Michael Breen Takes Down the PartyPoker Tour Manchester Main Event

Ireland’s Michael Breen helped himself to the largest live poker tournament score of his career after taking down the PartyPoker Tour Manchester Main Event at the Manchester235 Casino.

The £500 buy-in Main Event attracted 260 entrants, resulting in a £115,700 prize pool shared by the top 39 finishers. PartyPoker ambassadors Jaime and Matt Staples were among those who finished in the money place, busting in 24th and 22nd place, respectively.

Nobody at the nine-handed final table had a significant chip advantage, with most players sitting down with between 29 and 39 big blinds. Only two players had fewer than 20 big blinds, with Thales Salomao‘s 12 big blinds being the shortest stack.

PartyPoker Tour Manchester Main Event Final Table Chip Counts

Dean Perry was the first casualty at the final table. He min-raised with jack-ten, then four-bet shoved for 25 big blinds after Imran Primihamed had three-bet. Primihamed called with ace-queen, and an ace-high board sent Perry to the rail.

Brazilian businessman Thales Salomao crashed out in eighth after a clash with Calogero Morreale didn’t go to plan. Salomao ultimately found himself all-in with pocket jacks against his Italian opponent’s pocket queens. Morreale flopped a set, and although Salomao turned a straight draw, it was curtains for him.

Morreale then sent the dangerous Alex Montgomery to the showers. Montgomery, down to less than nine big blinds, three-bet shoved from the small blind with king-deuce after Morreale had opened the betting. Morreale called with pocket sevens, which held on a queen-high board.

Sixth place went to Spain’s Daniel Diaz despite having earlier doubled up after catching quad nines. Diaz, a PartyPoker Tour ambassador, was all-in preflop for around eight big blinds with ace-three of diamonds. Unfortunately for Diaz, Breen looked him up with the dominating ace-eight of hearts. Both players spiked an ace on the flop, but Breen’s eight-kicker played, and Diaz was done and dusted.

Primihamed bowed out less than five minutes later, his ace-ten proving no match for the ace-jack of clubs in Morreale’s hand.

That elimination left only four players in the running for the £22,000 top prize and the all-important winner’s trophy. Those four became three when Endrit Geci opened to 800,000 at the 50,000/100,000 level, leaving himself less than three big blinds behind. Andy “BowieEffect” Wilson called before setting Geci all-in on the nine-nine-six flop. Geci called with ace-king, Wilson showed pocket fours, and bricks on the turn and river busted Geci.

Morreale was the chip leader with 51 big blinds at the start of three-handed play, yet he was the one who fell in third. He can consider himself unfortunate with the way he crashed out. Morreale opened to three-times the big blind from the small blind before snap-calling off the 4,100,000 he had behind when Breen ripped in his stack.

Breen turned over pocket fours, and Morreale pocket aces; win this hand, and Morreale would be odds-on to win the Main Event. A four on the flop improved Breen to a set, and Morreale couldn’t find either of his two outs.

That hand gave Breen an 11,580,000 to 1,420,000 chip lead over Wilson, and it proved too large a gap for the talented Wilson to bridge. Each time Breen whittled down Wilson’s stack, Wilson managed to double up. However, on the first hand after a scheduled break, something final gave.

Wilson limped on the button with king-queen, Breen moved all-in with ace-jack, and Wilson called off his 10 big blind stack. An ace on the flop meant a fifth consecutive Wilson double was unlikely, with a brick on the turn making it impossible. Wilson finished second for £15,000, leaving Breen to collect the trophy, the title of champion, and a career-best £22,000.

PartyPoker Tour Manchester Main Event Final Table Results

Next up on the 2026 PartyPoker Tour is a trip to Genting Casino Stratford for PartyPoker Tour London. The festival runs from July 4-12, featuring a £500 buy-in Main Event with a £100,000 guaranteed prize pool.

Satellites are available right now online at PartyPoker.

Matthew Pitt hails from Leeds, West Yorkshire, in the United Kingdom, and has worked in the poker industry since 2008, and worked for PokerNews since 2010. In September 2010, he became the editor of PokerNews. Matthew stepped away from live reporting duties in 2015, and now concentrates on his role of Senior Editor for the PokerNews.