The 2026 PartyPoker Tour Madrid has wrapped up in stellar fashion at Casino Gran Via. Overall, it’s been an intense seven days in the Spanish capital, filled with unparalleled action at the oval tables. On the seventh and final day, 18 players returned to resume the fight for the €500 Main Event title. It would prove to be what has to go down as one of the most dominating performances ever, with the Day 3 chip leader never dropping his position on the way to the title.
A Record-Breaking Affair
The 2026 PartyPoker Tour Madrid was the third leg of the 2026 PartyPoker Tour. PartyPoker began its annual campaign in Sheffield in January, then touched Spanish soil for the first time in Seville at the end of March. As such, La Puerta de Europa (i.e., Madrid) was the third in line to roll out the red carpet for the ever-so popular live poker tour. One could argue that the highlight prior to the Main Event was Federico Estrada Mazzarella claiming the win in the record-breaking €150 Mini Main Event.
- Read more: Estrada Mazzarella Wins All the Mozzarella in 2026 PartyPoker Tour Madrid €150 Mini Main Event
- Read more: PartyPoker Announces Five More Stops in 2026
The aforementioned Mini Main Event broke all records, by some margins. The tournament scored 918 entries, and PartyPoker made quick work of the €50,000 guarantee as the final prize pool read 114,750. The Main Event followed in similar footsteps; when late registration closed in Day 1d (the final starting-day flight), the floor could confirm 535 entries. The €100,000 guarantee was reached already on Day 1b, and 79 players would eventually claim their fair share of the €238,075 prize pool.
The bubble burst a few hours into Day 2, when two players went out during hand-by-hand play. The remaining 79 players all secured a €1,000 min-cash, but they all had their eyes on the prize: the prestigious title, the coveted trophy, and the €45,000 first-place payout. There were some respectable names left in the field at this point, such as PartyPoker Tour Ambassador Natalie Bromley, 2025 PartyPoker Tour Leaderboard winner Alexander “Wishiper96” Georgiev, 2025 PartyPoker Tour Manchester £500 Main Event champion Deniz Orhan, 2025 PartyPoker Tour London (Winter Edition) champion Thomas Sanderson, and 2024 WSOP Online $400 NLH Mystery Bounty 6-Max champion Daniel Triana Ruiz.
Day 2 was scheduled to play to the final table, or until the conclusion of Level 23, whichever came first. It would prove to be the latter scenario, meaning Day 2 was quite the marathon flight. Around 03:30 the night between Saturday and Sunday, May 17, eighteen players bagged their chips for Day 3, set to resume play at 15:00 on the final day of the festival.
Bulldozer Mode Activated
It was Alexey Neofitov who began Day 3 as the chip leader with roughly 100 Big Blinds, a stack he had earned after making a big hero call during the last level of Day 2 against Chen Yi. Out of the previously mentioned names, Orhan and Triana Ruiz were still in the mix, ready to give Neofitov a run for his money. Day 3 came in hot, with Hugo Pereira and Kilin Csaba busting the first and second hand. Next one to go was Orhan, who lost a flip with [invalid notations]. As such, the wait for the first-ever two-time PartyPoker Tour Main Event champion goes on. After roughly three hours of play, German Fred Wulff went out in tenth place, and the nine-handed final table was set.
It quickly became evident that Neofitov enjoyed being the big-stack bully, opening marginal hands and putting pressure on his opponents. He picked up a few blinds here and there and was on a mission to extend his lead towards the field. The first elimination of the final table occurred after roughly one hour, when Jorge Ruiz got his stack in pre-flop with A♥K♣ against the Q♥Q♦ of Alejandro Rubio. The A♦A♣Q♠ flop was fetched from Hollywood, and the 3♠4♦ runout saw Ruiz out in ninth place for €4,500.
Ruiz was soon followed by Ashley Brown (eighth, €5,500). The Brit was heads-up against Neofitov, and all the marbles went in on a 6♥3♦2♦8♣ board. Brown’s A♥A♦ were in rough shape against Neofitov’s 8♦6♦, and Neofitov ultimately improved to a flush on the river to see Brown off. Not long after that, Hugo Caldeira (A♥K♥) and David Rodriguez Lamas (8♠8♦) were flipping, with Rodriguez Lamas being the player at risk. A queen on the turn was too tough of a task to handle for Rodriguez Lamas, who earned €6,625 for his seventh-place finish.
Six players left, and this is when the Poker Gods granted Neofitov full bulldozer mode. First, he was faced with a donk-bet shove from Alejandro Rubio on a 5♠6♠5♦ board. Neofitov had an easy call with 6♦5♣, and Rubio’s 8♦7♦ couldn’t compete with the full house. Rubio claimed the €8,000 sixth-place payout, and no one knew just how dominating a performance Neofitov was about to put on.
The next major happening was the elimination of Nicholas De Floch. The Frenchman pushed from the Cut-off with K♦Q♣, and was dominated by Neofitov’s A♣Q♥. No king or any other help for De Floch, who went to collect €10,000 for finishing fifth. Neofitov was, obviously, the chip leader with four players left – by some margin. He topped the charts with 74 Big Blinds. Second was Ruiz Triana, who had 14. The massive chip lead allowed Neofitov to continue his aggression, putting immense pressure on his remaining opponents. Soon enough, he open-shoved with 6♥6♦, putting the competition in hard ICM-decisions. Raphael Lenaerts decided to make the call for his tournament life with A♣Q♦. Neofitov was already ahead with the pocket pair, improved to a set on the turn, and sent Lenaerts to the rail in fourth for €14,000 on the river.
Moments later, Ruiz Triana got it in against – you guessed it – Neofitov. It was yet another flipping, this time Ruiz Triana’s A♣J♠ against Neofitov’s 9♥9♣. Neofitov flopped another set, and even though Ruiz Triana picked up a gutshot, he couldn’t stop the Neofitov train and was out in third for €20,000.
As such, the stage was set for a heads-up showdown between Neofidov and Hugo Caldeira. The Blinds were 100,000/200,000, and Neofidov had a good edge on his opponent, playing 23,375,000 versus the 3,375,000 of Caldeira. Caldeira managed to win a decent-sized pot the first hand of heads-up to bring some life to the one-versus-one clash. At this point, the two contestants decided to make a deal, which saw Neofitov lock up €35,750 and Caldeira €31,750. They kept on playing for €7,500, the trophy, and the title.
Neofitov quickly forgot the non-optimal start to the heads-up, and continued playing his game, eventually getting Caldeira down to around 10 Big Blinds. That’s when all the chips went in for the first time; Caldeira was the player at risk, and his K♣5♣ would seek to hold against the J♦10♦ of Neofitov. Caldeira improved to a pair of fives on the Q♣5♥8♣ flop, but the 9♠ turn was not what the doctor ordered. The 4♥ river didn’t change a thing, and that settled it. Hugo Caldeira got the €31,750 agreed for his runner-up finish, and Neofitov put the finishing flourish on what is one of the most dominating final table performances seen on the PartyPoker Tour. He eliminated seven of his nine opponents to claim the win in the biggest Main Event ever, and even though he ran well, winning the flips, it was his aggressive play and immense poker skills that were the biggest keys to victory.
2026 PartyPoker Tour Madrid – €500 Main Event Final Table Results
| Position | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Alexey Neofitov | Russia | €43,250 |
| 2 |  Hugo De Brites | Portugal | €31,750 |
| 3 |  Daniel Ruiz Triana | Spain | €20,000 |
| 4 | Raphael Lenaerts | Portugal | €14,000 |
| 5 |  Nicolas Le Floch | France | €10,000 |
| 6 | Alejandro Rubio | Spain | €8,000 |
| 7 | David Lamas | Spain | €6,625 |
| 8 |  Ashley Brown | United Kingdom | €5,500 |
| 9 | Jorge Ruiz | Spain | €4,500 |
Next Stop: Manchester
That’s a wrap for the 2026 PartyPoker Tour Madrid; yet another stellar live poker event in the books. For the one who wants to read up on all the action, poker.pro live reporter Christoffer Karlén was on-site at Gran Via Casino for the entirety of the week, catching all the crucial moments from the Mini Main Event and the Main Event. The live blog can be accessed on poker.pro, where all the results from the Side Events are also available. Next up for the PartyPoker Tour is a return to the UK.
The 2026 PartyPoker Tour Manchester will be played at Manchester235 Casino between June 13-21, and just as is always the case, poker.pro will have boots on the ground. The PartyPoker Tour is the train that won’t stop rolling, and, as so many times before, the most-recent event has reached the bar even further.
