Monday wasn’t just a momentous day for our newest Main Event champion Narcis Nedelcu; we also crowned 10 other tournament winners on Monday. So hats off to the following:
Sami Agel wins the record-breaking Irish Open Mini!!!
Sami Agel has won the record-breaking Mini Irish Open after outlasting a gigantic field of 7,349 entries across 14 different starting flights. Agel secured his Day 2 seat on Sunday – one of the very last opportunities to compete in this epic event – and turned his €250 buy-in into a €150,855 first prize, a Mini record.
Agel is the Irish Open’s first ever champion from Luxembourg and has a great track record in tournaments all over Europe, especially Namur in nearby Belgium. He has accumulated more than €430,000 in live tournament winnings but his two biggest cashes have come at the Irish Open. In addition to his first six-figure score on Monday, he also made the final table of the Main Event in 2019, finishing fifth for €63,520.
The record field in the 2026 Mini generated a total prize pool of €1,532,634 shared out among 363 players. Agel beat Dave Penly heads-up to take the title and trophy, his first major tournament victory. Among those who went deep in the 2026 edition was Irish Open Ambassador Darren Chow, who spearheaded the hugely successful “festival within a festival” for Deaf players on the opening weekend of this year’s festival. Chow finished 14th in the Mini for a lifetime best cash of €8,180.
Among those who went deep in this year’s Mini was Romania’s Sergiu Covrig who won the 721-entry Spraggy Mystery Bounty for over €40,000 a few days earlier. Other notables in the long list of cashers were Kimmo Kurk and 2026 Irish Open Sviten Special champion Roderick Watson.
All 363 of those who made Day 2 also made the money with a min-cash worth €960. Read the live updates from the final day here.
Karen wins Irish Open Ladies High Roller
Irish Open Ambassador Karen Muir has secured her first Irish Open trophy taking down the €1,150 Ladies High Roller for €16,200 first prize.
Read the full story here.
Reardon thwarts Tarmi triple trophy bid, wins NLH Mystery Bounty
British stalwart Trevor Reardon has won the NLH Mystery Bounty after beating two-time 2026 Irish Open trophy winner Roope Tarmi heads-up. Reardon, who has more than $900k in live tournament winnings, is an Irish Open regular but his victory – winning him €40,450 including bounties – is by far his biggest score here in Dublin. Tarmi still walked away with the largest payout though, as he’d picked up €23,000 in bounties, pushing his total to €47,000.
There were a humongous 379 entries for the €1,150 tournament with 14 back for the final day. The overnight chip leader was Luis Sequeira from Argentina who ultimately finished third. Also on the final table were Pascal Vos, EPT Paris runner-up Felix “xflixx” Schneiders (who finished seventh), Team Jaka captain Michael Dwyer and EPT London champion Ian Hamilton. The total prize pool was €193,006.
Mo Xu wins €350 Triathlon Championship
It seems a bit cruel to schedule a Triathlon right at the end of a 12-day festival but 311 athletes took part, creating a €93,518 prize pool. Mo Xu took down the Irish Open’s very first Triathlon for €17,000 after beating Javier Bris heads-up.
The Triathlon began as a full ring tourney, then turned into a six-max and then a heads-up. Among those who got over the finish line were 2013 Irish Open champion Ian Simpson, Paddy Power Ambassador Dara O’Kearney, Andrew Hulme and Dominik Suthe, who finished in 29th place for €700, then jumped into the very last event of the 2026 Irish Open – a €250 NLH turbo – and won that for €15,790. Our Strava-obsessed reporter Christian Zetsche was there at the start of the Triathlon but handed the baton over to Dom Clementson an hour in; their live updates are here. There were 311 entries creating a €93,517 prize pool with 48 runners/swimmers/cyclists paid out.
Gunther wins €350 Seniors Championship
Canada’s Manfred Gunther won the final Seniors tournament on Monday, cashing for €20,700. It sealed a great week for Gunther who also finished eighth in the Hendon Mob Championship for €6,457 and tenth in a Flip and Go. Gunther also cashed three times at last year’s Irish Open plus scores in 2017 and 2018.
Senior players proved they still had just as much energy at the end of this year’s 12-day Irish Open as they did at the beginning. The €350 Seniors Championship kicked off on Sunday with 346 entries creating a €104,042 prize pool. The final table featured Thierry van den Berg, Mitch Jones and Gerard Mooney. Click here for the live updates.
Obbes wins final Flip & Go
Dutch player Siebe Obbes won the final Flip & Go tournament today after beating Britain’s Jamie Walden heads-up. There were 110 entries creating a €10,670 prize pool. Ace flippers overnight included Robbie Bull, who finished 6th and Hippodrome Ambassador Lydia Cugudda who finished 10th. Our early Flip champions were Jiang Pu (€6,550) and Tristan Ragnarsson (€3,160).
Imperatore wins €550 PLO 6-max
Valentin Imperatore was the last Omaha champion of the 2026 Irish Open, taking down the €550 PLO 6-Max tournament on the final day of the festival. He won €15,185 after defeating €5k PLO High Roller champion Balazs Somodi heads up. The victory earned the Frenchman a €15,185 first prize.
Albers wins €1,150 turbo NLH 8-max
Damian Albers had a busy festival – min-cashed the Mini, min-cashed the Main and then took down the €1k NLH 8-Max Turbo on the final day for €43,000. The first prize was by far the biggest cash that the German PokerStars qualifier has ever had; his previous recorded results – in Bratislava and Kyrenia – amounted to around $14,000.
He beat American player Jonathan Stoeber heads-up to secure the title, trophy and his record first prize. There were 201 entries creating a €204,718 prize pool with 31 players paid. Among those who cashed were Michael Malm, Jamie Flynn and Team Jaka captain Michael Dwyer.
Nigbolu wins first trophy in Liam Flood Memorial
Nigbolu wins first trophy in Liam Flood Memorial Turkey’s Cenk Nigbolu took down the €350 Liam Flood Memorial tournament on the last day of the 2026 Irish Open for €19,460.
Nigbolu, a member of Team Simplify in the festival’s Battle of the Coaches, is a very accomplished player with close to $950,000 in live tournament winnings. The win was by no means his biggest ever cash but it was, remarkably, his very first live tournament victory.
The Liam Flood Memorial drew 427 entries from 347 unique participants. Cenk Nigbolu, Matas Kacinskas, and Catalin Pop were the last three men standing and they decided to chop it.
Nigbolu eventually outlasted the two remaining opponents to capture his first trophy; he then, somewhat bravely, took it down to the Craic Den. Hopefully, he made it out of there with trophy intact.
Suthe wins €250 NLH Turbo
Dominik Suthe became one of the very last winners of the 2026 Irish Open after taking down the €250 NLH Turbo. Suthe battled Gerard Harraghy heads-up to snag the €15,790 top prize. The event drew a huge field of 378 entries creating a €78,831 prize pool with 56 players paid.
Irish Open Afterparty
We hope you’ve had an amazing time and we can’t wait for next year – or why not join us online at the Irish Open Afterparty on PokerStars? That series, featuring over $3 million in guaranteed prize pools, starts on Sunday. You can read all about it here.
Irish Open Internationals
And if you want to get tucked into a live Irish Open, you only need to wait until September. That’s when we’re heading Down Under for our first international stop in Sydney, Australia. After that, it’s Marrakech and then the USA in 2027. We look forward to seeing you at one (or all) of our forthcoming international destinations.
We already have five players through to Day 2 of Sydney including Irish Open Ambassador Chris Dowling who played the inaugural remote Day 1 at the RDS. More news on that to follow shortly. Full details on all the new international stops are here.
