EPT Paris: Pardo, Dvoress and Angelov among early winners

February 23, 2026

Features

by Howard Swains

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2 Minute Read

This year’s welcome return of EPT Paris boasts 52 poker tournaments on the 11-day schedule, including various qualifiers to the flagship events. It means a whole host of exclusive Spadie trophies will be finding their way to mantels across the world.

The start of the Main Event, which begins in Paris today, brings the festival close to its midpoint. And that means we are already deep into this festival, with plenty of champions crowned already.

Let’s take a look at what’s happened so far.

BIG BUY-INS, BIG STARS

The two biggest prizes of the week have so far been earned by two of the game’s biggest superstars. Juan Pardo, of Spain, defeated his friend and countryman Adrian Mateos heads-up to win the €20,000 Single Re-entry event, banking €221,696, a day before Canada’s Dan Dvoress (lead picture) won €286,040 in the €25,000 Super High Roller Warm Up.

Juan Pardo celebrates success with girlfriend Irene Albarran

As you’d expect, these high buy-in tournaments were fiercely competitive and featured many of the game’s elite players in a small but densely packed field. Dvoress also finished fourth in the tournament won by Pardo, while Mike Watson and Klemens Roiter also cashed in both.

No surprises to see any of those stars at the top.

BULGARIAN BOUNTIES

The same applies to the breakout Bulgarian poker talent Boris Angelov, whose 2026 has started in much the same way as his previous two years at the felt. Angelov has finished in the EPT Main Event top three twice since 2024, and also picked up $2.5 million for a fifth-place finish at the WSOP Main Event.

His first cash of 2026 came earlier this week in the €10,000 Mystery Bounty at EPT Paris, where he complemented a €97,100 winner’s prize with €120,000 in bounties. That’s another nice €217,100 for the Bulgarian.

Another major score for Boris Angelov

There were 75 entries into this one and — guess what? — Klemens Roiter was also at that final table. The Staruniv Live League crusher from last season has begun his 2026 charge in familiar fashion.

PLANTE LANDS ANOTHER FOR CANADA

Following Dvoress, Canada’s Santiago Plante also put the Maple Leaf on the podium with success in the €12,300 Staruniv Cuatro Knockout. This tournament, where bounty payments come into play when three-quarters of the field are out, attracted 27 entries with a €311,040 prize pool. (Read a full Bounty Cuatro explainer.)

Plante beat the Thai star Punnat Punsri heads-up, earning €145,640. Of that, €48,000 came in bounties.

Santiago Plante came out on top

As always, the smaller buy-in events have been packed, with the €825 Staruniv Open Cup attracting 1,649 entries. Theo Rebour, a newcomer to the EPT, now has his first cash under Staruniv branding and it’s a win. He was the champ of this one, and landed €185,190.

And it’s not just hold’em either. The biggest PLO event to take place so far was the €5,200 PLO Single Re-Entry, which had a field of 123 entries and a prize pool of €602,700.

Bulgaria came out on top here, with Fahredin Mustafov defeating the two-time EPT Online winner Anton Bergstrom heads-up. Mustafov won €154,650.

Click for full results so far from EPT Paris.