We certainly don’t seem to be winding down here at the RDS with yet another packed schedule of tournaments and Craic Den excitement planned for the penultimate day of the 2026 Irish Open.
Irish Open hosts first Ladies High Roller
The two-day, single-re-entry €1,150 Ladies High Roller is generating a lot of excitement. Female players clearly welcomed the chance to get their teeth into a women-only, higher buy-in event – especially if they could satellite in. An extra qualifier was laid on for the Ladies High Roller on Saturday afternoon and attracted a substantial 72 entries. 2026 Ladies Championship runner-up Kristiana Stauere, Canada’s Kim Kilroy, Wendy Watson, Charlotte Godwin, Susan O’Connell, Juliet Vorster and ebullient Irish Open superfan Debs the Destroyer Worley-Roberts all won their High Roller entries for just €140.
The tourney gets underway at 2pm with players such as KerryJane Craigie, PokerStars’ Ambassador for Women in Poker, Hippodrome Ambassador Lydia Cugudda, who was runner-up in the 2025 Ladies Championship and Irish Open Ambassador Karen Muir all set to take part. Live updates will be here.
Old Dogs and Young Pups emerge from overnight kennels
The inaugural Old Dogs and Young Pups tournament started yesterday and 24 players are through to Day 2, coming back at 1pm. There were equal numbers of oldies and young ‘uns taking part in the debut edition of this generational grudge match with 80 participating on each side of the age divide.
The total prize pool is €33,577 with first place standing at €7,820. The current chip leader is Jan Cvach from the Czech Republic who competed in the Young Pups flight. Dermot Sweeney was the chip leader in the Old Dogs flight. You can read all about it here.
€550 JP Poker Masters Championship
The JP Poker Masters was yet another tournament at this year’s Irish Open to tear up the record books. The event, traditionally held towards the end of the festival, is always a very popular fixture but this year’s 911 entries field was some 50% higher than last year. There are now just 77 players remaining, all guaranteed at least €1,120. The total prize pool was €441,835 with 135 players getting paid. Today’s champion will receive €77,080.
The current chip leader is Antoine Vranken of the Netherlands (1,371,000). He stormed to the top of the standings at the end of 17 levels of play. Vranken is a seasoned pro with over $1.5 million in recorded live earnings and sits in the top 30 in the Dutch all-time money list. For yesterday’s report, click here and today’s action can be followed here.
Also on today are Day 1 of the €1,150 NLH Mystery Bounty at noon, the PLO 4/5/6 at 4pm and the two-day Seniors Championship at 6pm. Click those event titles to reach the live updates pages.
€3k High Roller 8-Max
The €3k High Roller 8-Max will get a champion today with 45 already through to the final. There were 93 entries yesterday but the figure may well increase with late registration and re-entry open until the start of play today at noon. So far, there’s at least €248,078 in the prize pool. A total of 45 players have already made it through and the pair at the top of the leaderboard – Stanislaw Grodek (267,000) and Andrew Mikhail (263,500) – are separated by less than two big blinds. Making a strong bid for his second trophy of the festival is British pro Brandon Harris who snagged his first (ever!) in the Shoot-out Championship on Friday. He won that event for €15,750. Also still in contention is two-time High Roller champion Roope Tarmi. You can follow along on our Live Updates page.
PLO Mystery Bounty 8-Max
It’s the final of the €1,150 buy-in PLO Mystery Bounty 8-Max final today. Live updates will be here.
Mini Mini Mini
Ok. This really is it!!! Your very last chances to compete in Europe’s largest low buy-in tournament – €250 buy-in with a €1 million guarantee. Early birds for Day 1l got underway at 11am. Day 1m is at 3pm and the very last flight of 2026 – Day 1n – is at 8pm. We’ve had 4,894 entries to date and a total of 198 players are already through to Day 2 from the first eight flights. The prize pool is already well over €1 million. Keep up with all things Mini here.
Flip it
The final Flip and Go tourney is tonight with tables getting into action between 9pm and 11pm. The concept is simple: a super-quick Day 1 FLIP stage (today) which hot-seats each winner straight into tomorrow’s Day 2 – a conventional €1k freezeout. We’ve had two Flip champions so far. Jiang Pu took down the first one for €6,550 and Tristan Ragnarsson the second for €3,160.
Spin & Go
Tonight is also your last chance to have a go in our €50 buy-in Spin & Go tournaments. They’ve been creating a buzz in the cash game area every night. Each game features four-minute blind levels, a 4,000 starting stack and kicks off with 100/200 blinds and a 500 ante. The fun means the prize pool could be anything up to €1,000! Just turn up with cash (or your cash game chips) and give it a try. The action starts at 8pm.
Towering performance in the Lip Synch
Congratulations to the Tower whose tribute to Freddie Mercury in last night’s Lip Synch contest will go down in history as one of the best acts ever seen in the Craic Den.
Despite the competition only getting underway at midnight, the Craic Den was totally rammed with party-goers who were treated to some outstanding acts. Craic Den hostesses Polly and Michaela delighted everyone with their Daft Punk rendition while Jim Reid also wowed with his YMCA-in-sequins performance. Defending champions, the Craic Street Boys – featuring Felix Schneiders, Team Pro Nick Walsh, retiring PokerStars stalwart Chris Stragalis and GRND cameraman Sam Roth – came close to keeping their title but the deafening cheers for Irish Open host The Tower sealed the deal. He was truly magnificent. Pics to follow!
And tonight it’s party time!!! 70s theme fancy dress competition
We’re going full 1970s for tonight’s Players Party in the Craic Den and giving away a 2027 Mini Irish Open ticket for the best 70s theme fancy dress outfit too. Just hope you’ve remembered to bring your flares !
It will be a full boogie wonderland once the live music kicks off with the Bentley Boys pumping out the tunes from 11pm.
We’ll be kicking off the fun at 8.30pm for PokerStars’s last Happy Hour followed by Phil’s Banging Bingo at 9.30pm.
