Even though the effort has nearly crashed our calculators, we have now finally managed to number-crunch our way through the stats for the record-breaking 2025 Irish Open festival.
As expected, this year’s Irish Open blew all previous editions of Europe’s longest-running tournament out the window! With an extra four days on the schedule, a massive €4,500,000 in prize pool guarantees and DOUBLE the number of last year’s tournaments, we always knew this year’s Irish Open was going to be a stonker. Thanks to the huge turnout from players, the event smashed all records and more than lived up to its title as Best Stand-Alone Festival, the accolade we were delighted to win at the Global Poker Awards in February.
With tons more tables – 270 in total – and more than 400 staff working the event, numbers rocketed at this year’s Irish Open. In fact, we spent much of the festival speedily opening up new tournament areas to accommodate the ever-increasing player fields. Across the 69 different tournaments on the schedule, there were over 25,000 entries (up from some 17,000 in 2024 and just 10,000 in 2023) and an astonishing €14.5 million was awarded in prize money (compared to €7.5 million in 2023).
Running from April 10 to April 21 at the Royal Dublin Society in Ballsbridge, the 12-day extravaganza saw more than 4,220 individual players take to the felt.
Main Event
Yet again, the Main Event broke its own record to become the largest poker tournament ever held in Ireland with 4,562 entries generating a €4,447,950 prize pool – nearly €2 million more than the guarantee. More than 1,300 qualifiers won their way into the event via satellites including more than 900 on PokerStars and Paddy Power.
Local hero and online pro Simon Wilson, who lives virtually around the corner from the RDS in Ashbourne, took it down for a huge score of €600,000. His victory followed a fifth-place finish in the €10,000 Super High Roller for €42,800 – quite a week for the 22-year-old former economics student. The €1,150 Main Event paid 671 places and ran alongside a huge schedule of side events which all soared to new heights, including the €1,000,000 guaranteed Mini Main and the largest Mystery Bounty event held in Ireland. Even Simon’s winner pic may have broken records – not sure we’ve ever seen THAT many people crowd into one before – or that many friends and family on the rail in the preceding hours.
Mini and Bounty
The Mini Irish Open, which took place over the course of the full 12 days of the festival, attracted 6,411 entries and was a truly international event with players hailing from 69 different countries. The prize pool soared past its guarantee with €1,343,938 divvied up by the 938 cashers – and the €116,000 first prize going to Mini Irish Open champion Tyler Gordon.
This year’s festival also saw more than 1,200 players turn up to turn the Luxon Mystery Bounty – making it the biggest Mystery Bounty in Ireland’s history. Nils Pudel from Austria took it down for a first prize of €71,091 and another €14,460 in bounties. The prize pool totalled €1,191,450 including €595,725 for the bounties.
Entries were up across numerous other events too. The Hendon Mob Championship attracted 888 entries while the JP Poker Masters nearly doubled in size with 742 entries. The America’s Cup was also massively up – 685 entries compared to 495 entries last year. Luckily, all three tournaments were expanded to two-day events this year.
Qualifiers reap rich rewards
Of the 1,300+ players who qualified for the Main Event in online satellites on PokerStars, Paddy Power and the iPoker network, nearly 200 made the money winning over €1 million between them. Brandon Harris from the UK, Greek qualifier Panteleimon Pontos and Romania’s Robert Fluereci all made the final table with Harris – who qualified for just €109 – finishing in sixth place for €100,000.
