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Jose Criado took the overnight lead in the EPT Barcelona Main Event after Day 4, bagging 5,045,000 chips as the field was trimmed to 28 players. Barbara Akemi also stayed in the hunt, finishing inside the top five with 3,445,000 and going farther in the tournament than any Brazilian woman had before.

According to PokerNews, Day 4 started with 67 players and Casino Barcelona played four 90-minute levels before more than half the field was gone. The €5,300 event drew 1,823 entries and built an €8,841,550 prize pool, with €1,370,050 reserved for the winner and €34,850 already locked up for each remaining player. As covered in our Aug. 24 report, the Main Event had already worked its way through the starting flights before this latest squeeze.

Criado's run to the top came in a huge preflop cooler against Mark Teltscher. Criado opened to 60,000 from early position, Teltscher three-bet to 180,000 from the small blind, and Criado moved all in before Teltscher snapped with his last 575,000.

Teltscher held queens, Criado had kings, and the board ran out harmlessly, sending Teltscher to the rail and putting Criado at the head of the counts. Criado qualified online and had never before cashed in an EPT Main Event.

Gerard Carbo ended Day 4 with 4,815,000, while Joris Ruijs bagged 4,625,000. Two former EPT Barcelona champions were still alive too, with John Juanda on 1,855,000 and Sebastian Malec on 1,485,000.

Akemi's run stood out even before the chip counts were tallied. Claudia Bueno and Sarah Jarry went out early in Day 4, leaving Akemi as the lone woman still standing, and the report noted that she is the first Brazilian woman to win the Sunday Million and has since added a WSOP bracelet.

Day 4 also featured a double knockout when Alexander Luciani's Broadway straight held against Hugo Soares and Simon Wiciak. Soares shoved 355,000 after Luciani made it 60,000, Luciani called after using a time bank, and the turn king locked up Wiciak's exit while the river king failed to give Soares a chop.

The last players out before the bagging phase were Teltscher, Espen Sandvik, and Joshua Boulton. Day 5 resumes Thursday, August 27, at 12 p.m. local time with four more 90-minute levels, starting on Level 25 at 20,000/40,000 with a 40,000 big blind ante.

H2bet is the exclusive sponsor of H2 Unique Celebration, a poker-focused event set for 26 and 27 August at the Iulia restaurant inside the Jockey Club of São Paulo. The program mixes poker, fine dining, entertainment and high prizes, and the venue is listed as Av. Lineu de Paula Machado, 1263.

According to BNLData, the H2 Unique Celebration tournaments are part of H2 Unique, which is described as an exclusive, high-end poker circuit built around high roller tournaments, cash game tables and complete experiences with gastronomic attractions and unique venues. At the São Paulo stop, participants will compete for a guaranteed prize pool of R$ 500 in two tournaments, and champions will receive a specially designed trophy in addition to the prizes.

The event also includes a dedicated menu with cocktails, dinner and a selection of drinks.

The sponsorship is being framed as part of a wider pattern for H2bet, which the source links to other appearances across sports and entertainment. Those include the Porsche Cup in motorsports, the Salvador Carnival, themed parties in Fernando de Noronha and Campos do Jordão, venues such as Vila JK in São Paulo, sports broadcasts on CazéTV and N Sports, and Atletico, where H2bet is described as the main sponsor in what the report calls the largest sponsorship deal in the history of Minas Gerais football.

H2bet has also been a key part of the brand’s mix. H2bet became the main sponsor of the Brazilian Poker Championship, described as the country’s main poker circuit, held in several stages through the year in different cities. The report says the group has been active in poker since its founding 20 years ago and has worked to grow the game into a mind sport and lifestyle.

H2’s footprint also includes physical poker clubs in São Paulo, Campinas and Curitiba, a strong digital presence, and a soon-to-open unit in Belo Horizonte.

According to PokerStrategy.com, Alex Theologis has released Practical ICM Mastery on Run It Once. The course is presented as a top-to-bottom blueprint for applying Independent Chip Model concepts across every stage of a poker tournament, with coverage of early and middle-stage play, bubbles, after the bubble, and final tables.

The training also digs into risk premium and post-flop ICM. Alongside the core material, the release includes a private Discord community and an ICM quiz to test understanding.

Live training sessions with Alex are set to start next month, and the launch price is 20% off.

The write-up also says Theologis has released a number of books on ICM. It describes him as known for ICM in extreme formats and as one of the greatest PKO players in the modern game, and says he was the first feature in GGPoker’s ongoing Online Poker Millionaires documentaries.

Recent strategy pieces have put the same tournament spots under the microscope. PokerCoaching.com says ICM pressure is essential at the money bubble and peaks as the final table approaches. It also says strategy should loosen a little in the early money after the bubble, then tighten hard near the final table, where protecting a stack can be worth real dollar EV even when it costs chip EV.

GTO Wizard’s shallow-stack examples show how sharply ICM can change ranges. In one bubble spot with 8 big blinds, a shove range fell from about 30% in ChipEV to 12% under ICM, with a risk premium of 18.9%. In another bubble example with 4 big blinds, the risk premium was 19.2%. The same article says final-table examples can look very different, with risk premiums as low as 8.3% for UTG with 8 big blinds and 1.6% for UTG1 with 13 big blinds.

Universal Poker offers a $1,000-guaranteed freeroll on PartyPoker for eligible players who sign up through Universal Poker. The tournament is completely free to enter, and the prize pool is paid entirely in tournament tickets rather than cash.

According to PokerNews, entry is limited to players whose PartyPoker accounts are tagged to Universal Poker. Registration is already open in the PartyPoker client, and eligible players can find the event in the tournament lobby by searching for “Universal” after clearing any other filters.

The client lists the event as “Universal $1,000 Freeroll.” To register, players need to click “Register for $0” and enter the password. The password will be shown to eligible players on Universal Poker shortly before the tournament begins, and anyone whose account is not tagged yet is directed to the Universal site to follow the steps and claim entry.

The freeroll starts with 50,000 chips and pays the top 27 finishers. The biggest prize is a $250 Anniversary Series Main Event Ticket, while second place gets $164 in tournament entries and third place gets a Sunday Party $109 Ticket. Prizes continue through 27th place and include Anniversary Series tickets, Sunday Party satellites, and Phase 2 tickets. Because every prize is issued as a ticket, none of them can be turned into cash or P$, and the tournament is set for Sunday, August 30 at 20:00 BST.

Pierre Neuville, the Belgian poker legend, died at 83 after a long battle with prostate cancer. Earlier in the month of his death, he said he wanted to "continue living as long as possible."

Neuville reached seventh place and earned $1,203,293, his first and only seven-figure score. He had sat down fourth in chips.

Card Player reported that Neuville bagged the lead after Day 5 with 7,105,000 chips, and that the tournament had been pared to 69 players by the end of Day 5. AP, via GoErie, later reported that he went out in seventh place after moving all-in against Joe McKeehen with ace-jack suited. The same report said the 2015 Main Event drew 6,420 entries before it reached the final seven.

PokerNews had previously described Neuville as the oldest player at that final table, at 72, and said he carried the nickname "The Serial Qualifier" after making 23 consecutive EPT Main Event qualifiers. He also finished runner-up in European Poker Tour Main Events in 2009 and 2012, and twice missed out on a WSOP bracelet with second-place finishes in the $5,000 six-max event in 2014 and the $1,500 six-max event in 2016.

Neuville was born on January 2, 1943, in Montigny-le-Tilleul, Belgium, discovered poker in 1957, and played regularly while studying at Universite Libre de Bruxelles from 1963 to 1969. After graduating, he designed a board game named after Eddy Merckx, built a toy company in 1969, sold it to Hasbro in 1982, spent the next decade as vice president, started a consulting service in 1993, and fully retired in 2008.

After retiring, Neuville pursued poker more seriously. In May 2025, he revealed that he had been diagnosed with late-stage prostate cancer, and PokerNews said his last public appearance in a live poker event came during the 2025 PokerStars Open Namur festival.