If you’re planning to play this year’s Irish Open Heads-Up tournament, then don’t leave it too late before you register. This event is capped at 64 players and almost always sells out! The easiest way to register is with our Official Payment Partner Luxon Pay.
The Heads-Up tourney is a stalwart on the Irish Open schedule and involves six rounds in total. Round 1 gets underway this year on Tuesday, April 4 at 2pm. In heads-up play, you’re in action every single hand so playing well requires a quite different strategy to playing a normal tournament. Luckily our headline sponsor PokerStars has lots of strategy tips on how best to tackle heads-up play so do check out their guidance.
This year’s €350 buy-in tournament features a 20-minute clock and a total starting stack of 15,000 chips. Your stack can be taken in three 5k increments – the equivalent of three bullets. There is – hardly surprisingly – no late reg!
At last year’s Irish Open Heads-Up event, French player Anthony Blaineau took it down for €5,640 after beating the 64-strong field. It was Blaineau’s first ever cash in a live Heads-Up tournament and it only took him 25 minutes to vanquish British player William McMurray in the final heads-up round. Blaineau was delighted to win the event which came exactly ten years after he competed at his very first live tournament at the Irish Open in 2012. McMurray snagged €5k for his runner-up finish with the final eight all making the money.
Other champions include Canadian Nicola Basile who took the event down in 2018 and Sweden’s Lars Viggander who won the smaller 32-player event in 2017.
How to register for 2023 Heads-Up tournament
1. Sign up to Luxon Pay at luxonpay.com and verify your account.
2. Fund your Luxon Pay account using your preferred deposit method.
3. Select ‘Shop’ from your Luxon Pay wallet, and then select ‘Irish Poker Open’. You will then see a list of all Irish Poker Open tournaments. Click on your desired tournament & buy-in.
4. Your buy-in is complete; simply visit the Irish Poker Open registration desk to receive your entry upon arrival.
We highly recommend using Luxon Pay, but if you really don’t want to, then please message us directly via the website contact form.
