When it comes to live poker in Europe and televised cash games in the UK, the name John Kabbaj certainly rings a bell because he has been around for more than two decades. His first live poker cash according to The Hendon Mob dates all the way back to September 1995 and he has since accumulated more than $3.2 million in reported tournament cashes.
Kabbaj also has two WSOP gold bracelets to his name in Pot-Limit Hold’em and Omaha / Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo, so he certainly knows a thing or two about the various mixed games. And that kind of experience came in handy for the final day of Event #42 Mixed 8-Game Championship High Roller at the 2026 Irish Poker Open. With a price tag of €1,150, the tournament at the Royal Dublin Society drew a field of 70 entries and generated a prize pool of €71,295 of which the top 11 spots were paid.
Only seven players returned for the final day at noon local time and it took just over three hours to determine a champion.
“The last hour was just all me, I had monster hands,” Kabbaj told runner-up Benjamin Sweetman after it was all over and the final hand was a prime example of just that. With Sweetman capping it to five bets preflop in Limit Hold’em, Kabbaj came along and flopped a set of jacks to leave the eights of Sweetman all but out of the door.
Kabbaj also knocked out Joshua Chudnovsky and Nicholas Mingoia in the same hand in Seven Card Stud prior to that when his split kings were enough to dispatch both.
There were two other big names on the final table in Romania’s Narcis Nedelcu and Jan Bendik from Slovakia. The latter was the 2016 EPT Monte-Carlo Grand Final Main Event champion whereas Nedelcu won his maiden WSOP gold bracelet last year in Event #73 Eight Game Mix 6-Handed. Both experienced heavy swings on the short-lived final day but came up short of victory.
The first to go was Darren Taylor, who had a somewhat unusual situation for the noon restart. Taylor had also reached the quarter finals of the Heads-Up Championship, which was fortunately played right next to this final table. Taylor opted to blind out in the 8-Game first and won a flip with pocket tens versus ace-king to reach the semi finals.
Upon returning to his seat with half the chips he had bagged up last night, he lost a flip with ace-jack against the pocket sixes of Sweetman and became the first casualty. Sweetman himself was the last casualty and he was denied a second trophy during the ongoing festival after he took down a 2-7 Triple Draw Event earlier on.
Final Table Result:
1st Place: John Kabbaj – €19,850
2nd Place: Benjamin Sweetman – €13,000
3rd Place: Joshua Chudnovsky – €9,300
4th Place: Nicholas Mingoia – €7,100
5th Place: Narcis Nedelcu – €5,500
6th Place: Jan Bendik – €4,420
7th Place: Darren Taylor – €3,500
