On the final day of the 2026 Irish Poker Open, several trophies were set to be awarded and among the first to claim victory at the Royal Dublin Society was none other than Irish Open ambassador Karen Muir. Widely regarded as one of the most successful Irish female players, she came out on top of a hard-fought heads-up duel with Tara Schwartz in Event #78 Ladies High Roller Championship.
The tournament had attracted a field of 49 entries for the €1,150 buy-in to generate a prize pool of €49,907 and the top seven spots were paid. Nine hopefuls bagged up chips last night and returned at noon for the final day to determine a champion. When the final hand concluded with a hero-call holding the third pair on the river, Muir secured the top prize of €16,200 which is the second-largest of her live poker career.
Final Table Result
1st Place: Karen Muir – €16,200
2nd Place: Tara Schwartz – €10,750
3rd Place: Veronika Hulalova – €7,255
4th Place: Amy Leonard – €5,500
5th Place: Kristy Becker – €4,250
6th Place: Angela Rogan – €3,350
7th Place: Amber Sullivan – €2,600
Muir certainly proved her resilience on the final table after she was the shortest stack for extended periods while Marle Spragg went from second in chips to last contender without a cash prize against Muir when her pocket sevens for fewer than four big blinds were pipped by pocket eights.
Amber Sullivan was the first casualty in the money before Muir doubled her short stack with ace-seven against the pocket queens of Veronika Hulalova. The only other local contender Angela Rogan was not as fortunate and couldn’t get there with ace-nine suited against Schwartz’s pocket kings.
Muir grinded her way into the lead through several smaller and medium-sized pots before two larger clashes reduced the field to the final three hopefuls. Kristy Becker three-bet jammed with ace-jack and was called by Schwartz with pocket queens to hold up. Amy Leonard then ran with pocket nines into the pocket queens of Muir before the final trio went on another short break.
In the very first hand back in their seats, Hulalova jammed with ace-queen from the small blind and Muir called with ace-nine in the big blind. The inferior kicker connected with the turn and Muir took a nearly two-to-one lead into heads-up play.
Both Muir and Schwartz had spent nearly the entire Day 1 on the same table and their chatter back and forth was very amicable, they even considered their respective playing style to be very similar. The lead changed for the first time in rather dramatic fashion when Schwartz hit a straight flush but “fucked up the shove” as she only over-bet the pot instead.
Eventually, the heads-up turned into a tense affair of more than one and a half hours during which Muir recovered from only nine big blinds and doubled back into the lead with ace-queen versus ace-trey suited, fading the weaker kicker and hearts. Eventually, Muir correctly called a river shove with third pair and Schwartz showed her missed open-ended straight draw.
This wraps up the coverage of the Ladies High Roller Championship but several other tournaments will still be playing down to a winner tonight.
