Kingdom | 401,000 |
| 10 |  Mhamed Larag | Estonia | 400,000 |
PartyPoker Tour 2026 Castellón – Schedule, October 6
Two further €150 Mini Main Event starting flights take place on October 6, with players starting with a 40,000 stack and opening blinds of 100/200.
Day 1b gets underway on Tuesday at 2 p.m. local time, with 30-minute levels in play, and turbo flight Day 1c, featuring 20-minute levels, kicks off at 7 p.m. A total of 15% of the field is scheduled to qualify from each starting flight.
The final starting flight is hyper flight Day 1d, which features 15-minute levels and is scheduled for noon on October 7, before Day 2 kicks off at 6 p.m. on the same date.
The tournament schedule for October 6 is set out below.
| Date | Time | Event | Buy-In | Chips | Clock | Late Reg | Guarantee |
| 06/10/2026 | 14:00 | Mini Main Event Day 1B | €150 (€125+€25) | 40,000 | 30 | 9 levels | €50,000 |
| 06/10/2026 | 17:00 | Mini Main Target Stack Satellite | €30 (€25+€5) | 15,000 | 10 | 6 levels | 3 seats |
| 06/10/2026 | 19:00 | Mini Main Event Day 1C Turbo | €150 (€125+€25) | 40,000 | 20 | 9 levels | €50,000 |
poker.pro will be on the floor, bringing you coverage of all the action and big moments from the PartyPoker Tour Castellón, so stay tuned!
- Article originally produced at poker.pro.
