The 2025 Irish Open has crowned a winner in Event #33 €350 Heads-Up Championship, which sold out a field of 128 entries to generate a prize pool of €38,688 at the Royal Dublin Society. After the conclusion of the final three heads-up rounds, Eriks Krumins defeated Cameron Dhaliwal in the last duel to claim the top prize of €10,000.
It was the second Irish Open trophy in as many years for the Latvian as he took down the €550 JP Masters in 2024 after coming out on top of an 566-entry field. The top prize of €51,675 back then is his largest live poker score to date and he will certainly have very fond memories for live poker in Ireland.
While this was Krumins’ first live heads-up event, he does have plenty of experience from online poker at his disposal. In yesterday’s money round, Krumins defeated Mark Roovers before also sending Timothy Francis to the rail and punch his ticket for the final day.
For runner-up Dhaliwal, the €5,888 consolation prize was the largest score in live poker but he is usually involved in the marketing department and content creation instead.
Results of the Final Day:
1st. Eriks Krumins (Latvia) – €10,000
2nd. Cameron Dhaliwal (United Kingdom) – €5,888
3rd. Alexandru Ersen-Baciu (Romania) – €3,400
4th. Isaac Barker (United Kingdom) – €3,400
5th. Steinn Karlsson (Iceland) – €2,000
6th. Sachin Joshi (United Kingdom) – €2,000
7th. Tomas Flanagan (Ireland) – €2,000
8th. Jonas Witdoek (Belgium) – €2,000
The tournament reached the money stages in the fourth round yesterday evening with the likes of Daniel Wilson, Wouter Beltz, James Turner and Istvan Szakacs earning the min-cash of €1,000. Only 16 players returned for the final day, all in the hopes of winning another three heads-up duels to claim the trophy.
Heads-Up Championship Quarterfinals Results:
- Isaac Barker defeated Jonas Witdoek
- Alexandru Ersen-Baciu defeated Tomas Flanagan
- Cameron Dhaliwal defeated Sachin Joshi
- Eriks Krumins defeated Steinn Karlsson
Isaac Barker from Stoke-on-Trent has been visiting the Irish Open for the first time and was the first one to advance after slightly more than one level. Two hours later, Krumins was the last player to advance to the semifinals after overcoming Steinn Karlsson in a topsy-turvy affair in which both players were at risk multiple times.
Dhaliwal had a tough mission to beat Sachin Joshi after losing most of his stack in a four-bet pot. However, he pulled multiple rabbits out of his hat and then turned the nut straight to seal his victory.
Heads-Up Championship Semifinals Results:
- Eriks Krumins defeated Isaac Barker
- Cameron Dhaliwal defeated Alexandru Ersen-Baciu
While Barker’s earlier rounds finished rather swiftly in his favour, the exact opposite happened in the duel with Krumins when the Latvian pulled ahead quickly and closed out the victory inside of three levels.
Soon after, the other semifinal was over as well. Alexandru Ersen-Baciu bowed out in the penultimate stage one year ago and the self-proclaimed “very lucky player” was knocked out by Dhaliwal in an action-packed matchup. Both players came out swinging with many three-bet and several four-bet pots. When the stack sizes were nearly dead even, Dhaliwal landed the sucker punch when his four-bet shove with ace-five got there against ace-jack.
The duration of the final between Dhaliwal and Krumins was pretty much spot on the same just shy of an hour. After taking an early lead, Dhaliwal dropped to a major chip disadvantage and never recovered from that. Krumins decimated his opponent to fewer than thirty blinds and then limped pocket nines before calling the shove of Dhaliwal, who had ace-deuce.
In the round of the last eight, Dhaliwal’s ace-deuce had cracked Joshi’s pocket jacks but the fortune ran out in the final and Krumins earned his second Irish Open trophy.
