The opening day of the 2024 Irish Open at the Royal Dublin Society concluded in the early morning hours, not far away from the sunrise on a rainy day in the city center of Dublin. Two tournaments played down to a winner and the last to conclude was Event #1 €350 Irish Open NLH 6-Max.
A total of 385 entries surpassed the attendance of the previous year by a mighty one hundred, though, a single re-entry was allowed this time compared to the Freezeout format in 2023. The €116,366 prize pool was distributed among the top 55 finishers and Jamie Flynn ended up as the bubble boy.
There was a three-way deal on the final table in which Pavel Plotnikov, Stephen Freeman and Sandro Carucci locked up the biggest slice of the pie. Carucci ended up in third place for €14,131, and Freeman earned the biggest payday of €17,483. However, it was Plotnikov who became the official champion and received the trophy along with a cash prize of €16,401.
Quite an international field well beyond the Irish borders emerged with many local Irish players in the mix. However, many Canadians also entered the fray as well to battle for the trophy. Five of them cashed including Michael Khan, Kim Kilroy, Vanessa Kade, and Matthew Hall, the latter of which bubbled the unofficial final table. Jim Reid made it the furthest and even reached the official final table, on which he became the first casualty.
One hand later, Jorge Dinis was ousted in fifth place and comedian as well as award-winning poker commentator Joe “Stapes” Stapleton then also fell to Freeman. Stapleton’s initial plan – maybe in jest, maybe not, to exit the tournament at 6pm already – ended with a fourth-place finish when a suited queen-seven couldn’t beat king-jack. With the three short stacks gone, the remaining three players agreed on a deal and left 10% of the remaining prize pool up for grabs to the eventual champion.
Eventually, Carucci fell way behind Freeman and Plotnikov to bow out in third place. By then, the clock had struck 5am local time and the remaining two players agreed to chop what extra cash prize was left. Plotnikov had three big blinds more and was crowned the official winner.
Final Table Result Event #1 €350 Irish Open NLH 6-Max:
| Place | Winner | Country | Prize (in EUR) |
| 1 | Pavel Plotnikov | Lithuania | €16,401* |
| 2 | Stephen Freeman | Ireland | €17,483* |
| 3 | Sandro Carucci | Switzerland | €14,131* |
| 4 | Joe Stapleton | United States | €7,980 |
| 5 | Jorge Dinis | Portugal | €6,130 |
| 6 | Jim Reid | Canada | €4,720 |
