Roman Stoica Wins EPT Monte Carlo Main Event For €825,000

Roman Stoica won the 2026 PokerStars European Poker Tour Monte Carlo €5,300 no-limit hold’em main event after beating Bernhard Binder heads-up at Sporting Monte-Carlo. The event drew 1,011 entries, the sixth-largest field in tournament history, and Stoica earned €825,000, or about $965,250.

Good to Know

• Roman Stoica beat a 1,011-entry EPT Monte Carlo main event field.
• The total prize pool reached about $5.74 million.
• Bernhard Binder finished second for $602,550 after starting the final day as chip leader.

Stoica Lands His Biggest Poker Payday

Stoica, a 31-year-old player from St. Petersburg, now has close to $1.6 million in live tournament cashes. His Monte Carlo win beat his previous top score, a $431,367 payout from a €3,250 mystery bounty event at the 2025 EPT Barcelona festival.

The win also gave Stoica one of the main titles on the European poker calendar. After the final hand, he told PokerStars staff:

“I’m very happy that I’ve become an EPT champion. This is the dream of every poker player,”

He added:

“I’m feeling great… I just won €825,000, so how else can I feel!”

The 18th running of EPT Monte Carlo paid 151 players from a prize pool of $5,736,920. Several known names cashed, including Juha Helppi, Derk van Luijk, Joao Vieira, Benjamin Pollak, Benny Glaser, Dimitar Danchev, Thomas Eychenne, Boris Kolev, Mehdi Chaoui, Ognyan Dimov, Jason Wheeler, and Leonard Maue.

Binder entered the last day in front. The Austrian had already won the 2025 World Series of Poker Paradise super main event in December and the 2026 Triton Jeju $125,000 high roller in March, so another major result added to a fast run at the top level.

At the final table, Oshri Lahmani went out first, followed by Raul Mestre and Longmao Fan. Stoica then won key all-in spots against Jose Malpelli and later took control against David Djian, who finished third after calling off on a river where Stoica had made a flush. Samuel Ju placed fourth after Binder hit Broadway on the river.

Heads-up play started with Stoica holding about a 3-to-1 chip lead. Binder found a pair on the final board, but Stoica had flopped trips with 75 on 774. Binder called the river shove with queens and sevens, and Stoica locked up the EPT Monte Carlo main event title.

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