The Irish Open’s esteemed Ambassadors will be out in force to welcome players at this year’s extravaganza including Canadian Darren Chow who has been the driving force behind our “festival within a festival” for Deaf players.
Darren Chow
Darren will be hosting all this year’s events for Deaf players. As well as the Deaf Championship and €350 High Roller, the 2026 schedule also includes a €120 buy-in PLO Championship, €120 buy-in NLHE Championship and a €150 Mystery Bounty.
The Irish Open has been a pioneer when it comes to inclusivity for Deaf players, and this year’s schedule offers more tournaments for Deaf players than any other mainstream festival. Darren has been enthusiastically promoting the new events to a worldwide network of Deaf players and more than 140, from 30 different countries, have already registered.
Darren also hosted live satellites in his home city of Toronto and, thanks to that, three Deaf players will be making their Irish Open debut after winning $2,000 CAD packages.
He said: “I’m really pleased with how it’s gone. My goal is to exceed 150 participants this year and I’m pretty sure we’ll top that. We have such a great line-up of events coming up with the Main Event, a PLO tournament, NLH, Mystery Bounty and the High Roller.”
Chris Dowling
Chris Dowling was the very first Irish Poker Open Ambassador, appointed back in 2022. Chris is one of Ireland’s most successful live tournament players; he’s won close to $1.5 million in live poker tournaments and is currently ranked 13th on the Ireland all-time money list.
Chris is a self-confessed Irish Open super-fan and has played every Irish Open Main Event since 2009. His haul includes a stunning SEVEN Irish Open Main Event cashes including third place in 2017 for €75,000 and winning the Big O Championship last year. The Irish Open is way his favourite event of the year. In fact, he likes it so much that even though he lives fairly nearby in Kildare, he always stays close to the venue so he can enjoy the craic at the bar after each day’s poker ends.
Chris said: “There is no event like The Irish Open. You just can’t replicate the atmosphere. The craic is easily the best. Poker is a very big part of the Irish Open of course but there are so many other things going on in the Craic Den as well.”
Karen Muir
Dubliner Karen Muir is a well-known player in the Irish poker community as well as across Europe where she plays regularly in tournaments and cash games at major festivals. Karen has helped raise awareness of the Irish Poker Open both at home and overseas and is an enthusiastic promoter of the event to her wide network of female players.
Karen, who lives in Dublin and has been playing poker full-time for more than a decade, has a string of great results to her name including a runner-up finish in the Irish Poker Tour Final in 2023. She was also a founder member of Ireland’s team in the Match Poker Nations Cup – which Ireland, sponsored by the Irish Open, won the first time they ever played it in 2017. Overall, her live tournament winnings now total more than $80,000.
Karen will be hosting this year’s Ladies events and is delighted at the introduction of the new €1,150 High Roller tournament. She said: “I play quite a lot of £1k events as they tend to have smaller fields but higher prize pools. However, I know there are still not many ladies at all at this level and I really hope that having a dedicated Ladies High Roller will give women the confidence to enter these tournaments regularly.”
Team Roberts hosting Kings V Queens
One of the most exciting new tournaments on the schedule this year is the two-day Kings and Queens tourney starting on March 29. Designed as a true battle of the Kings and Queens, the tournament will pit female players against the men in a unique and highly competitive format that’s sure to become a festival favourite.
Lisa and Scott Roberts – widely known as Team Roberts – will be hosting Kings and Queens and are looking forward to playing out their own personal poker rivalry in the dedicated men v women tournament.
The Irish Open, which is celebrating its 46th anniversary this year, started up just two years before Team Roberts first got hitched. Scott and Lisa have already competed at the Irish Open twice and – so far – it’s Lisa who holds the lead in their personal “Irish Open league table”. Lisa, a former personal trainer, has won over €9,000 in Dublin across six different events while real estate investor Scott has won around €4,700. The pair both cashed in the 2024 JP Poker Masters but – at the Irish Open at least – that’s the only time that Team Roberts has gone deep in the same event.
Scott said: “Lisa and I both love the Irish Open, and we’re thrilled to be directly involved as hosts of the new Kings and Queens tournament. The format sounds like a blast, and we can’t wait to be part of it.”
