At 3 p.m. local time, the action kicked off with four tables in Event #69 €550 PLO 5 Card Single Re-Entry and it took nearly sixteen hours to determine a champion out of a field of 182 entries. The sunrise was almost underway – kind of, on a very rainy morning in Dublin – when Richie Allen defeated Lauri Liuttula with both players taking home the biggest slice of the €88,270 prize pool.
There was no big round of applause from a boisterous rail, just some empty Guinness glasses witnessed the final outcome as the tournament areas inside of the Royal Dublin Society were completely empty for hours already. It seemed only fitting for Allen to earn the trophy with karma on his side as he dominated the early stages after taking a seat in level two. Until the end of level three, he had knocked out five players and climbed to six times the starting stack before staying near the top of the leaderboard for an extended period.
Allen already has several five-figure scores to his name with live scores dating all the way back to 2007 in London and this victory is not his largest live poker cash, but the first on Irish soil. He was exhausted and didn’t even see at first glance that Liuttula didn’t have a straight in that last big clash. What followed was a beaming smile and happiness.
“This one is really special to me, because Five Card Omaha is my main game,” he said. Staying composed for such a long time in a very complex poker variant in which equities run incredibly close isn’t an easy task, nor getting sticky cards that kill your hand twice. The rampage of the unanimously talkative Nenad Svetomirovic was another challenge, as the German held an overwhelming lead on the final table.
With his large pile of chips, Svetomirovic became unpredictable as he decided to play many hands without looking at his cards preflop. In showdown, he often turned over cards one by one as if he had no clue what surprise was waiting. Svetomirovic pulled such a rabbit out of the hat when he knocked out Andreas Paliogiannis in sixth place without knowing his cards until there was an all-in and call.
“Have you ever seen someone play like me?” Svetomirovic asked Allen, who replied “In the US, yeah. But not in the UK, in cash games only,” the eventual champion replied with a smirk on his face.
A few hours later, deal discussions fell through in three-handed play because Allen was convinced he had an edge, and his persistence paid off with a top prize of €19,820 and the 2026 Irish Poker Open trophy. Svetomirovic had a blast nonetheless, at times with two massage therapists at his side, but the tower of chips crumbled eventually and he had to settle for third place.
Also featured on the seven-handed final table was Hungary’s Balazs Somodi, who once again showcased why the great game of Pot-Limit Omaha is his favourite with a third final table during the ongoing festival. But in the end, there could only be one winner and that happened to be Allen.
Final Table Result
1st Place: Richie Allen – €19,820
2nd Place: Lauri Liuttula – €12,300
3rd Place: Nenad Svetomirovic – €8,800
4th Place: Balazs Somodi – €6,750
5th Place: Jason Straziouso – €5,200
6th Place: Andreas Paliogiannis – €4,000
7th Place: Ravi Sheth – €3,350
