The Irish Open has a brand new home for 2023 with the eight-day festival taking place at the Royal Dublin Society in Ballsbridge, Dublin for the first time.
The festival will be running from April 3 to April 10 with a €1 million guaranteed Main Event and a busy tournament schedule boasting nearly 40 events.
The Irish Open has been held at numerous different venues since it was first held back more than 40 years ago. That first event – in 1980 – was won by Colette Doherty at Dublin’s Eccentric Club and the Eccentric went on to host many more Irish Poker Opens over the next 20 years. Other venues have included the Merrion Casino, the Burlington Hotel, and, most recently, CityWest Dublin.
Co-organizer Paul O’Reilly said: “We love CityWest and hope to be back there again before too long but we are all very excited about hosting next year’s event at the RDS. The venue is perfect for a poker tournament; it’s located in a great area with lots of hotels, bars, and restaurants – and it’s not far from the city center.”
The Royal Dublin Society is no stranger to major poker events. The EPT has been held there twice and it has also hosted the International Poker Open. The venue – which occupies a 42-acre site in the heart of Dublin’s affluent Ballsbridge area – is also used regularly for exhibitions, concerts, and sporting events like the Dublin Horse Show and is the home ground for the Leinster Rugby team.
The Irish Poker Open is the longest-running No Limit poker tournament in Europe. It’s an enormously popular event and one of the world’s most prestigious and lively poker festivals. Thousands attend the event every year with previous champions including big names such as James Mitchell, Kevin Vandersmissen, Ian Simpson, Patrick Clarke, Griffin Benger, and – most recently – the legendary Steve O’Dwyer.
At the Irish Open in April 2022, O’Dwyer beat a field of more than 2,000 entries in his home city to win a €318,700 first prize. The final table was a remarkable feat of poker with O’Dwyer eliminating all eight of his opponents – including former champion Patrick Clarke. The Main Event prize pool totalled nearly €2 million and organizers Paul Reilly and JP McCann are expecting even more entries for 2023.”
