Along with all the usual fan favourites, next year’s Irish Open festival, which is taking place from March 26 to April 6 at the Royal Dublin Society in Ballsbridge, will see a whole load of brand new tournaments added to the schedule. The boosted line-up takes the overall number of events at the award-winning festival up to a staggering 86.
€2.5 million guaranteed Irish Open Main Event
The €1,150 buy-in Irish Open Main Event is back next year with another €2.5 million prize pool guarantee. Once again, headline sponsors PokerStars and Paddy Power will be offering hundreds of opportunities for players all over the world to qualify in online satellites. This year, more than 1,300 players won their way into the flagship tournament via online satellites.
€1 million guaranteed Luxon Pay Mystery Bounty
The €1,000,000 prize pool guarantee Luxon Pay Mystery Bounty tournament is once again the launch event, starting at noon on the first day of the festival. This year’s debut event, which attracted more than 1,200 players, instantly made headlines as the biggest Mystery Bounty ever held in Ireland.
€1 million guaranteed Mini Irish Open
The €1m guaranteed Mini Irish Open is having an extra Day 1 added to the schedule, providing a total of 14 start flights. The event gets underway on the first day at 6pm on March 26. The tournament attracted a staggering 6,411 entries this year creating a €1,343,938 prize pool – all for a €250 buy-in.
What’s new for 2026
Following the introduction of lots of new events at this year’s festival, next year’s schedule has gone stratospheric (!) and will see debuts for a whole host of new formats – many of which have never been played in Ireland before.
From Kings and Queens to the new Cuatro Knockouts, from Old Dogs and Young Pups to the Sviten Special, plus exciting formats such as Flip and Go, the Shoot-out Championship and the Triathlon Championship, next year’s schedule puts fun firmly in the limelight!
And that’s not all – the 2026 schedule also includes a “festival within a festival” for Deaf players, a new Mixed 8-Game Championship High Roller, a new Ladies High Roller, a new PLO Five Card tourney and the return of the popular APAT championship.
See below for a summary of new events … more detailed stories will be published over the coming weeks.
“Festival within a festival” for Deaf players
Following the success of this year’s inaugural Irish Open Deaf Championship, a whole load of new dedicated tournaments for Deaf players are being added next year. In addition to the two-day €200 buy-in NLHE Main Event, the 2026 schedule includes a €150 buy-in PLO Championship, a €350 High Roller and a €150 Mystery Bounty.
Kings and Queens
Kings and Queens will be a real “battle of the sexes” with equal numbers of men and women taking part – both on Day 1 and for Day 2. The Ladies’ flight will take place first and the number of female entrants will determine how many can enter the subsequent Men’s flight. It’s not a team event – just one with balanced numbers of male and female participants.
Old Dogs and Young Pups – the ultimate “battle of the ages” follows the same format as Kings and Queens: equal numbers of Old Dogs (players aged 50+) will be up against Young Pups ie players aged 30 or under.
Sviten Special
Sviten Special is a variant of “Drawmaha” – a unique split pot poker format that combines elements of both Five Card Omaha and Five Card Draw. Invented in Stockholm in the early 2000s, it’s an exciting game which merges community cards with draw mechanics, making it a favourite among mixed game fans. Check here for The Festival’s low-down on how to play.
Cuatro tourneys – The Cuatro is bounty with a twist; the two-day tourney kicks off as a non-bounty tournament but once the field reaches the final 25%, all remaining players are given a bounty token representing the full amount of the buy-in.
Flip and Go – we’re expecting such big turn-outs for the debut €100 Flip and Go events that we’ve penned in three of them for next year’s festival. Day 1 is pure luck with each entrant dealt a blind Omaha hand. All players who win their Flip are through to Day 2, an “invitational” €1k freezeout.
Shoot-out Championship: The Irish Open’s first Shoot-out Championship takes place on Friday April 3. Capped at 300, each €550 buy-in Round 1 will involve 30 ten-handed tables and play down to three players at each table. The surviving players go through to Round 2, and each table winner from that round goes through to the final table.
Triathlon Championship – the debut Irish Open Triathlon Championship will be one of the highlights of an action-packed final day. Starting at noon, the event kicks off with a full ring (nine- or ten-handed) tournament. Stage 2 is a six-max tournament and it then turns into a heads-up tourney for the final eight players.
APAT returns!
Next year sees a welcome return for the two-day €250 single re-entry APAT Championship which gets underway on Friday, March 27. At the last Irish Amateur Poker Championship in 2023, Romania’s Marian Dumitrache outlasted a field of 214 players to win €9,708.
Ladies High Roller Championship – the first ever Ladies High Roller event takes place next year – a two-day, single re-entry tournament featuring a €1,150 buy-in.
Mixed 8-Game Championship High Roller – another schedule debut next year will be the Mixed 8-Game Championship High Roller featuring a €1,150 buy-in and unlimited re-entries. Next year’s schedule also sees the return of the Big O, €350 Mixed 8-Game Championship, OFC and HORSE event. The Deuce to 7 tournament will now be Single Draw rather than Triple.
PLO 5 Card – a new PLO 5 Card tournament has been added to next year’s schedule along with several other new PLO tourneys. The huge line-up of PLO events next year includes the €120 PLO Deaf Championship, €3k Cuatro PLO High Roller, €1,150 PLO 7-Max, €1,150 PLO 8-Max, €1,150 PLO Mystery Bounty, €350 PLO 6-Max Championship and €550 PLO 6-Max, €550 PLO 4/5/6 and €3k PLO High Roller. How many will Javier Francort take down next year after his triple triumph at this year’s Irish Open?
Seniors Championship – Seniors can enjoy a more relaxed event next year as we’ve turned the €350 Championship into a two-day event. This year, there was a massive 434-entry field with Ireland’s Geoff McClay snagging the title, trophy and a €15,000 prize – his biggest ever cash.
Co-organiser JP McCann said: “We are always keen to keep things lively at the Irish Open so we are very excited about the new additions for next year’s festival. I know the new Kings and Queens tourney and the Old Dogs and Young Pups event are going to really capture people’s attention! Everyone is always debating who has the edge when it comes to gender or age – now we’re going to find out!”
Running from March 26 to April 6 at the Royal Dublin Society in Ballsbridge, the 12-day extravaganza will also feature a full roster of live entertainment in the bars and Craic Den Players’ Lounge – ensuring that everyone at this year’s event enjoys a superb time.
The Irish Poker Open is the longest-running No Limit Texas Hold’em poker tournament in Europe and continuously breaks its own records for the largest – and richest – poker event in Ireland. Run by Paul O’Reilly and JP McCann in collaboration with global poker sites PokerStars and Paddy Power, the Irish Poker Open has won several awards this year including Best Stand-Alone Festival at the Global Poker Awards in February and, most recently, the SiGMA award for Best Live Poker Event in September.
The 2025 Main Event was the richest poker tournament ever held in Ireland, with 4,562 entries generating a €4,447,950 prize pool – nearly €2 million more than the guarantee. The partnership with PokerStars, Paddy Power and the iPoker network enabled more than 1,300 players to win their way into the flagship tournament via online satellites.
