The record-breaking 2024 Irish Poker Open €550 JP Masters is in the books with Latvia’s Eriks Krumins defeating Switzerland’s Robin Roth heads-up to win the trophy along with the €51,675 top prize.
Krumins delivered a commanding display at the final table. The Latvian held the chip lead several times throughout the day and every time he got knocked down he got up again. Eventually, he snatched the chip lead once more after winning a big pot with aces and this proved decisive – he then controlled the table with six players left – none of his opponents able to do much about it.
The JP Masters attracted 566 entries, creating a huge prize pool of €275,925. The top 79 players walked away with at least a €910 min-cash.
2024 JP Masters Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eriks Krumins | Latvia | € 51,675 |
| 2 | Robin Roth | Switzerland | € 32,300 |
| 3 | Daniel Wilson | Ireland | € 23,070 |
| 4 | Sven Wildhaber | Switzerland | € 17,750 |
| 5 | Mustafa Gultekin | Ireland | € 13,650 |
| 6 | Brian Hanrahan | Ireland | € 10,500 |
| 7 | Gavin Sardini | South Africa | € 8,080 |
| 8 | Tonino Cardia | Italy | € 6,210 |
| 9 | Joel Smith | United Kingdom | € 5,180 |
Final Day Action
A total of 36 hopefuls returned on the final day hoping to enter their names in the Irish Poker Open history books as the latest JP Masters champion. Players were dropping like flies including the start-of-the-day chip leader Saulius Tumosa from Lithuania who took 23rd place for €2,060.
Krumins led the way several times during the final day including at the start of the final table. However, that lead was short-lived with Switzerland’s Sven Wildhaber running wild to take the an early chip lead while also acting as the early table terminator after eliminating both Tonino Cardia (eighth – €6,210) and Joel Smith (ninth – €5,180) to kick off the action.
Gavin Sardini hit the rail in seventh place for €8,080 and shortly after fireworks erupted with Krumins winning a big pot with aces against Wildhaber to take a substantial chip lead.
Daniel Wilson chipped up and closed the gap after his queen-jack improved to Broadway to eliminate fellow Irishman Brian Hanrahan in sixth place for €10,500 but Krumins was still in control and accumulating chips with a relentless combination of raises, three-bets, and shoves.
Krumins then picked off his opponents one by one, always ahead whenever he got called. First, his ace-seven defeating jack-five to eliminate Wildhaber (fourth – €17,750).
“How do you always have an ace?” asked Robin Roth to Krumins.
Daniel Wilson unsuccessfully ran his ace-nine into pocket eights to hit the rail in third place for €23,070 leaving Krumins with a 4:1 chip advantage to start heads-up play against Roth.
Roth’s stack started to dwindle and it didn’t take too long for him to commit his 10 big blind stack with king-trey suited. Krumins had an ace again, this time ace-nine suited and won the title after Roth’s hand was unable to improve. Roth didn’t walk away empty-handed as he has more than 30,000 reasons to wipe away any tears from not winning the trophy thanks to a hefty runner-up prize of €32,300.
Congrats to Eriks Krumins for an epic victory! See you at the player’s party tonight at 10 p.m.
