Finnish poker pro Tero Laurila was crowned Irish Open champion over four days of battle in April 2024 – overcoming a record-breaking field of 3,233 entries to earn a career-best score of €292,685.
Like most journeys in the poker world, it’s not been entirely smooth sailing for Laurila. The three-way deal to take one of Europe’s most prestigious titles marked the culmination of a poker comeback, after getting burnt in high-stakes cash games in 2009 and – perhaps – by his own ego.
I sat down with Laurila during a break in the 2025 €1,150 PLO 8-Max to discuss what life’s been like in his year as Irish Open champ, his journey to the title, and what makes Finland such a hotbed of poker.
It’s been a full year since your biggest triumph to date – what’s life been like as the 2024 Irish Open Champion?
“Thanks for inviting me. Life’s been really nice – of course, the money helps. In live poker you need money to play and to cover your expenses, so it’s helped a lot. I’ve been travelling lots, seven weeks in Asia at the start of 2025 – Singapore, Cambodia and Vietnam. I played a bit but more of a holiday.
It had been a rough year travelling so it was nice to be able to take a break. I was quite overwhelmed by the win – I needed to take a bit of time to process everything.”
You have racked up 20 cashes since then, including runner-up finishes in a €1k at EPT Barcelona and a PLO event in Tallin, along with a win at the Master Classics in Amsterdam – has the Irish Open win taken your self-belief to a new level?
“The victory really helped my confidence. I started playing online tournaments during the poker boom 20 years ago, and did well – no-one really knew what they were doing, including me. After that, I was a youngster who had too much money, so I wanted to be the next Patrik Antonius. Not partying, but I wanted to play the best at the highest stakes and I didn’t know what I was doing – I went broke, totally broke in 2009.
After that I had like 10 years out of poker, only playing small tournaments – trying to build my bankroll back – nothing to do with serious poker. Until 2019, just before Covid, I made a decision – I’ve been struggling with poker the last 10 years, I want to see what happens if I really apply myself.
From my perspective, Covid was good timing – it forced me to stay home, learn and play online poker. I played a lot of PLO, and in 2023 I decided to come back to tournaments.
I played a few and luckily won the 888 Main Event in Barcelona, and that was a big moment – I was thinking ‘Ok maybe I’m doing something right by instinct, even though I haven’t played many tournaments’. So, I thought I should play more, and then one year later the Irish Open happened – it’s hard to put into words what it means, it’s something I’ll always be very proud of. I’m just very happy I didn’t give up or quit poker.
I enjoy tournaments a lot more than cash games. I love the story of how it goes – you go to battle, do your best, someone wins – usually you don’t, but sometimes you do!”
What are your memories of the event last year, in particular the final table? Were you happy with the deal at the time? Do any key hands come to mind?
“Well to win with quad queens was nice! Of course, my 15-minutes-of-fame hand when I called down three streets heads-up with queen-high – that was definitely one of the key spots.
One hand there were two tables left, it was button against small blind versus Mark Johnston, who finished third – I got a five-bet through with tens. I would like to know what my pulse was when I pushed! After that, I was chip leading from Day 3.
The deal – in hindsight I wasn’t actually that happy with my own thought process. I had a decent bankroll after Barcelona, and don’t get me wrong I’m happy that I did it – but I don’t think I really thought about how life-changing the first-place money would be compared to the figure we agreed. I might not do it again, as finishing third compared to what we agreed wasn’t actually too different in terms of my life, but first-place probably was. But I don’t regret it – I regret how tired I was, and my thought process.
I had friends on my rail, but for some reason we didn’t really talk it through – I was so pumped and hyped, and after four days of poker I probably made the decision too quickly.
Do you feel any additional pressure coming back as the defending champion or is it just good memories?
“For me the only pressure is if I don’t make Day 2! That would be embarrassing – but otherwise no pressure, I understand poker variance, it is what it is. It’s definitely nice to come back here – people are recognising me, giving some attention, which of course, is always nice. Who doesn’t like it? It’s a special tournament, and pretty unique.
Why is Finland such a hotbed of poker, producing so many top-quality players? You are 44th in the all-time money list – how much would you like to climb that list?
“I would guess it’s because we have a very good education system. Also, Finnish people are not the wealthiest in Scandinavia, so we are hungry, maybe an underdog mentality – this is why the tops guys are so good, especially in PLO.
In terms of the rankings, it’s like you said – it’s going to end up how it’s going to end up. Those top five guys – Joni, Patrik – play such high stakes it will always be difficult to catch them. But of course, I keep an eye on who is just ahead of me and who I might overtake with a good year.
But definitely, Kimmo Kurko – he’s my best friend for the last 20 years, so I’d love to overtake him – right now, it’s only a $2,000,000 difference! But that’s my ambition, to overtake Kimmo at some point but maybe it’s impossible!
Who were your poker mentors or heroes coming up?
“Of course, coming from Finland we have Patrik Antonius, Juha Helppi, Ilari Sahamies – I wanted to emulate those guys at high-stakes PLO, but I couldn’t and I found out the hard way! But if I have to name one guy, it’s Kimmo Kurko – I wish I could be more like him, both on and off the table, everywhere!”
What’s next for you in the poker world?
“I’m not going to WSOP because of the tax situation with Finland. I plan to focus on Europe, a lot of EPTs, and just continue to push to do my best and see what happens.”
With that, the tournament director was giving players their two-minute warning to return to their seats, and I wished Laurila good luck as he headed off in the pursuit of more silverware.
Editor’s Note: Tero cashed four times at the 2025 Irish Open including the Mini, PLO 4/5/6 and the JP Poker Masters. In May 2025, he also cashed at the PokerStars Open in Namur.
