One player is running away with the Main Event final table at EPT Paris, but there will be plenty of poker left to play on Sunday when the final seven return to play for the €1,148,600 top prize.
Jorge Abreu is that lead dog and he's tuned up the field for 150 big blinds so far, which represents almost half of what is left among the last seven players.
The rest of the pack is led by Finnish grinder Casimir Seire, who will try to do something about Abreu when they return at 12:30pm local time for a televised final table. Let's meet the finalists:
Can anyone stop Abreu?
Jorge Abreu - 22,425,000 (150bb)
Jorge Abreu- Career earnings: $79,214
Portugal's Jorge Abreu has a relatively modest set of live results, instead piling up over 1,000 online cashes according to his Hendon Mob profile. The €179,350 guarantee for seventh place already sets a new high for Abreu, both live and online, where he had previously finished third in a $1,000 Six-hander on WSOP Online in 2020. Abreu's best live cash, a €9K run in the EPT Main Event in Barcelona, has been in the rear view mirror for some time.
Abreu returns with 150 big blinds and a chance to close out a life-changing win.
Casimir Seire - 6,400,000 (43bb)
Casimir Seire- Career earnings: $718,611
Finnish high roller Casimir Seire is Abreu's closest threat, but it's not really that close. Seire will return more than 100 big blinds behind the leader, but he has spent a lot of time at final tables in the last couple of years, so don't count him out. Seire can be seen throughout the world, where recent deep runs include EPT Cyprus, EPT Barcelona, Kings of Tallinn, and several tournaments throughout Finland.
Seire will beat his previous high score of $188K with the first pay jump.
Nazar Buhaiov - 5,025,000 (34bb)
Nazar Buhaiov- Career earnings: $1,671,509
Ukraine's Nazar Buhaiov is the most accomplished player at the final table and he's already grabbed a 2026 win for $87,041 at a high roller in Montenegro. Buhaiov's seven-figure resume dates back to late 2019 and comes across 78 live entries and is topped out by a run to 28th in last year's WSOP Main Event. His other big score, a $593K win in the online Millionaire Maker at WSOP Paradise in 2023, would be eclipsed with a runner-up finish.
Tomas Jozonis - 3,200,000 (21bb)
Tomas Jozonis- Career earnings: $3,846
Lithuania's Tomas Jozonis has exactly one entry on his Hendon Mob resume: a fourth-place finish for €2,919 in a €145 Freezeout in Vilnius in 2013. The list is definitely incomplete, as we know he finished fourth in the $2,500 Circuit Championship Mystery Bounty at WSOP Paradise for $140,000. We'll consider that his high score and consider it beaten by a minimum finish of seventh place.
Thierry Gogniat - 2,950,000 (20bb)
Thierry Gogniat- Career earnings: $576,673
It could have been a lot worse for local businessman Thierry Gogniat, but he turned on the jets at the end of the night and worked his way off the short stack to bag 20 big blinds for the last sprint. He was down to the felt with just 12 players left, but a hand nearly quadrupled his stack and kept him in play for Sunday's million-euro push.
Gogniat is no rank amateur, however, and he brings over $576K in lifetime winnings to the finale.
Enrico Coppola - 2,250,000 (15bb)
Enrico Coppola- Career earnings: $616,969
Italy's Enrico Coppola is still riding high and looking for revenge after a fourth-place finish at the EPT Main Event in Monte Carlo last year. That score was good for €337,900 and it was his best ever. Coppola is no stranger to success on the European Poker Tour, where he also had a final table finish at the high roller in Barcelona in 2024 and a deep run at the Monte Carlo Grand Final way back in 2016.
Felix Schneiders - 1,950,000 (13bb)
Felix Schneiders- Career earnings: $251,446
Popular European streamer Felix Schneiders has run deep in the EPT Malta Main Event and at the 2019 PCA, but the EPT final table has been out of his grasp until now. The German will return on the short stack and may need to make a move early on Sunday, but he's already locked in a new best of €179,350 for this effort.
All seven players will return with 14 hands left in Level 31 and blinds set at 100/150K/150K. They'll kick off play at 12:30pm and play to a winner on a livestreamed broadcast delay.
Images courtesy of Danny Maxwell/Rational Intellectual Holdings, Ltd.
