The penultimate tournament day of the 2026 Irish Poker Open is underway and several winners will be crowned today. This also includes Event #74 €3,000 High Roller 8-Max which kicked off yesterday at the iconic Royal Dublin Society.
On the first tournament day, 93 entries were whittled down to 45 survivors and the top two stacks are within two big blinds including Stanislaw Grodek (267,000) and Andrew Mikhail (263,500). Seeking a second trophy is the winner of the 2026 Irish Open Shoot-Out Championship two days ago, as Brandon Harris made it through with a top ten stack worth 192,500 in chips. Right behind him are Maximilian Sanders (192,000), Pavlos Xanthopoulos (184,000) and Dean Lyall (162,000).
Top 10 Chip Counts After Day 1
| Rank | Player | Chip Count |
| 1 | Stanislaw Grodek | 267,000 |
| 2 | Andrew Mikhail | 263,500 |
| 3 | Cornelis Van Gent | 225,000 |
| 4 | Luciano Piaggesi | 193,000 |
| 5 | Brandon Harris | 192,500 |
| 6 | Maximilian Sanders | 192,000 |
| 7 | Pavlos Xanthopoulos | 184,000 |
| 8 | Max Burney | 174,500 |
| 9 | Josep Ruiz Mercade | 169,000 |
| 10 | Dean Lyall | 162,000 |
Two-time High Roller champion Roope Tarmi only needed one bullet this time and tripled his stack to 152,000 while the former EPT Main Event champion Padraig O’Neill is among the shorter stacks upon return on just 60,000.
That is only 10,000 chips more than the starting stack, which all last-minute additions to the field will receive at noon local time when they enter the fray. Expect some 15 to 20 hopefuls to jump in and boost the field to three digits.
The returning blinds will be 1,500-3,000 with a big blind ante of 3,000 for 16 big blinds to the Day 2 entries. All levels last 40 minutes each and shot clocks come into play for the final day, which may turn into a lengthy affair.
