It was nearly three years ago when Giuliano Bendinelli made history with an absolutely astonishing comeback to win the 2022 EPT Barcelona Main Event after he had dropped to a single big blind on the final table. During the final deal discussions, the Italian had thrown the very subtle brag that he doesn’t care about the money because his parents were very rich.
In comparison, the €52,300 in cash and bounty prizes he claimed on a very short-lived final day in Event #63 NLH Mystery Bounty were probably just pocket money, but a trophy is a trophy and the Irish Poker Open version is also quite fancy and easily fits in the hand luggage.
Of course, he had to secure the victory with another comeback story as well after overcoming Jack Moore in heads-up play out of a field of 441 entries. Only 15 players had returned to the final day and Bendinelli was the shortest stack on just over ten big blinds. He was actually at risk in the very first hand with pocket deuces against the pocket tens of Polle Westbroek and spiked the two-outer.
Soon after that, Bendinelli also doubled through Moore with king-queen versus ace-queen when he rivered a king and he entered the final table in the middle of the pack. Leading the way with the final nine was Jamie Dwan, who earned “all the bags” in these last two days.
Dwan and six other poker pros had brought a total of 140 tickets at €10 each for the traditional Irish Open lottery and sure enough, they won last night for more than €53,000 in cash – neatly placed inside of large bin bags. Fast forward to the final day of this event, Dwan returned as one of the larger stack and earned the first three eliminations but pulled only small bounties.
He then earned a fourth bounty and hit the €44,000 top bounty.
“I knew I was gonna either win the tournament or pull the top bounty,” Dwan said during a break later on when he was no longer the chip leader.
One of the things came true, but not both as Dwan bowed out in fourth place. With a total of €76,700 in cash and bounty prizes, he raked in the biggest piece of the pie.
Bendinelli’s rise to the top of the leaderboard came in a hand against Luke Marsh when he slow-played pocket aces and Marsh hit top pair and top kicker with ace-queen. That clash changed the dynamics entirely and Bendinelli remained the chip leader for every single hand thereafter.
Another final table story was Baris Topuz, who laddered his way to third place and a new top score. After three final tables recently in Cyprus, the student of Dara O’Kearney managed to triple and then double up as far shortest stack among the final trio – with his pocket eights cracking the pocket aces of Bendinelli. However, the wrath of the Italian was brutal as his queen-nine suited cracked pocket queens.
Baris Topuz
Heads-up play turned out to be a very brief affair as Bendinelli had a lot moore chips to begin with. The Italian was like a kid in a candy shop when all was done, quite understandably so because live poker doesn’t come with many opportunities after all to win a trophy. And he sure did, once again, on the final day of the 2025 Irish Poker Open at the Royal Dublin Society.
Final Table Result Event #63 NLH Mystery Bounty
1st. Giuliano Bendinelli (Italy) – €52,300
2nd. Jack Moore (United Kingdom) – €35,600
3rd. Baris Topuz (Turkey) – €30,600
4th. Jamie Dwan (United Kingdom) – €76,700
5th. Joseph Mullen (Ireland) – €14,700
6th. Luke Marsh (United Kingdom) – €29,700
7th. Pascal Vos (Netherlands) – €12,850
8th. Polle Westbroek (Netherlands) – €9,200
9th. Jose Luis Criado Ramon (Spain) – €14,000
