News

Huge Fields and Career Bests: Europe’s Live Poker Winners This Week

24 Sep 2026

Samantha Doyle 24 Sep 2026

Share this article

Record participation and low buy-ins led to huge fields and top prizes.
Congya Zhang, Viorel Gavrila, Ian Simpson, and Terje Bengtsen secured breakthrough wins.
Excitement builds for upcoming high-stakes Main Events with large guarantees.

Low buy-ins produced huge fields, established pros added more trophies and several players recorded the largest cashes of their careers during a busy week on the European live circuit.

The action stretched from Cyprus to Rozvadov, with the Mediterranean Poker Party and King’s Million EPC both still running. Elsewhere, UKPL Manchester and The Festival Malta have already packed away the tables after crowning their latest Main Event champions.

Mediterranean Poker Party Produces Two Early Winners

The biggest completed event so far in Cyprus belongs to Congya Zhang.

Congya Zhang Wins Mediterranean Poker Party

Zhang won the $2,200 Global Poker Championship for $300,000, overcoming an 830-entry field playing for a guaranteed $2 million. She had started the final day well outside the chip lead before moving through the field and beating Sergei Petrushevskii in a heads-up contest lasting less than 20 minutes.

Boris Smuskevicius then followed with his own breakthrough in the $3,500 Merit Poker Cup. His victory over 418 entries earned him $217,000, easily surpassing his previous career-best live result of $39,800.

Winner	Event	Entries	Prize
Congya Zhang	Global Poker Championship	830	$300,000
Boris Smuskevicius	$3,500 Merit Poker Cup	418	$217,000

The festival’s $5,400 Main Event is now the tournament to follow, carrying a $5 million guarantee through the closing weekend.

Gavrila Takes First King’s Million EPC Trophy

The first major King’s Million EPC title went to Romania.

Viorel Gavrila Wins King’s Million EPC Mini Main Event

Viorel Gavrila topped a remarkable 4,389 entries in the €250 Mini Main Event at King’s Resort Rozvadov. The field filled out the tournament’s €1 million guarantee, with Gavrila taking €125,500 and the first Royal Scepter awarded during the new festival.

Place	Player	Prize
1	Viorel Gavrila	€125,500
2	Mystery Kid	€76,500
3	Maximilian Kuntz	€54,000
4	Silver1964	€39,500
5	Fishburger	€29,500

Gavrila had never previously recorded a six-figure live cash. He controlled much of the final day before eliminating the last four opponents himself.

Simpson Wins Two in Manchester

Ian Simpson’s week required two trips to the winner’s photo.

The 888poker ambassador won the UKPL Manchester High Roller and then followed it by beating 345 players in the Main Event, collecting £38,000 for the latter and more than £54,000 across the two trophies.

Event	Field	Prize
£1,100 High Roller	49	£16,620
£560 Main Event	345	£38,000

The Main Event final three also included Ali Mallu and Lewis Spencer, who earned £25,400 and £16,700 respectively.

Bengtsen Wins Malta’s Record Main Event

The Festival Malta closed with its largest Main Event field to date.

Terje Bengtsen came through 804 entries to take €65,001, defeating Sweden’s Mehdi Yazdanpanah heads-up after spending much of the final day chasing the longtime leader.