The final-table context
The 2026 EPT Barcelona Main Event drew 1,823 entries. Ferrari started the final day with 16.1 million chips, about 81 big blinds, and eventually won €1,002,488. Lukas van Eeden finished second for €927,420 and Jose Criado third for €910,642. Those unusual-looking payouts reflect a three-handed deal: Ferrari locked up €902,243, with €100,245 reserved for the eventual champion. The deal happened after the hand below, not before it.
Ferrari's performance changed gears. He applied pressure in a deep three-handed phase, later reached heads-up with 83 big blinds to Van Eeden's 53, then closed the match as Van Eeden dropped under 20 blinds. That arc is a better description of his win than attributing it to one bluff or one final flip.
A-2 against J-3: five bets before the flop
REPORTED HAND / VISUAL REPLAY
Five bets, no flop
Community cards
No flop was dealt. The hand ended preflop.
- 01LimpFerrari completed from the small blind.
- 02RaiseCriado raised from the big blind.
- 033-bet / 4-betFerrari reraised; Criado raised again.
- 045-bet / foldFerrari five-bet; Criado folded.
PokerStars describes the exchange as a blind-versus-blind battle, but does not list the bet sizes or effective stack at the start of the hand. That omission matters. A five-bet can be a small raise or an all-in, and those create very different risk/reward calculations.
What A-2 can represent—and what it cannot
A♦ 2♥ is not a conventional five-bet value hand. The ace removes some combinations of the strongest ace-containing hands from Criado's possible holdings, which can make it a candidate for a bluff in some preflop constructions. Ferrari also acted last in the escalation: a limp can conceal strong hands as well as weak ones, so a blind defender cannot automatically assume the small blind is capped.
Three-handed tournament incentives complicate the picture. A player who folds preserves chips and payout equity; a player who four-bets too freely may face a costly five-bet. Yet “ICM pressure” is not a magic explanation. Ferrari risked chips too, and neither exact payout incentives nor the missing sizes can be reconstructed from a short recap. The defensible conclusion is narrower: his line put enough pressure on Criado's J-3 to win this pot preflop. It does not prove that five-betting A-2 is universally profitable.
After other hands moved the stacks close together, the three finalists agreed to the deal. Keep that chronology straight: Ferrari's five-bet was part of the competitive phase, but the report does not show that it caused the deal.
The final all-in
Later, Van Eeden shoved K♠ 6♦ for fewer than 20 big blinds and Ferrari called with A♦ Q♥. The reported flop included both an ace and a six; the turn was Q♣ and the river 7♦, giving Ferrari the title. PokerStars does not supply the third flop card in its narrative, so a complete five-card board or precise all-in equity would be invented. Here the reliable takeaway is simpler: Ferrari had the stronger starting hand, and the turn further improved it.
How to study the hand honestly
For a completed-hand review of the A-2 confrontation, record the three players' chip counts, remaining payouts, each preflop size, and who covered whom. Then compare limp/raise and five-bet ranges at that exact depth. With only the public narrative, use the hand as a question about blockers and tournament leverage—not as a memorized five-bet chart.