Despite busting out of the Irish Open Main Event in fifth place, veteran Irish player Andy Black is now #1 in the Ireland all-time money list AND is top of the new UKIPT Leaderboard. It’s proof – to Andy – that his new strategy is working out. For the last four months, Andy has dedicated himself to playing a game…
Legendary poker player Doyle Brunson is being mourned the world over after passing at the age of 89. Nicknamed “Texas Dolly” and “The Godfather of Poker”, Brunson was – without a shadow of a doubt – one of the greatest and most influential players the game has ever known. He first rose to fame in the 1970s and was still…
In poker, as in most competitive sports, it’s the winners who snag the headlines – along with trophies, bragging rights and a professionally-taken winner pic. But at this year’s Irish Open, there were many players who quietly excelled in side events without ever being put in the spotlight. Chief among this year’s unsung heroes was Nottingham player Wadey Ashraf who managed…
The 2023 Irish Open Delivery was the stuff of dreams for many players but none more so than Donegal delivery driver Declan Rice. Declan was runner-up in the Main Event and snagged a life-changing €228,700 after winning his seat in an £80 satellite. His phenomenal achievement stunned players and media alike and will remain an iconic moment at Europe’s oldest…
There were 36 different tournaments during the Irish Open 2023 festival – often filling the spectacular Main Hall at the RDS to capacity and providing some very chunky prize pools for players. Nearly all the side events held this year broke records. To read updates on almost all the major side events, please head to https://irishpokeropen.com/live-updates/. Use the drop-down to…
The 2023 Irish Open Main Event – the biggest poker tournament ever held in Ireland — ended Monday evening (April 10) with PokerStars qualifier David Docherty taking home a first prize of €365,000. The €1,150 buy-in Main Event attracted a staggering 2,491 entries, creating a guarantee-busting €2,428,725 prize pool, up 22% up on last year. Docherty, who made the final of EPT…
Gerry Walsh wins €550 JP Poker Masters Championship Gerry Walsh has won the JP Poker Masters Championship for €23,418 after beating Jarlath Kilgallon heads-up. Walsh’s victory – his biggest live cash – came after a five-way ICM deal which then morphed into three-handed deal. Kilgallon takes home €18,545. There were 347 entries – well up on last year’s field of 302.…
Championship Event – €550 JP Poker Masters The JP Masters has finished Day 1 with 28 players remaining of the 347 entries – well up on last year’s field of 302. The current chip leader is Marius Ignat on 895k; he faces a tough battle today though – the remaining field includes 2022 Americas Cup winner Mor Kamber, EPT High…
The 2023 Irish Open Main Event is officially the biggest poker tournament ever held in Ireland with a staggering 2,491 entries, creating a €2,428,725 prize pool with €365,000 for the winner. 311 players are cashing here in the record-breaking event; there were 160 players at the start of Day 3. The UK’s Carl Shaw was the chip leader at the…
The Irish Open is known for its eclectic mix of players from all over the world and the 2023 edition is no exception. From Scotland to South Africa, from Iceland to Australia – the Main Event is proving truly multinational. This year’s record-breaking Main Event field hail from nearly 60 countries. To be sure, the majority are home-grown talent. There…
The 2023 Irish Open Main Event is officially the biggest poker tournament ever held in Ireland with a staggering 2,491 entries, creating a €2,428,725 prize pool with €365,000 for the winner. A total of 311 players will get a share of the prize pool, with a min-cash worth €1.975. This year’s field is 22% up on last year’s (already) record-breaking…
Last night’s organised event in the Players Lounge was the PokerStars Corn Hole contest. Up for grabs: two Main Event tickets. Job in hand: throwing little bean bags into a hole. The game of Corn Hole is known by many names*, but very little else about it has changed since its creator Heyliger de Windt first tossed a beanbag into…
If you thought yesterday was busy – with a record-breaking 644 runners in the Main Event, then you’re going to be simply blown away by Day 1c today. People have flown in from all over the world for this one – and, at the time of writing, the field has already soared to over 980 entries. The Irish Open is a…
Bennet-Martin takes down €250 Championship Ladies Event Congrats to Canadian Elizabeth Bennett-Martin who has won the €250 Irish Open Championship Ladies Event for €3,690 after seeing off stiff competition from the 63-runner field. Bennett-Martin first discovered the existence of the Irish Open at the PCA when Nick O’Hara suggested that she try it out, and after a tester trip in…
Dublin is not only the home of the Irish Open, it’s also home to Flutter HQ – the company that owns Irish Open event sponsors PokerStars and Paddy Power. It was thus a no-brainer to give the Flutter folk a chance to have their very own event at the Irish Open. A total of 165 Flutter staff took part in the…
€250 Championship Ladies Event The Ladies event is one of the consistent fixtures on the Irish Open schedule and always attracts a substantial field. This year’s Ladies Event is at 2pm today and features a 15,000 starting stack and 30-minute clock. Among those set to compete is American player Kelly Saxby, who now runs Retail Marketing for MainEventTravel, plus Charlie…
Another cracking day is on offer at the RDS with Day 1b of the €1 million guaranteed Irish Open Main Event starting at noon along with Day 2 of the APAT Irish Amateur Poker Championship (13 players left). The €250 Championship Ladies Event starts at 2pm with a €150 PLO Deepstack currently planned for 6pm and three different Main Event…
Today’s schedule boasts no fewer than five championship events including the finals of the €350 Heads-Up and €5k Luxon Pay High Roller plus the Main Event, the America’s Cup and the APAT Irish Amateur Poker Championship Day 1. >>LIVE UPDATES FOR ALL CHAMPIONSHIP SIDE EVENTS ARE HERE>> Event 10: €5k Luxon Pay High Roller Day 2 The winner of the…
It’s Day 1a of the €1 million guaranteed 2023 Irish Open Main Event and – judging by the huge fields in all the events held so far – this year’s €1,150 buy-in Main Event is going to be a corker. All poker action is now in the spectacular Main Hall of the RDS after two days in (the not-exactly-tiny) Hall 3.…
Day 1 of the Irish Open 2023 is in the bag and players are now filling Hall 3 to capacity for today’s busy roster of Championship events and satellites. (So busy that the €150 PLO Deepstack had to be cancelled.) See schedule here and live updates here. Heads-Up tournament The €350 Heads-up tournament kicked off at 2pm with 64 runners…
Click to download RDS guide PDF The Irish Open – sponsored by PokerStars and Paddy Power – is taking place April 3-10 at the Royal Dublin Society (RDS), a spectacular venue in the Ballsbridge area of Dublin. The €1 million guaranteed Main Event starts on Wednesday, April 5. On April 3 and 4 – the first two days of the Irish Open…
Long after players have forgotten their ignominious departure from the Main Event, or the time they were TOTALLY ROBBED with a one-outer, they will STILL remember the “craic” they had at the Irish Open. The Irish Open has a reputation for being an event where the pain of busting is soothed by the knowledge that you’re about to have a…
The exact schedule for this year’s UKIPT may still be behind wraps but the good news is that players at the Irish Open will be able to get a really good head start on the 2023 UKIPT Leaderboard. PokerStars has announced that, for the first time, this year’s UKIPT Player of the Year Leaderboard will include the Irish Open. Some…
Benny Glaser, one of the UK’s most successful poker players, is heading back to the Irish Open next week for another stab at the Main Event title. Glaser, who holds multiple poker records, was runner-up in the Irish Open High Roller in 2019 as well as running deep in that year’s Main Event. Still only 33, Glaser has an extraordinary…
Players from all over the world will be flocking to Dublin next month to take part in the Irish Open. The annual festival – which is taking place this year from April 3 to 10 at the Royal Dublin Society – is an annual trip that most regulars wouldn’t dream of missing. Last year players from nearly 60 countries took part in…
Danish photographer Mickey May first started covering the Irish Open in 2006. To celebrate next month’s event, we asked her to choose a dozen images from over the years and say a bit about what they mean to her: Vincent Melinn was my first very Irish Open champion! He won the event in 2006 and he was from Ireland too.…
Nottinghamshire poker player Alexandru Talica will be making his first-ever trip to Ireland next month after winning the Irish Open & MainEventTravel’s “Luck of the Irish” competition and snagging a €2,200 Irish Open Main Event prize package. Alex was up against stiff competition in the contest which was run on MainEventTravel.com’s Facebook page to celebrate St. Paddy’s Day this weekend.…
Award-winning poker commentators James Hartigan and Joe Stapleton will be making their Irish Open debut next month and hosting the live stream. Hartigan and Stapes, who are usually found behind the mic at events like PokerStars’ European Poker Tour and the PCA, will be joined in the commentary booth by 2017 Irish Open champion Griffin Benger and Team PokerStars Pro…
The Irish Open is well-known for making sure that pockets don’t get too stretched when it comes to tournament buy-ins. After all, players have got to have something left in their wallets to enjoy the craic at the bar. With that in mind, this year’s Irish Open once again offers up a plentiful choice of tournaments with loads of buy-ins…
If the JP Poker Masters Championship side event at the Irish Open sounds rather grand, don’t let the name put you off! The €550 buy-in event is a really popular tournament and a lot of fun. Part of the fun element dates back to the event’s heritage; it was first held by JP McCann as a stand-alone festival back in…
The Mystery Bounty Championship event made its Irish Open debut last year and was an instant hit with players, attracting more than 180 entries. Mystery Bounty tournaments have become enormously popular over the last few years with almost all the major tours opting to include at least one edition on their festival schedules. Mystery Bounties have been around for…
Irish PokerStars Ambassador Fintan “EasyWithAces” Hand will be competing at this year’s Irish Open – and hosting his own “meet-up” tourney there with fans of his popular Twitch stream. Fintan hails from Dublin and now lives just a 15-minute walk from the Royal Dublin Society venue but, somewhat surprisingly, he has only ever played the Main Event once before. Back in…
This year the Irish Open is hosting a mini-smorgasbord of two-day High Roller events: a €5k tournament on April 4 and a €3k event four days later. High Rollers are increasingly popular at the Irish Open and starting to attract seriously big fields. This year seems likely to break records once again. The history of High Rollers at the Irish…
If you’re Irish, you know all about the “Granny Rule”. It’s how top international footballers were recruited to play for Ireland despite only having the most tenuous of connections to the Emerald Isle. Or, in Tony Cascarino’s case, no connection at all. In his autobiography, Cascarino – who is also a keen poker player – admitted that, despite making a record…
Since 2015, the Liam Flood Memorial tournament has been one of the key Championship tournaments on the Irish Open schedule. The tournament – which is always a six-max and always a turbo – is a favourite with players who appreciate the chance to remember the former Irish Open organiser and poker legend in an annual event. The Irish Open was founded…
If you’re planning to play this year’s Irish Open Heads-Up tournament, then don’t leave it too late before you register. This event is capped at 64 players and almost always sells out! The easiest way to register is with our Official Payment Partner Luxon Pay. The Heads-Up tourney is a stalwart on the Irish Open schedule and involves six rounds…
This year PokerStars and Paddy Power will be breaking records by enabling hundreds of online qualifiers to compete at the Irish Open for as little as … nothing at all. Not since the heady days of the pre-Black Friday World Series of Poker has PokerStars run so many satellites for an external event. It’s a big commitment from the world’s…
The Ladies event is one of the consistent fixtures on the Irish Open schedule and always attracts a substantial field. For some women, it’s a chance to try out live poker for the first time, for others it’s a chance to catch up with old mates. This year’s Ladies Event at the Irish Open is taking place on Thursday, April…
As our Official Travel Partner, MainEventTravel.com is always hot on finding the best deals for all our players and has negotiated great room rates at the Clayton Hotel Ballsbridge. This is one of the finest 4-star hotels in South Dublin and lies just four minutes’ walk from this year’s Irish Open venue at the Royal Dublin Society. Set in a…
One of players’ favourite events on the Irish Open calendar is The Hendon Mob Championship, a one-day, €250 buy-in Hold’em affair taking place this year on April 4. THMC is one of nearly a dozen Championship tournaments being held at the Irish Open this year but – thanks to its association with the world-renowned Hendon Mob database, and the original Hendon…
Thanks to our partnership with MainEventTravel.com, we have a load of hotel deals for this year’s Irish Open. A particular gem is the Herbert Park, a gorgeous hotel that lies just a stone’s throw from this year’s Royal Dublin Society venue. MainEventTravel’s special offers at the Herbert Park include a €2,309 deal for five nights and that includes your €1,150…
Barny Boatman has only missed one Irish Open in the last 22 years. Apart from a time when he was living in Madrid and couldn’t get a flight, the legendary Londoner and former Hendon Mobster has played every single live Irish Open Main Event since 2000. The year 2000 was also when The Hendon Mob really got going. The group…
Thousands of poker players from all over the world will be making their annual pilgrimage to Dublin in a couple of months to take part in the Irish Poker Open. The €1 million guaranteed event – which is taking place at the Royal Dublin Society from April 3 to April 10 – is considered an absolute must on the international…
It’s now ten years since Ian Simpson won the Irish Poker Open in Dublin for a monster cash of €265,000. It was a moment that means a lot more to him though than just a tournament title because – only minutes after lifting the trophy aloft – Ian got down on bended knee and proposed to his then-girlfriend Emma. Who, of course,…
Legendary poker player and 2022 Irish Open champion Steve O’Dwyer will be competing at this year’s tournament to defend his Main Event title. O’Dwyer, who has lived in Dublin for over ten years, won a stunning victory in the city last year when he smashed through a field of more than 2,000 entries to take down the €1,150 buy-in event.…
Every year hundreds of Canadians make their way to Dublin to compete in the Irish Poker Open. It’s an annual migration that many of them wouldn’t miss for the world – and they rank the event their favourite overseas tournament. For Canadians, the Irish Open is all about the “craic” – getting together with old friends, making new friends, listening to…
Satellites are now up and running on the iPoker network for April’s €1,150 buy-in Irish Poker Open Main Event. The network is providing a huge selection of feeders – from as little as €0.50 – into direct qualifiers that will be running multiple times a day. Both seat-only tickets and full €2,250 packages are up for grabs. The iPoker provision means…
Poker presenter Laura Cornelius has hosted the Irish Open more times than she can count but it was last year’s winner interview with poker legend Steve O’Dwyer that has had the biggest impact on her. O’Dwyer, who has won more than $33 million in live tournaments and has more than 30 victories to his name, is normally a reserved and…
Hendon Mob co-founder Joe Beevers loves the Irish Open – and not just because he’s a former champion. The Hertfordshire-based player has been a regular for decades and – back in the day – attended the event every year with his fellow Hendon Mobsters Ram Vaswami, Barny Boatman and Ross Boatman. This year’s festival is running April 3-10 at the Royal Dublin Society…
Irish Open satellites are now live on PokerStars with at least 23 entries to April’s Main Event guaranteed every single week. The PokerStars schedule is one of the biggest satellite programmes that the site has ever run and guarantees that hundreds of players will win seats – or full prize packages – to the event. The Irish Open is the longest-running No…
Popular poker presenter Laura Cornelius will be back in Dublin this April in her linchpin role as host for the Irish Poker Open. The former PokerNews presenter plays a leading role at the festival – introducing the action as well as interviewing players, chatting to event winners, and reporting on all the fun and excitement at the tournament. Click below…
PokerStars is ringing in the New Year by launching a massive schedule of satellites for the Irish Poker Open – starting on January 1 and running right up to the night before the €1 million guaranteed event kicks off in April. The PokerStars schedule is one of the biggest satellite programmes that the site has ever run and guarantees that hundreds…
Paddy Power will certainly be spreading the love this Christmas with a bunch of seats into next year’s €1 million guaranteed Irish Poker Open Main Event up for grabs. The popular site is playing Santa throughout the holiday period with three online qualifiers including a special satellite on December 28 with five €1,150 seats guaranteed. Tomorrow, on Christmas Day, there’s…
Welcome to Chris Dowling, first Irish Poker Open Ambassador! The Irish Poker Open is delighted to announce that Chris Dowling has become our very first Ambassador and is ready to spread the word about the festival far and wide. Chris’s role will be to raise awareness of the Irish Poker Open both at home in Ireland and overseas, and help…
Online satellites are running now for the €1 million guaranteed Main Event at next year’s Irish Poker Open. The festival, the longest-running No Limit Hold’em tournament in the world outside of Vegas, is taking place in April 2023 at the historic Royal Dublin Society. The Irish Poker Open has a long association with the world’s biggest online poker operators and…
Through MainEventTravel.com, the 2023 Irish Poker Open is offering exclusive deals at Herbert Park, the Clayton Ballsbridge, and the Maldron Hotel. The partnership with MainEventTravel.com also means that players can book their accommodation, flights, and Main Event buy-ins all in one place.
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 Irish Poker Open main event returned to the live felt in 2022, after two years of being held online during the pandemic. There was apparently plenty of pent-up demand for live action, as the €1,150 buy-in no-limit hold’em event attracted a record live field of 2,040 entries to the Citywest Hotel in Dublin to build a prize pool of…
After a two-year hiatus, the Irish Poker Open, one of Europe’s most popular poker tournaments, will be back in April with an eight-day festival at CityWest in Dublin. For many poker players, the Irish Open is their favourite tournament of the year. With its legendary atmosphere and a raft of exciting tournaments, the Irish Open always offers players a terrific…