Farbod Nazari: WPT Cyprus Champion and Iranian Tournament Player
POKER HALL OF FAME
Inducted 2014
Farbod Nazari is an Iranian tournament poker player who broke through on the international stage by winning the 2026 World Poker Tour Cyprus Championship. The victory earned him $368,900, his first WPT Championship title, and transformed what had been a relatively modest live tournament résumé into one highlighted by a major tour championship.
Official World Poker Tour coverage identifies the champion as Farbod Nazari. Hendon Mob, PokerNews, and some historical tournament records have used the spelling "Fabrod Nazari," an important distinction when researching his results across different poker databases.
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Who Is Farbod Nazari?
Nazari is a poker player from Iran whose recorded live results are concentrated primarily in No-Limit Hold'em tournaments.
Publicly available tournament databases document cashes dating back to at least 2019. Although relatively little verified biographical information about his life away from poker has been published, his tournament record shows appearances across European Poker Tour festivals, Merit Poker events, and the World Poker Tour.
His career changed significantly in August 2026 when he captured the WPT Cyprus Championship at Chamada Prestige Hotel & Casino.
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Farbod Nazari Wins the 2026 WPT Cyprus Championship
Nazari's biggest result came on August 24, 2026, when he won the $3,500 WPT Cyprus Championship.
The tournament attracted 520 entries and played for a $2 million guaranteed prize pool. Nazari earned $368,900 for first place, with the prize package including a $10,400 entry into the season-ending WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas.
The title also made Nazari a member of the WPT Champions Club and placed his name on the Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup.
His path to the championship began strongly. Nazari finished Day 1A as the chip leader with 342,000, equivalent to 228 big blinds at the end of the flight.
He continued navigating the field through the later stages and entered the six-player final day in the middle of the pack rather than as the chip leader.
Nazari eventually reached heads-up play against Chadi Rizk. On the final hand, Nazari raised from the big blind holding six-five of hearts and flopped a six-high straight on a 4-3-2 board. Rizk moved all in with king-five, and Nazari's straight held through the turn and river to secure the championship.
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Career Results Before the WPT Breakthrough
Nazari had recorded several international tournament results before his WPT victory.
One of his earliest documented wins came during the 2019 PokerStars EPT Open Sochi festival. Playing under the "Fabrod Nazari" spelling used in the official results, he won a ₽18,200 No-Limit Hold'em event for ₽865,900, worth roughly $13,000 at the time.
He later recorded multiple cashes during the 2023 EPT Cyprus festival. Those included a runner-up finish in a $2,100 Hyper Turbo Bounty Freezeout for a recorded $12,750 from the regular prize pool, before bounty payments, and a 26th-place result in a $2,200 Deep Stack event for $5,500.
Nazari added another significant European Poker Tour result in December 2025 when he finished 33rd in the €5,300 EPT Prague Main Event. The official payout was €19,300.
His tournament activity continued in 2026 before the WPT win. In January, he reached the money in the €1,650 Merit Poker Montenegro Championship Main Event, finishing 47th.
Those results established a record of international tournament participation, but none approached the scale of his Cyprus championship.
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Farbod Nazari's Live Tournament Earnings
Nazari's WPT Cyprus victory accounts for the majority of his recorded live tournament earnings.
As of October 19, 2026, The Hendon Mob lists $525,991 in recorded career live tournament earnings for Nazari. Hendon Mob also lists the $368,900 WPT Cyprus score as his largest live cash.
Poker databases do not always include exactly the same events or currency conversions, so published career totals can differ between services. CardPlayer, for example, currently displays a lower recorded earnings total because its results database contains fewer of Nazari's historical cashes.
For that reason, Hendon Mob's broader live-results database provides the most useful current estimate of his documented career tournament earnings. These are gross recorded tournament awards before buy-ins, fees and other expenses, rather than profit or net worth; his WPT title award includes the championship seat.
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Major Poker Accomplishments
2026 WPT Cyprus Championship winner
$368,900 career-best score at WPT Cyprus
One World Poker Tour Championship title
Member of the WPT Champions Club
2019 EPT Open Sochi No-Limit Hold'em event winner
Runner-up in a 2023 EPT Cyprus Hyper Turbo Bounty event
33rd in the 2025 EPT Prague Main Event
$525,991 in Hendon Mob-recorded live tournament earnings as of October 19, 2026
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What Kind of Poker Does Farbod Nazari Play?
Nazari's publicly documented tournament results are concentrated in No-Limit Hold'em.
His record includes standard Main Events, deep-stack tournaments, bounty formats, and faster structures such as hyper-turbo events. The available tournament history does not provide enough reliable evidence to characterize him with a broader label such as loose-aggressive, tight-aggressive, mathematical, or exploitative.
What can be established from the results is that Nazari has competed successfully across several different No-Limit Hold'em tournament structures and has produced deep runs against international fields.
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Why the WPT Cyprus Victory Matters
Winning a WPT Championship represents a substantial step in any tournament player's career.
For Nazari, the Cyprus title was particularly significant because the $368,900 payout was several times larger than his previous recorded career earnings. It also moved him from a player known primarily through scattered European festival results into the World Poker Tour's official list of championship winners.
The victory came against a field that included established tournament professionals and major-event champions, making the result the defining accomplishment of Nazari's career to date.
It also gave him an opportunity to compete on another major stage through the $10,400 WPT World Championship seat included in his first-place package.
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Farbod Nazari's Current Status
Nazari remains an active tournament player based on his 2026 results. The Hendon Mob records a 13th-place finish in the $5,400 Mediterranean Poker Party Main Event in September 2026 for $47,000, his second-largest recorded live result.
As of October 19, 2026, the World Poker Tour credits him with 1,100 points in its Season 2026 Player of the Year race. Those standings remain subject to change as additional WPT events are completed.
His WPT Cyprus title is currently his most important tournament achievement, while his qualification for the season-ending WPT World Championship gives him another opportunity to add to his career record before the end of 2026.
With a major WPT title now part of his résumé, future results will determine whether Cyprus becomes a singular breakthrough or the beginning of a longer run at the highest levels of international tournament poker.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Farbod Nazari?
Farbod Nazari is an Iranian tournament poker player best known for winning the 2026 WPT Cyprus Championship.
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How many WPT titles does Farbod Nazari have?
Nazari has one World Poker Tour Championship title as of September 8, 2026. He earned it by winning the 2026 WPT Cyprus Championship.
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How much did Farbod Nazari win at WPT Cyprus?
Nazari earned $368,900 for winning the 2026 WPT Cyprus Championship. The prize included a $10,400 seat into the season-ending WPT World Championship.
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How much has Farbod Nazari won in live poker tournaments?
As of October 19, 2026, The Hendon Mob lists Nazari with $525,991 in recorded live tournament earnings. Database totals can vary because different services track different results and currency conversions.
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What is Farbod Nazari's biggest poker win?
Nazari's largest recorded live tournament cash is the $368,900 he earned for winning the 2026 WPT Cyprus Championship.
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Why is Farbod Nazari sometimes listed as Fabrod Nazari?
Official World Poker Tour coverage uses the spelling Farbod Nazari, while Hendon Mob, PokerNews, and some older tournament records use "Fabrod Nazari." The records correspond to the same Iranian tournament player based on the matching tournament history and WPT Cyprus result.
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Is Farbod Nazari still active in poker?
Yes. Nazari recorded tournament results throughout 2026 and won the WPT Cyprus Championship in August. As of October 19, 2026, the WPT credits him with 1,100 Season 2026 Player of the Year points.