Thomas Eychenne Wins Barcelona High Roller
The French pro topped a 1,551-entry field, then finished off Virgile Turchi in a one-hand heads-up duel.
Thomas Eychenne added another big Barcelona score on Aug. 23, winning the PokerStars Open High Roller after topping a 1,551-entry field and beating fellow French player Virgile Turchi heads-up. Reports varied on the first-place payout, putting it at $688,200, $683,698, or €589,395.
TightPoker reported that Eychenne was in front once the event reached the nine-handed final table. He first cracked the final table by winning a key flip against Zdenek Zizka, then watched David Djian and Hak-Hyun Lee exit in eighth and seventh.
From there, Eychenne kept applying pressure. He eliminated Christian Kaufmann in fifth place and retook the chip lead from Turchi, then saw Marwan Walid Salamoun go out fourth and Lars Tungel fall in third. Different reports described his heads-up edge as better than 6:1 or 6.5:1, and the title was sealed on the first hand when Turchi moved all-in with ten-nine and ran into pocket queens.
The runner-up payout also differed by outlet, with figures of $433,200, $430,360, or €371,000. Card Player said the win gave Eychenne 1,620 Player of the Year points and lifted him to 3,027 total, leaving him within striking distance of the top 50 in the CoinPoker standings.
The result continued a strong run for Eychenne on the European circuit, coming about a year after his EPT Barcelona Main Event triumph. TightPoker said he later added more than $500,000 across two final-table runs in late 2025 and earlier this year, including the WSOP Europe Main Event and the EPT Monte Carlo High Roller, while Card Player noted that this was his first title and sixth final table of 2026. In the last year, one report said, Thomas Eychenne won over half of the $6.34 million in live tournament earnings he had amassed in his career.
