The €1,000,000 guaranteed Luxon Pay Mystery Bounty tournament is once again the launch event of the Irish Open festival and, yet again, set to be another record-breaker!
The tournament made its debut last year and, right from the get-go, showed we were in for a massive festival. An incredible turnout of 1,222 entries for the €1,150 buy-in event meant the Luxon Pay Mystery Bounty instantly became the biggest tournament of its kind in Ireland’s history, way exceeding the €1m guarantee.
2026 marks the fifth year running that Luxon Pay has joined forces with the Irish Open and it’s already had a huge impact – both as the Irish Open’s Official Payment Partner and as sponsor for one of the most noteworthy and prestigious events on the festival schedule.
Back in 2023, Luxon Pay sponsored the €5k High Roller – memorably won by WCOOP record-breaker Benny Glaser. In 2024, it was Parker “tonkaaaa” Talbot who made headlines in the Luxon Pay-sponsored event – securing his first live event title after navigating through a field of 111 entries to win €134,279.
Looking back to 2025
For 2025, Luxon Pay threw its weight behind the new €1,150 Mystery Bounty. Austrian player Nils Pudel took it down for €102,600 which included a sizeable haul in bounties. The prize pool totalled €1,191,450 including €595,725 for the bounties.
The star-studded final table included runner-up Nikolaos Konstas, Tobias Peters, Jannick Yobin, Florian Duta and Ben Miller. In amongst the other 178 players who made the money were Terrance Reid, Vikrum Mehta, Robbie Bull, Patrick Clarke, Kevin Killeen, 2013 Irish Open champion Ian Simpson, Canada’s Raph Verdugo and Steven Kehoe.
However, one of the biggest payouts of all went to Jorge Rios from Spain who captured the ENORMOUS top bounty of €102,600.
The 2026 Luxon Pay Mystery Bounty
This year’s Luxon Pay Mystery Bounty runs from March 26 to 31 and features four Day 1s. Players start with 50,000 chips and play 45-minute levels on Day 1A. Each flight permits a single re-entry.
The tournament is “Stack Choice” – if you bag up on multiple Day 1s, you can take your biggest stack through to Day 2. Approximately 15% of the field will get paid. All players in Day 2 will be in the mystery bounty part of the tournament with the prizes determined by the number of tournament entries and remaining players.
Luxon Pay €1,150 Main Event Raffle
Luxon Pay is also giving players tons of chances to win a €1,150 Main Event seat at the 2026 Irish Open. Buy into ANY tournament between Day 1 and Day 8 of the festival (March 26 to April 2) via your Luxon Pay account and every buy-in awards you one entry in the raffle.
There are four Main Event seats up for grabs across four different raffle draws, each covering a specific tournament buy-in “window”: Day 1-3 (for a Day 1a seat), Day 4-6 (for a Day 1b seat), Day 7 (for a Day 1c seat) and Day 8 (for a Day 1d or 1e seat).
Registration made easy
Luxon Pay is not only sponsoring one of the flagship tournaments of the 2026 festival, it is also providing a major convenience for players. As Official Payment Partner, Luxon Pay enables players to buy into tournaments in advance as well as transfer funds for cash games. All you have to do is swan into the RDS just before the tourney start and pick up your seat assignment at the reg desk!
European players can register for ALL of this year’s tournaments online – in advance – using their Luxon Pay account. For full details, see our Luxon Pay article. Registering for Irish Open tournaments couldn’t be easier: log into your account, click “Shop” and scroll down to “Irish Open tournaments”. Make sure you have enough dosh in your account for the chosen event, then click “Buy Now”. Boom – you’re in! Please note that you can also send money to the cage for cash games – just click Merchants on Luxon Pay and then “Irish Open chip transfers”. Winnings can be paid out as a combination of funds to your Luxon account and cash.
Re-entries
Luxon Pay also makes it easy to re-enter a tournament on the same day. Open your previous transaction and choose “send again” or go back to the tournament list and click on “re-enter”. You will then need to return to the registration desk for your new seat assignment.
To create a Luxon Pay account click here.
Irish Open organiser Paul O’Reilly said: “The Irish Open was actually one of the very first major tournaments that Luxon Pay got involved in back in 2022 and it’s been an excellent collaboration ever since. It really makes life super-convenient for players who can just rock up to the venue knowing that all the buying-in business has been sorted out in advance.
“We are delighted that Luxon Pay will again be sponsoring the €1 million guaranteed Mystery Bounty tournament which kicks off the festival. The debut event this year was a phenomenal success and we’re looking forward to seeing even bigger numbers next year.”
Nicola Veitch, Luxon Pay Poker Director, said: “We are pleased to be such a big part of the Irish Open again this year – a must-go stop in most poker players’ diaries. It is great that Luxon Pay can take away the stress of buy-ins and payouts for all users at the event.
“We are also giving €4,600 in added value for our users with a raffle to win one of four €1,150 Main Event seats. This is to thank the Irish Open and Luxon Pay users for helping us grow into the essential eWallet for poker players … and we look forward to welcoming new users at the event.”
For full details on all tournaments taking place at this year’s Irish Open, please see the 2026 schedule. The 2026 Irish Open festival is taking place from March 26 to April 6 at the Royal Dublin Society with 86 different tournaments including the €2.5million guaranteed Main Event and €1m guaranteed Mini Irish Open.
