Massive congrats to yesterday’s winners who will now see their faces shining out on our spectacular 20-metre-long LED wall.
Roderick Watson wins the Sviten Special
Texan finance whizz Roderick Watson scored his first cash in Europe when he took down yesterday’s €350 buy-in Sviten Special tournament. After roughly 16 hours, Watson – who is also a tennis coach (and seems to be wearing his tennis coaching outfit) – bested the 237-entry field to win €8,560, the coveted trophy, and the prestigious title.
This was the Irish Open’s first-ever Sviten Special tournament and it came tantalizingly close to beating the world record of 131 entries achieved during Friend of the Irish Open Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk’s Festival Series event Bratislava last November.
The Dublin edition created a €38,189 prize pool divvied up (eventually) by 17 players. The tournament attracted some prominent Sviten afficionados such as Riku Koivurinne (who won last year’s OFC Championship), Ireland’s #1 tournament player Andy Black, snappy South Jersey dresser Randy Hagen, last year’s 8-Game Champion Bill Mawer, Canada’s Stuart Kerridge, Ben Sweetman, Osman Mustanoglu, Thor Morstol, Zeik Tuit, PokerNews reporter Frank Visser, Jari Mahonen, Jamie Flynn, Lee Horton, Iwan Jones, and many more.
Anthony Wilcox wins first trophy in €120 NLH Deaf Championship
We thought last year’s rail for Irish Open champion Simon Wilson was good, but the rail around the final table for last night’s €120 NLH Deaf Championship came close to topping it for sheer limb-tastic fervour ! With 30-40 people cheering on their mates, the atmosphere was just superb as the event drew to its final conclusion. British player Anthony Wilcox took it down after beating Italian Giuseppe Berlingeri heads-up. Along with the €1,930 top prize, Wilcox also wins the prestigious Irish Open Deaf Champion’s title and his first trophy. There were 71 entries, creating a €6,887 prize pool with 11 players making the money – including Irish Open Ambassador Darren Chow who finished eighth, just ahead of last year’s Irish Open Deaf Championship victor Starny Hoang.
Meanwhile the final of the €200 Deaf Championship starts at noon today with just 33 players left from the 224 entries at the start. They’re competing for a share of a €33,938 prize pool. Sami Starck from Finland holds the chip lead on 448,000. Then, finally, at 2pm, it’s the Irish Open’s debut €120 Deaf Mystery Bounty tournament, wrapping up the schedule of dedicated events for Deaf competitors here at the 2026 Irish Open.
But that isn’t the end of Deaf participation! We expect to see a lot of Deaf players staying on at the RDS and competing in lots of the mainstream events as well. Plus the Craic Den will be RAMMED for tonight’s headliner – well-known UK Deaf comedian John Smith, who will be entertaining everyone who isn’t still battling over the felt in a tourney or cash game. For full details of all the entertainment planned for the Craic Den this year, click our schedule story.
Flutter Invitational : Delgado beats The Don
We also have it on good authority that Adrian Delgado, who is here looking after PokerStars qualifiers at the Irish Open, made a dangerous career move last night when he beat Dave “The Don” Curtis heads-up in the Flutter staff tournament. Dave is PokerStars Head of Marketing Engagement Communications and effectively PokerStars’ top dog here at the Irish Open festival. So Adrian, I just hope the €500 is worth it!!
Flutter is the parent company for the Irish Open’s headline sponsors PokerStars and Paddy Power and has an HQ here in Dublin so there is always a good turnout for the Flutter Invitational. There were 213 entries last night with team members from all over the world taking part. Other Flutter notables who cashed included third-placed Chris “Strag” Stragalis, Director of Online Poker Experience at PokerStars. Chris – always recognisable thanks to his trademark pork pie hat – has been working at PokerStars since the dawn of time but it was announced last night that he is finally going to retire. Chris LOVES playing poker so you can expect to see him at the tables a lot more in the future!
Also competing were Flutter CEO Kevin Harrington, Paddy Power head honcho Brian Warren, Willie Elliot who has been caring for qualifiers for decades, PokerStars CCO Mike Woodbridge, marketing manager Lucy Nolan, registrations manager Roberto Cruz and PokerStars Team Pro Nick Walsh.
Check out our live updates page for more info – just click the event title. And don’t forget you can also see all tourney results on the PS Live app.
Follow us on socials!!!! Instagram | X | YouTube | Facebook group
Registration made easy – download the Luxon app! Details are here.
Clocks going forward!!
Don’t forget that the clocks go forward tonight – be careful not to lose an hour and miss the start of your chosen tourney (or, worse still, miss the late reg deadline!!)
