It’s nearly 7am and outside the RDS in Dublin, it’s drizzling, the birds are chirruping and it’s been daylight for over an hour. Inside the Main Hall, a few dealers and floor staff are struggling to keep their eyes open. All anyone can think about is going to bed but Event 64 – the €550 PLO 4/5/6 – is STILL going on.
Dutch pro Javier Francort is chasing his second trophy of the festival. He’s only 26, he’s swigging energy drinks and he’s doing push-ups in the breaks. His opponent is EPT Madrid runner-up Fraser MacIntyre who has been eligible for Senior events for a couple of years now but is well-used to interminable final tables and also owns some nightclubs back home in Scotland. He isn’t flagging either.
PLO 4/5/6 is somewhat niche and this was the first time it had ever been held at the Irish Open so no one expected a field of more than 200 entries at the tail end of a 12-day festival The final table didn’t even get going until 4.15am.
Victory in the PLO 4/5/6
At this point MacIntyre had a narrow lead over Francort with the rest of the field trailing behind. Jump forward a few hours and it’s heads-up time with MacIntyre commanding a 10:1 lead over his Dutch rival. But victory was to elude the Scotsman once again; over the next hour, Francort slowly chipped up and, at 8am, secured victory with a straight on the river. Trophy #2 was in the bag along with €21,287 in prize money.
This was Javier Francort’s second visit to the Irish Open and it seems fair to say it won’t be his last. In his very first event in Dublin, the €5k PLO High Roller Mystery Bounty , he narrowly missed the money, finishing seventh. But just a few days later, he snagged his first trophy, cashing for €35,799 in Event 17, the €1,150 PLO 7-max, after besting a 141-entry field.
He said: “Actually I was very, VERY short stacked in that event. I was just trying to squeeze into the money but I was having a lot of fun at the table. Eventually I won a decent pot and had an average stack going into the final table. It was 3am when that started but it was a great atmosphere, very amicable.”
In a fitting heads-up showdown, Francort found himself across the table from Finland’s Markus Ristola, a well-known 5-card PLO cash specialist with deep experience and a feared reputation. The clash promised fireworks, and it delivered. Before cards were even in the air, Francort jokingly greeted Ristola with a wry smile and the line, “Oh, a Finnish PLO regular – my worst nightmare.” But it was Francort who outmanoeuvred his dangerous opponent to capture the title and win his first Irish Open trophy.
“Hi, I’m the double champ!”
Fast forward to April 21, the last day of the festival. Francort has only managed to snag around three hours sleep after his victory in the PLO 4/5/6 but heads back to the RDS to honour an appointment with photographer Brian ÓhEideáin. He takes both trophies with him and, after posing for pics, decides to take part in the €550 PLO 6-max. As a joke, he plonks himself down at the table with both trophies and introduces himself as the “double champ”. Francort said: “I had to rebuy in that one and I was short stacked for the final table but then I won a three-way all-in which put me in a dominant chip position again. I was really trying to win – getting three trophies in one series – that’s never going to happen again in my life! Most people were trying to ladder – folding every single hand – so I could steal a lot of chips. When we got to heads-up I had a huge pile of chips – and two trophies sitting on the table.”
Francort’s €20,950 cash – and third victory of the festival – brought his total Dublin winnings to nearly €80k.
Off to Vegas
Francort’s astonishing performance in Dublin played a big part in his mind-set as he headed off to Vegas a month later but, for the first five weeks, he only managed a handful of smallish cashes. He said: “What happened in Ireland had given me an extra boost though. I’ve only being playing fulltime for two years and, until January, I hadn’t even won a tournament. But in Dublin I started to realise that when things are going badly, most players just start to give up. The mental game such a big part of it. I stayed positive.”
Francort’s attitude paid off and on July 1, he found himself Day 1 chip leader in the $10k PLO Championship, an event which attracted nearly 900 players. He was chip leader again at the end of Day 2, and – despite running up against the likes of Robert Mizrachi and Poker Hall of Famer Erik Seidel on Day 3 – was still in contention for the seven-handed final day featuring Chinese high-roller regular Quan Zhou and three-time WSOP bracelet winner Alex Foxen. Eventually, after losing a crucial pot against Melad Marji, Francort was knocked out in sixth place by Triton regular Sean Rafael. But his incredible run earned him $245,194 – more than doubling his lifetime tournament cashes in one fell swoop.
Francort said: “it’s been quite a year but it was winning the €2k PLO at the WSOP International Circuit event in Rozvadov in January that kicked it all off. It was a big step for me to win that.”
Earning three degrees
Like many players, Francort took up poker during high school (playing in the school canteen) and then carried on playing at University, mainly low stakes tournaments on PokerStars and live cash games in Amsterdam. However, unlike most players, he didn’t drop out. In fact, he went on to gain three degrees – a BA in Liberal Arts and Sciences, another BA in History and then a Masters in International Relations. He said: “I knew that I wanted to play poker full time but I also wanted to finish University first. My parents are both teachers and poker is a very strange thing for them but they are happy I’m doing well.”
After Francort’s first victory in Dublin, the only family response to his winner pic was that he “looked a bit ill”. He said: “It was true! I was ill during the first event! But hopefully now they can be proud of me a little bit.”
Francort moved to London just over a year ago and definitely plans to be at next year’s Irish Open. He said: “It’s a beautiful event and amazing they have so many PLO events and mixed games. Even before I became the triple champ (!!), I was saying it’s the best event in Europe and it’s one of the only festivals in Europe that gives such great opportunities for the mix game community. The Irish are very friendly people and there are also a lot of Brits who are always up for a joke. I love live poker – love the interaction talking to people at the table. It’s definitely the most fun event in Europe.”
Francort’s live tournament winnings now total over $470k and he’s already ranked 107th in the Netherlands’ all-time money list. A recent final table appearance at GUKPT London garnered him another £5,200 cash and we look forward to seeing him at next year’s festival. He may even be able to fit in a little sight-seeing next time – he certainly didn’t manage any this year.
The 2026 Irish Open is taking place from March 26 to April 6 at the Royal Dublin Society.
