We’re finally there! It’s Mini Final Day!!!
Back in 2024, Irish Open owners Paul O’Reilly and JP McCann took a massive punt. What if we put on a tournament with a HUGE guarantee but a VERY low buy-in plus a ton of starting flights? Last year, Paul and JP took yet another gamble – doubling the Mini guarantee to a whopping €1 million. That event attracted 6,411 entries but, this year, the Mini Irish Open – which continues to have a low buy-in of just €250 – smashed it out of the park. With 7,349 entries across 14 starting flights, the 2026 Mini prize pool now stands at over €1.5 million and will award its top prizes today. Among the contenders is Irish Open Ambassador Darren Chow, who spearheaded the hugely successful “festival within a festival” for Deaf players on the opening weekend of this year’s festival.
A total of 363 players are through to the final day after a truly epic and record-breaking event. Among the chip leaders is Romania’s Sergiu Covrig who won the Spraggy Mystery Bounty a few days ago. We’ll be following along with Mini updates here.
Final of first-ever Irish Open Ladies High Roller
They’re down to a final table in the two-day €1,150 Ladies High Roller! The overnight chip leader is Scottish player Amy Leonard with PokerStars Ambassador Marle Spragg currently in second place. Also still in contention for the €16,200 first prize is Irish Poker Open Ambassador Karen Muir (go, Karen!!!!) along with Women’s Poker Association advocate Nicole Neal from the USA. Female players clearly welcomed the chance to get their teeth into a women-only, higher buy-in event; there were 49 entries overall and among those who took part were 2026 Ladies Championship runner-up Kristiana Stauere, Canada’s Kim Kilroy, Wendy Watson, PokerStars’ Ambassador for Women in Poker KerryJane Craigie, 2026 Ladies Champion Jen Frankenstein, Charlie Waters and ebullient Irish Open superfan “Debs the Destroyer” Worley-Roberts. The total prize pool is €49,907.
Live updates for today’s Ladies High Roller final will be here.
Irish Open Sydney: satellite and Day 1 – read all about those events here.
14 left in NLH Mystery Bounty; Felix “xflixx” Schneiders currently third
Today marks the final day for the two-day NLH Mystery Bounty (Event #77). There were a humongous 379 entries into this €1,150 tournament but it’s been whittled down to just 14 players for the final day. The overnight chip leader is Luis Sequeira from Argentina and EPT Paris runner-up Felix “xflixx” Schneiders is currently in third place. But surprise, surprise (not) there in fourth place is Roope Tarmi, who has already won two events here. The star-studded final day will also feature Pascal Vos, Nick Newport, Team Jaka captain Michael Dwyer and Ian Hamilton, all vying for the €38,450 first prize. The total prize pool stands at €193,006 and, all in all, 55 players will be paid.
Fitbit ready: €350 Triathlon Championship on today
Ok athletes! Get ready!!! It’s Triathlon today. You don’t actually need to be super fit to take part in this debut tournament but, hey, it can’t hurt. The event starts as a full ring tourney (9- or 10-handed) and then, depending on how many players we get, it becomes a six-max and then a heads-up. Our Strava-obsessed blogger Christian Zetsche has been limbering up for this one all week: live updates will be here.
Also on today: €550 PLO 6-max starting at noon, a €1,150 turbo NLH 8-max at 2pm and the ever-popular Liam Flood Memorial at 4pm. The final event is the €250 NLH Turbo at 6pm.
Mulligan leads Seniors Championship
Senior players have proved they still have just as much energy at the end of our 12-day 2026 festival as they did at the beginning. The €350 Seniors Championship kicked off yesterday with 346 entries creating a €104,042 prize pool. Presumably many senior players who’d been taking part in the Old Dogs v Young Pups event also got involved in this one. There are now just 55 players through to the final day with the UK’s Lee Mulligan in the lead. Click here for the live updates.
Flip it
The final Go stage of our three Flip & Go tournaments is today, with 11 players through from yesterday’s Flip stage. There were 110 entries in that, creating a €10,670 prize pool. The concept is simple: a super-quick Day 1 FLIP stage (yesterday) put each winner straight into today’s Day 2 – a conventional €1k freezeout. Ace flippers from last night include Robbie Bull and Hippodrome Ambassador Lydia Cugudda. We’ve had two Flip champions so far: Jiang Pu took down the first one for €6,550 and Tristan Ragnarsson the second for €3,160.
Final night in the Den!!!
Well, it had to happen at some point! It’s the last night in the Craic Den!
It seems eons since we enjoyed Race Night, Casino Night and Deaf comedian John Smith, but since then we’ve had a packed schedule of entertainment keeping the Craic Den rocking into the small hours.
From Spraggy’s Quid Games and I’m a Poker Player, Get Me Out of Here (congrats Rinty!) to Beer Pong, Karaoke Night and the epic Lip Synch Battle – won by our very own Irish Open host The Tower, it’s been a sensational 12 days.
The Tower interviewing … The Tower
It all led up to an incredible 70s theme fancy dress competition at last night’s Players Party. Congrats to winner Simon Beckett from Halifax who, as many of you will already have noticed, has been wearing 70s gear all week (and a different outfit every single day). It was all building up to Simon’s big moment and we are so glad he won the top prize of a 2027 Mini Irish Open ticket.
Simon and his wife Sarah are at the Irish Open after winning a bunch of seats in the UK national Live Pub Poker League. Sarah snagged seats in the Main, Mini and PLO 6-Mas while Simon arrived in Dublin with Mini and Main tickets. If you want to channel the Simon Beckett look, then head to Temu as that’s where he gets the gear.
We have hundreds of Craic Den pics for your viewing pleasure .. check them all out here. The album is titled “Don’t Pretend You Weren’t Here” but we know for a fact that some of you were in there the ENTIRE TIME!
We hope you’ve had an amazing time and we can’t wait for next year – or join us at one of our international stops in Sydney, Marrakech or the USA.
For our final night of fun, Paddy Power will be doing the honours for our last Happy Hour followed by Austin Carter from 9.30pm to midnight, and then DJ Ste.
