It’s a packed day ahead at the RDS as we head into our first 2026 Irish Open weekend. (Although we know every day is a weekend at the Irish Open!)
Don’t forget that the clocks go forward tonight so be careful not to lose an hour and miss the start of your chosen tourney …
or, worse still, miss the late reg deadline!!
Saturday’s tourneys are …
€1 million guaranteed Luxon Mystery Bounty
It’s 1c of the €1 million guaranteed Luxon Mystery Bounty today and another enormous field is expected. There were 254 entries for Day 1b yesterday bringing the total entries so far to 367. Leslie Packer was the 1b chip leader with 718,000 while EPT founder John Duthie, Mitchell Johnson and Jack Hardcastle are all in the top five. 2013 Irish Open Main Event champion Ian Simpson ended the day in tenth place (361,000).
The €1,150 Luxon Mystery Bounty attracted some accomplished players from continental Europe as well, including the EPT Barcelona 2022 Main Event champ Giuliano Bendinelli and two-time EPT finalist Antoine Saout. Bendinelli made it to Day 2 with 247,000 and Saout will continue with 107,000.
The final start flight for the Luxon Mystery Bounty is the turbo Day 1d at 8pm tonight. The combined field will then merge on Day 2, where the Mystery Bounties come into play.
€200 Irish Open Deaf Championship
The final of the €200 Irish Open Deaf Championship Main Event got underway today at noon. The €200 tournament attracted a massive 224 entries – nearly ten times the number of the inaugural event last year. We’re looking at a prize pool of €36,938 – to be divvied up by 18 players today. The current chip leader is Finland’s Sami Starck with 448,000 chips – and he’s just one 1,000 chip ahead of Day 1a’s leader Paul Whitehead. Irish Open Ambassador Darren Chow and last year’s winner Starny Hoang are also both still in – and both also cashed in last night’s €120 Deaf Championship. We will have full coverage on our live events page.
Dowling on final table of the €3k Cuatro PLO High Roller
The final of the €3k Cuatro PLO High Roller kicked off at 1pm with Ireland’s Seamus Cahill in the lead on 751,000. There were 46 entries yesterday and seven are through to today’s final table including Irish Open Ambassador Chris Dowling and Michael Muldoon. There will be full coverage on our live updates page.
APAT update
It’s been fast and furious on the final day of the €250 APAT Championship with 11 players gone already in the first hour. There are now just 18 left from the starting field of 366 entries, generating a prize pool of €76,329. Tonight’s winner (or perhaps this afternoon’s at the rate they’re going) will receive €15,200. Northern Ireland’s Mark Johnston (who finished third in the 2024 Irish Open Main Event) is still in the mix as in Liam “Bigli” Hind, We are blogging this one in full! Click right here.
Mini update
It’s Day 1c of the €250 buy-in, €1 million guaranteed Mini Irish Open at 6pm – details on that can be found here. A total of 20 players are already through to Day 2: eight from Day 1a and 12 players from Day 1b. With 14 starting days and €1,000,000 guaranteed, this is one of the ‘side’ events that will definitely be centre stage by the end of the festival.
The €350 buy-in two-day Mixed 8-Game Championship starts today at 2pm. This tournament, which involves switching gears between eight different poker games, is considered a real test of poker adaptability—one minute, you’re grinding Limit Hold’em, and the next, you’re in the wild streets of Razz or 2-7 Triple Draw. Mixed games specialist Bill Mawer took down the record-breaking Championship last year, outlasting a 169-entry field. The Irish Open is a haven for Mixed Games fans so do check out our story on how we’re mixing it up at this year’s Irish Open festival.
Also on today is the €120 Deaf Mystery Bounty which starts at 2pm. Details are here. Plus the €1,150 PLO 7-max starting at 1pm. Details are here.
Check out our live updates page for more info – just click the event title. And don’t forget you can also see all tourney results on the PS Live app.
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Registration made easy – download the Luxon app! Details are here.
Live satellites
There are three live satellites running today – all for the Luxon Mystery Bounty: 2 x €255 buy-in, 50k milestone satellite with five seats guaranteed and a €140 buy-in 100k milestone satellite with ten seats guaranteed.
| 11:00 | #19 | Satellite to Luxon Mystery Bounty – Milestone 50K – 5 Seats GTD | €255 |
| 14:00 | #21 | Satellite to Luxon Mystery Bounty – Milestone 100K – 10 Seats GTD | €140 |
| 17:00 | #24 | Satellite to Luxon Mystery Bounty – Milestone 50K – 5 Seats GTD | €255 |
For full details, see the Irish Open schedule.
Saturday night in the Craic Den
Thank you PokerStars for hosting tonight’s Happy Hour from 8pm to 9pm. Then it’s time for the gee-gees with Phil “Let me Entertain you” Baker running Race Night from 9pm to 10pm.
At 10pm, we have an Irish Open first with Deaf comedian John Smith. John, who lost his hearing when he was three, is a passionate BSL Teacher and Deaf rights activist who has performed for deaf and hearing audiences all over the world.
The late evening live music offering is from Copper & Sudsy, starting at 11pm.
For full details of all the entertainment planned for the Craic Den this year, click our schedule story.
