Complete guide to Irish Open 2024

The 2024 Irish Open will be taking place March 25 to April 1 at the Royal Dublin Society (RDS) in Merrion Road, Ballsbridge.

The €500,000 guaranteed Mini Irish Open, which has nine starting flights, starts on Monday, March 25. The €1 million guaranteed Main Event starts on Wednesday, March 27.

  • All scheduled tournaments will take place in the Main Hall (Hall 1).
  • Cash games now have their own dedicated area (Hall 3) – with 50 tables, running 24/7 and its own bar/coffee station.
  • The entertainment area – named The Craic Den – is in Hall 6.
  • Jokers Bar is just off Hall 3.

All halls will be open from noon on March 25.

THE MAIN HALL

All poker tournaments will take place in the spectacular Main Hall. There are 130 poker tables – including the feature table – along with the REGISTRATION desk, CASH DESK, and THE CUBE which is the tournament staff “control tower”. The RDS Main Hall is a massive room measuring more than 3,500m² with floor-to-ceiling stone walls and a wrought iron balcony overlooking the ground floor. There will also be a coffee station, sandwich bar and drinks bar inside the Main Hall.

WHERE TO EAT AND DRINK

Jokers Bar is located just outside the Main Hall near the cash game area (Hall 3). The Cash Game Area will also have its own bar plus a tea/coffee/food truck.

At the front of the venue, there will be three food trucks. Two of these will change every few days to ensure there are loads of food choices for both players and staff.

HOW TO REGISTER

The easiest way to register for all the Irish Open tournaments is ONLINE. If you register online, then all you need to do when you arrive at the RDS is pick up your seat assignment from the REGISTRATION desk.

DOWNLOAD POKERLENS

The Irish Open is introducing the brand new players’ app PokerLens for this year’s festival – for both tournaments and cash games. All players will be required to download PokerLens as part of their registration process for the first tournament/cash game they join. PokerLens enables you to set up a profile in advance which is then linked to the long-established registration system KHold’em. All you have to do when you arrive at the event is show your unique profile QR code to get registered. PokerLens aims to massively reduce waiting times at reg desks and help cash game players find a table – playing the variant and stakes they want – without having to queue.

Irish Open players are strongly advised to download the PokerLens app well in advance and set up their profile. For Apple iOS, click here; for Google Play/Android, click here. For full instructions on how to use PokerLens for the Irish Open, see our dedicated PokerLens page.

LUXON PAY
The Official Payment Provider is LUXON PAY. You can register for ALL of this year’s tournaments online – in advance – using your Luxon Pay account. For full details, see our Luxon Pay article. Registering for Irish Open tournaments couldn’t be easier: log into your account, click “Shop” and scroll down to “Irish Open tournaments”. Make sure you have enough dosh in your account for the chosen event, then click “Buy Now”. Boom – you’re in! Please note that you can also send money to the cage for cash games – just click the link on Luxon Pay saying “Irish Open chip transfers”. Winnings can be paid out as a combination of funds to your Luxon account and cash.

Luxon Pay raffle
A bonus for Luxon Pay users is entry into the daily €100 Luxon Pay Raffle. All players who buy into tournaments in advance on Luxon Pay will be entered into the raffle with a winner selected nightly to win a €100 Luxon Credit.

Re-entries
Luxon Pay makes it easy to re-enter a tournament on the same day. Open your previous transaction and choose “send again” or go back to the tournament list and click on “re-enter”. You will then need to return to the registration desk for your new seat assignment.

MainEventTravel.com
You can also register online on MainEventTravel.com for all tournaments apart from satellites and the Heads-Up Championship.

PokerStars/Paddy Power
You can register for all Irish Open tournaments via the PokerStars client or Main Event only via your Paddy Power account.

Other ways to register
You can also register on-site. If you have cash (including common foreign currencies), debit or credit cards, head first to the CASH DESK to swap funds for chips which you can then use for your buy-ins at the Registration Desk. You can also buy in using your PokerStars or Paddy Power account.

REGISTRATION DESK OPENING TIMES

The Registration Desk will be open from 1pm on Monday, March 25. You can register for the Main Event any time that the Registration Desk is open and not too busy. For all other tournaments, you can register up to two hours before the start flight begins for that event. YOU MUST BRING PHOTO ID.

For most tournaments, late registration will be open for the first eight levels. For the Main Event and the Mini Irish Open, late reg is open for the first ten levels. See the schedule for late reg times. All tournament details and structure sheets are here.

For multi-day tournaments, excluding the Main Event, registration will be open until the start of Day 2. There is no Day 2 late reg for the Main Event. There is also no late registration for the Heads-Up Championship which will start at noon on Tuesday, March 26. Please note that the Heads-Up event WILL sell out online long before the Festival begins – see below for details.

The €350 Heads-Up Championship

The €350 Heads-Up tournament is capped at 64 players – if you want to play this event, please register online as it will almost certainly sell out. The easiest way to register for the Heads-Up tournament is on Luxon Pay but if you DON’T have a Luxon Pay account, then please email info@irishpokeropen.com.

PARKING

There is 24-hour secure parking at the RDS for just €10/day. From March 27 to April 1, you can also park at the Merrion Road entrance.

HOTELS

MainEventTravel.com is our Official Travel Partner. MET’s rates are generally less than most major online travel providers and they also still have a few exclusive, discounted Hotel-and-Buy-in packages available. The Herbert Park and Clayton Ballsbridge are now sold out but MET also has rooms at numerous other Dublin hotels.

LIVE UPDATES

There will be Irish Open live updates throughout the festival plus live reporting on PokerNews, covering Day 2 of the €5k High Roller and the Main Event from start to finish. The event host is Laura Cornelius. The official photographers are Mickey May and Danny Maxwell.

LIVE STREAM

Award-winning poker commentators James Hartigan and Joe Stapleton will be hosting the Irish Open live stream, joined by 2017 Irish Open champion Griffin Benger and some of Ireland’s best-known poker personalities. 

The live stream will be covering the Main Event from Day 1c on Friday, March 29 right through to the final on Monday, April 1 on a 30-minute delay (12:30 BST /13.30 CEST). The broadcast will be available on the PokerStars YouTube channel, the PokerStars Twitch channel, the PokerStars LIVE Facebook page and the Irish Poker Open YouTube channel.

SATELLITES

You can still win your way into the Irish Open Main Event on PokerStars and Paddy Power. See our satellites page for more info. There are a total of 11 Main Event super satellites taking place at the RDS from March 25 to March 29. See the schedule for more details.

CASH GAMES

The lively cash game scene is one of the big attractions of the Irish Open. This year a whole new dedicated cash game area is being created along with a new automated registration system. The new cash game area will have nearly 50 tables running 24/7 plus its own dedicated bar and coffee/food station. Any variant will be available, subject to demand, starting from €1/€2 NLH / PLO. You can transfer funds to the cage using LUXON PAY  – just click “Irish Open chip transfers” under Shop in your Luxon Pay account. There is an ATM at the venue.

THE ‘CRAIC’ DEN – FUN, GAMES AND ENTERTAINMENT

The Players Lounge – named “The Craic Den” – will be open from 11am to 3am (in Hall 6) with a full raft of games and contests including Beer Pong, Shuffleboard, Karaoke, FIFA and Corn Hole. There will – of course – be live music every night. For a full low-down on all the entertainment and outings on offer during the festival, please click here.

TOURNAMENT HIGHLIGHTS AT THE 2024 IRISH OPEN

The 2024 Irish Open features 35 different events including 11 Championship trophy tournaments. Click here for the schedule and see our schedule story. Highlights include:

– €1 million guaranteed Main Event (March 27 – April 1) – 4 starting flights, single re-entry each flight
– €500k guaranteed Mini Irish Open (March 25 – April 1) – 9 starting flights, unlimited re-entries
– €350 Championship Heads-Up (March 26-27) – please reg online as this will definitely sell out)
– €5k Championship High Roller (March 26-27)
– €250 Championship Ladies event (March 28)
– €3k Championship High Roller (March 30-31)
– €350 Championship Liam Flood Memorial Turbo (April 1)

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

For more info and FAQs, please click here.

To download this guide, please click Irish Open Festival Guide 2024.