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Welshman Jonathan Rees Leads British Charge at PartyPoker Tour Castellón

12 Oct 2026

Samantha Doyle 12 Oct 2026

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Jonathan Rees won the €500 Main Event at PartyPoker Tour Castellón for €30,000, his career-best live cash.
British players excelled across events, with Oliver Hutchins taking the €150 PLO 7-Max and several making final tables.
Both the Main and Mini Main Events surpassed their guaranteed prize pools, highlighting strong participation.

British players had been visible throughout PartyPoker Tour Castellón. By the final night, one of them had the biggest trophy.

Jonathan Rees won the €500 Main Event for €30,000, while Barry Carter and Ian Simpson also reached the final table. Oliver Hutchins added a British win in the PLO 7-Max, and the Mini Main produced several more UK connections during a week in which both headline events beat their guarantees.

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Rees Wins Career-Best €30,000 in the Main Event

Rees arrived in Spain with three PartyPoker Tour Main Event cashes from three attempts this year. Castellón turned number four into something rather better.

The €500 event attracted 368 entries and generated €163,760, well above its €100,000 guarantee. Rees went into the final day fifth in chips, behind a Spanish top three led by Pau Veciana.

Jonathan Rees Wins 2026 PartyPoker Tour Castellon — Jonathan Rees Wins 2026 PartyPoker Tour Castellón Main Event

Three British players eventually reached the final table. Rees was joined by PartyPoker Tour’s Barry Carter and Ian Simpson, with Carter taking sixth for €6,500 and Simpson ninth for €3,000.

Rees’ key move against Simpson came when he called the Scot’s river shove holding a straight. That pot put the Welshman out in front, although Jose Maria Perez and Veciana still stood between him and the trophy.

Veciana was the last of them. Rees eventually won heads-up and collected €30,000, more than three times his previous best recorded live cash.

PartyPoker Tour Castellón Main Event Results

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1	Jonathan Rees	UK	€30,000
2	Pau Veciana	Spain	€20,000
3	Jose Maria Perez	Spain	€14,500
4	Juan Ocampo	Colombia	€11,000
5	Erico Iervasi	Italy	€8,500
6	Barry Carter	UK	€6,500
7	Matt Staples	Canada	€4,800
8	Dorian Dizy	Spain	€3,810
9	Ian Simpson	UK	€3,000

Hutchins Makes It Three PartyPoker Tour Trophies

Oliver Hutchins added another British victory earlier in the festival by taking down the €150 PLO 7-Max.

The tournament had 44 entries and €5,500 in the prize pool. Hutchins beat Siddharth Sudunagunta heads-up for €1,800, securing what PokerPro reported as his third PartyPoker Tour trophy.

Oliver Hutchins Wins 2026 PartyPoker Tour €150 PLO 7-Max

The rest of the final table had a strong British presence too. Sam Acheampong finished third, while Ian Simpson added sixth place before later reaching the Main Event final.

€150 PLO 7-Max Results

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1	Oliver Hutchins	UK	€1,800
2	Siddharth Sudunagunta	India	€1,200
3	Sam Acheampong	UK	€800
4	Juan Alberto Gomez	Spain	€600
5	Giovanni De Feo	Italy	€450
6	Ian Simpson	UK	€350
7	Francisco Javier Mendez	Spain	€300

Dinu’s London Poker Years Lead to a €16K Mini Main Win

The Mini Main champion was Romanian, but there was still a fair bit of Britain running through the tournament.

Marius-Laurentiu Dinu had spent several years playing cash poker in London before recently moving to Sevilla. He arrived in Castellón after a roughly two-year break from live tournament poker and left with €16,000 and the trophy.

Marius-Laurentiu Dinu Wins 2026 PartyPoker Tour Mini Main

The €150 tournament drew 727 entries, taking the prize pool to €90,875 from an original €50,000 guarantee.

Matt Staples finished fifth for €3,750, while Britain’s Kevin Brzozowski took sixth for €2,685. Other UK players including Joe Beevers and Philip Sheridan also made the money.

Mini Main Event Results

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1	Marius-Laurentiu Dinu	Romania	€16,000
2	Alberto Martinez	Spain	€11,000
3	Christian Martin	Spain	€7,500
4	Fabian Torres	Colombia	€5,500
5	Matt Staples	Canada	€3,750
6	Kevin Brzozowski	UK	€2,685
7	Andres Carbonell	Spain	€2,000
8	Konstantinos Vatseris	Greece	€1,500
9	Hugo Gotuzzo	Argentina	€1,200

Cork Comes Next Before the Tour Returns to London

Rees will not have to wait long for the chance to defend his new run of form.

The PartyPoker Tour heads to Macau Casino in Cork from November 9-15, using almost the same headline structure as Castellón: a €150 Mini Main with €50,000 guaranteed, followed by a €500 Main Event carrying €100,000. A €250 Mystery Bounty and €1,000 High Roller complete the main side schedule.

British players then get one final home stop in December. The PartyPoker Tour London Finale runs at Genting Casino Stratford from December 12-20. Its headline Main Event guarantee has been increased to £150,000, compared with £100,000 for the summer London stop won by fellow Welshman Daniel Smith.