Main Event prizes reflect the status of this event as the biggest ever held in Ireland
The numbers are in, and they are staggering: a total of 4,562 entries in this year’s PokerStars and Paddy Power Poker-sponsored Irish Open Main Event make this the biggest poker tournament ever held in Ireland.
The guarantee of €2,500,000 seems modest in comparison to the €4,447,950 actual prize pool that will have been paid out when the winner collects his or her €600,000 in prize money on Easter Monday.
- Day 1a 463 entries, 114 players advanced
- Day 1b 688 entries, 179 players advanced
- Day 1c 1,012 entries, 278 players advanced
- Day 1d 1,841 entries, 562 players advanced
- Day 1e 544 entries, 260 players advanced
Currently leading the remaining 218 players with 3,815,000 chips is Michel Molenaar, followed by Michel Karim, Tyler Spaugh and Silviu-Teodor Tanase, the only other players to bag over three million. Other notables finding a Day 2 bag were 2013 Irish Open Main Event champion Ian Simpson (2,235,000), Katie Swift (1,100,000), Steve O’Dwyer (1,050,000), Marc MacDonnell (580,000) and PokerStars Ambassador Parker Talbot (835,000) – the only Ambassador to make Day 3.
Many of the other Ambassadors could therefore focus their full attention on the epic Lip Sync battle taking place as the final level ticked down. Yes, the GRND team, featuring captain Felix Schneiders, did take part as ‘The Craic Street Boys’ singing ‘I Want It That Way’ and yes, it has been captured on camera and video and will be published on the irishpokeropen.com gallery on Sunday.
The aim of the poker game on Saturday was, however, to reach the money, and 671 from a returning field of 1,393 players did so, collecting a minimum of €1,600. Even the bubble Christian Marek didn’t leave empty-handed, with the TD announcing that he was “the first contestant in the 2026 Main Event” as he was gifted a ticket for the next one to ease the pain of his cashless walk to the rail.
Among those making the money but not Day 3 were Vanessa Kade, Leo Worthington-Leese, PokerStars Ambassadors Fintan Hand, Caitlyn Comeskey and Lasse Jagd Lauritsen, prior Irish Open Main Event champions Griffin Benger, Weijie Zheng and David Docherty and this week’s Irish Open Deaf Championship winner Starny Hoang.
Day 3 commences at noon on Sunday, playing down to a final table of nine, which could take some time considering the monster day 3 field (that naturally follows a monster Day 2 field etc.). Follow live updates on PokerNews all the way through until the 2025 champion is crowned, with Main Event galleries on Flickr.
Live streaming continues from 12:30 local time on PokerStars TV and Twitch.
