After record-breaking fields in almost every event at this year’s Irish Open, excitement is already building about next year’s schedule. The 2024 event will be the 40th live edition of the Irish Open making it the longest-running No Limit poker tournament in Europe. The festival runs from Monday, March 25 through to Monday, April 1 with 34 different tournaments on the schedule in addition to the €1 million guaranteed Main Event. Once again the festival will be taking place at the historic RDS venue in Ballsbridge.
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The festival gets off to a cracking start with Day 1a of the Mini Irish Open plus a new PLO Mystery Bounty. The Mini Irish Open only costs €200 to enter but guarantees a whopping €500k prize pool – the largest guarantee for a buy-in of this size in Irish poker history. It’s also the cheapest Championship event on the menu so prepare to get stuck in!!
The €550 buy-in PLO Mystery Bounty is a single re-entry event with a 20-minute clock. The 8pm kick-off time will keep players grinding well into the night. PLO fans also have more to feast on later in the week. On Wednesday, March 26, it’s Day 1 of the €350 buy-in Irish Open PLO 6-Max and a new two-day €1,100 PLO Mystery Bounty 8-max kicks off on Saturday, March 30.
All next year’s side events are being given new structures with four more blind levels added and starting stacks increased for many events. Aside from the Heads-Up tourney (10k x2), satellites (20k) and The Hendon Mob Championship, Ladies Championship, Seniors Championship and Liam Flood Memorial 6-Max Turbo (all with a 25k starting stack), most events next year have a 30k starting stack with players in the €5k High Roller sitting down to 50k in chips.
Satellites
There are tons of super satellites on the festival schedule giving you the chance to win your way into the €1,150 Main Event for just €115. At least 90 Main Event seats are guaranteed across eight different satellites overall. Last year satellite winner Declan Rice was runner-up in the Main Event for a life-changing prize of €228,700. Rice, a delivery driver from Donegal, won his seat the night before Day 1c – a satellite he only played because he was waiting for a seat in a cash game!
The Irish Open is well-known for making sure that there’s plenty to suit players of all kinds and once again offers up a plentiful choice of tournaments. No surprise then that it’s one of the world’s most prestigious and lively poker festivals.
The €1 million guaranteed Main Event
The highlight of the Irish Open is undoubtedly the Main Event – a €1 million guaranteed extravaganza starting on Wednesday, March 27, held over six days and costing €1,150 to enter. This year’s Main Event was the biggest poker tournament ever held in Ireland – thanks in part to the 600+ qualifiers who won their seats online including the winner, David Docherty. Irish Open sponsors PokerStars and Paddy Power will once again be offering hundreds of opportunities for players all over the world to qualify online with satellites set to kick off this Autumn.
There are four Main Event start days for 2024 including a Day 1d Turbo. On all the start days, players kick off with a 30,000 starting stack, one re-entry per flight is permitted, and players can re-enter right up to the start of Day 2. Following feedback after this year’s event we have made some changes to the Main Event structure to improve the player experience. Days 1a, 1b and 1c all have 45-minute levels and the final 1d Turbo – at 8pm on Friday, March 29 – has 20-minute Day 2 and Day 3 will be playing 8 x one-hour levels.
2023 champion David Docherty took €365,000 home to Scotland after taking down this year’s record-breaking Main Event. The tournament attracted a staggering 2,491 entries, creating a guarantee-busting €2,428,725 prize pool, up 22% on the previous year.
