It was a hugely exciting finish at PokerStars Open Cannes yesterday as three players vied to sneak past Iceland’s Steinn Thanh Du Karlsson for first place in the fiercely-contested, year-long PokerStars Live League Low Tier leaderboard.
At the start of the French festival, 2023 Irish Open champion David Docherty was lying in second place with Switzerland’s Andreas Froehli and Spanish player Soraya Estrada champing at the bit in third and fourth. The good-natured rivalry played out in real time on the tournament floor – and globally via Instagram – as the players made their last-minute push to secure the lead and €15,000 first prize.
At one point Docherty, who won the UKIPT Player of the Year leaderboard in 2023, was forced to multi-table two live events in a bid to snag vital points – with Karlsson filming him as he ran across the tournament room to his “other” table.
The top three – Karlsson, Froehli and Docherty – all won valuable League points at this year’s Irish Open with Froehli cashing in six different events. All three also posted on Instagram throughout Cannes detailing the ups and downs of their final Low Tier showdown: check out their stories at @steinndu, @andreasfroehli and @daviddoc87.
Karlsson’s epic Cannes Live League posts are below:
As PokerStars’ Willie Elliot pointed out: “The Low Tier actually came down to the very last tournament in Cannes and David Docherty was in the interesting spot that he could have finished 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th, depending on others results!”
Despite the nail-biting finish, Karlsson managed to hold on to his lead while Froehli overtook Docherty to finish in second place. Karlsson said: “The leaderboard was fun – a lot better than I expected since, at the beginning, I thought it would just be me and Froehli gunning for it. Then suddenly Docherty and Soraya crept up. If it wasn’t for all the rivalries, it would’ve been similar to just grinding it out alone but meeting the other leader boarders and then racing to the top was peak! Going into Cannes, all four of us had a chance to bink it!”
Karlsson, who has been indefatigable at eligible events this year (including fifth in the 2025 Irish Open Heads-up Championship), is already planning his trip to Dublin for next year’s 2026 Irish Open festival. He added: “The Irish Open is a solid fest in my opinion, with a jam-packed schedule.”
Docherty was one of the first to congratulate his leaderboard rivals on Instagram:
Kidney stones put the kibosh on Docherty
A final table in Campione was what kick-started Docherty’s drive to win this year’s League but he was hospitalised with kidney stones during PokerStars Open Namur in May and then had to miss EPT Barcelona altogether for surgery – major setbacks which may well have cost him a leaderboard victory.
Points were awarded throughout the season in three different tiers but the High Tier and Medium Tier were pretty much a lock before Cannes started. Congrats to Italian high-stakes crusher Enrico Camosci for winning the High Tier for €62,400 (commiserations to Irish Open multi-casher Klemens Roiter who was runner-up!) and congrats also to Spain’s Gerard Rubiralta who won the Medium Tier for €25,600; Irish Open High Roller champion Kenny Hallaert finished third, while Irish Open regulars Jon Kyte and Robbie Bull were fourth and fifth respectively.
Low Tier (tournaments with buy-ins of €/£/$999 or less)
1st: Steinn Karlsson – €15,000
2nd: Andreas Froehli – €4,000
3rd: David Docherty – €2,000
High Tier (tournaments with buy-ins of €/£/$5k or greater)
1st: Enrico Camosci – €62,400
2nd: Klemens Roiter – €21,200
3rd: Aleksejs Ponakovs – €10,600
Medium Tier (tournaments with buy-ins of €/£/$1k -€/£/$4,999)
1st: Gerard Rubiralta Cortes – €25,600
2nd: Petre Bogdan Ionescu – €6,600
3rd: Kenny Hallaert – €3,300
Besides these prizes, the top ten in each tier have the opportunity to apply to become a PokerStars Ambassador; the successful player will get a one-year contract valued at €100,000.
The award-winning Irish Open is the longest-running No Limit poker tournament in Europe and takes place at the RDS next year from March 26 to April 6. As well as the €2.5 million guaranteed €1,150 Main Event, next year’s schedule also includes the €1,000,000 guaranteed Mini Irish Open and the €1,000,000 guaranteed Luxon Pay Mystery Bounty which made its debut this year and instantly became the biggest Mystery Bounty ever held in Ireland. Satellites for the Main Event are running now on PokerStars and Paddy Power.
