The €1,000,000 guaranteed Luxon Pay Mystery Bounty tournament is once again the launch event of the Irish Open festival, starting at noon on the very first day. Always good to get off to a cracking start!
The Luxon Pay Mystery Bounty made its debut this year and, right from the get-go, showed we were in for a massive festival. An incredible turnout of 1,222 entries for the €1,150 buy-in tourney meant the Luxon Pay Mystery Bounty instantly became the biggest tournament of its kind in Ireland’s history and way exceeded the €1m guarantee.
2026 marks the fifth year running that Luxon Pay has joined forces with the Irish Open and it’s already had a huge impact – both as the Irish Open’s Official Payment Partner and as sponsor for one of the most noteworthy and prestigious events on the festival schedule.
Back in 2023, Luxon Pay sponsored the €5k High Roller – memorably won by WCOOP record-breaker and eight-time WSOP bracelet winner Benny Glaser. In 2024, it was PokerStars Ambassador Parker “tonkaaaa” Talbot who made headlines in the Luxon Pay-sponsored event – securing his first live event title after navigating through a field of 111 entries to win €134,279.
For 2025, Luxon Pay threw its weight behind the new €1k Mystery Bounty. Austrian player Nils Pudel took it down for a first prize of €71,091 and another €14,460 in bounties. The prize pool totalled €1,191,450 including €595,725 for the bounties. Jorge Rios from Spain captured the enormous top bounty of €102,600.
Registration made easy
Luxon Pay makes it super convenient to buy into tournaments in advance and transfer funds for cash games. All you have to do is swan into the RDS just before the tourney start and pick up your seat assignment at the reg desk!
To create a Luxon Pay account click here.
Irish Open organiser Paul O’Reilly said: “The Irish Open was actually one of the very first major tournaments that Luxon Pay got involved back in 2022 and it’s been an excellent collaboration ever since. It really makes life super-convenient for players who can just rock up to the venue knowing that all the buying-in business has been sorted out in advance.
“We are delighted that Luxon Pay will again be sponsoring the €1 million guaranteed Mystery Bounty tournament which kicks off the festival. The debut event this year was a phenomenal success and we’re looking forward to seeing even bigger numbers next year.”
More Mystery Bounties on the schedule
If you’re a Mystery Bounty fan, there’s plenty on next year‘s schedule to whet your appetite. For starters, we have the new Cuatro tourneys – a bounty format with a twist where bounties only kick in once the field reaches the final 25%. There’s a €3k High Roller PLO edition starting March 27th and a NLHE High Roller edition on March 29. Full details in our Cuatro story here.
Other Mystery Bounties for 2026 include the €550 NLH Mystery Bounty on April 2, the two-day €1,150 PLO Mystery Bounty 8-max starting April 4 and the two-day €1,150 NLHE Mystery Bounty starting April 5. There is also a new Mystery Bounty tournament for the Deaf community – a €150 buy-in event taking place on March 28.
