The 2023 Irish Open Main Event is officially the biggest poker tournament ever held in Ireland with a staggering 2,491 entries, creating a €2,428,725 prize pool with €365,000 for the winner. 311 players are cashing here in the record-breaking event; there were 160 players at the start of Day 3.
The UK’s Carl Shaw was the chip leader at the start of Day 3 today, bagging an impressive 1,700,000 chips (equating to 142 big blinds). Shaw won a WSOP bracelet in the $5k NLH in 2019. Also still in are fellow WSOP bracelet winners Dominik Nitsche (851,000), Benny Glaser (546,000), and David Miscikowski (436,000). Seamus Cahill is the top Irishman in the field, lying in second place with 1,576,000 in chips. Also in the top 10 is Ireland’s Marc MacDonnell, who had 1,113,000 at the start of the day and is cashing the Irish Open Main Event for the fifth time in a row. Other hometown heroes include Andy Black (380,000), Padraig Parkinson (378,000), and Paul Carr (246,000). EastEnders star Ross Boatman, who rarely has time to play big tournaments now, is on 322,000. In fact, the last time that Ross cashed was here in Dublin when he was runner-up in last year’s Seniors Event.
Also still in is Scottish player and Day 1a chip leader David Docherty. The 2022 EPT London finalist (currently ranked #9 in Scottish live tourney winnings) won GUKPT Luton in 2021 for £138,000. The final 160 players are in for a long day as the field will play down to an eight-handed final table or 3 a.m. local time, whichever comes first.
This year’s field is 22% up on last year’s field and prize pool, which was also a big record-breaker.
See schedule here. PokerNews is covering the Main Event; live updates for all other events are on the Irish Open blog.
April 9 schedule
12:00 Event 11: Irish Open MAIN EVENT €1,150 Day 3
12:00 Event 26: Championship JP Poker Masters – Final Day
12:00 Event 29: Championship PLO 6-Max – Final Day
13:00 Event 30: Championship €3k High Roller 8-Max Final Day
13:00 Event 31: Championship Mini Irish Open Day 1
16:00 Event 32: €1,100 NLH Mystery Bounty 8-Max Day 1
18:00 Event 33: Championship Liam Flood Memorial Turbo20:00 Event 34: NLH Deepstack Turbo – CANCELLED
