About the
This team represents the passion and excitement that define the Irish Open
From strategic minds to charismatic personalities, the Irish Poker Open is delighted to announce Team Irish Open.
Irish Open Ambassador
Chris Dowling
Irish Open Ambassador Chris Dowling is one of Ireland’s most successful live tournament players and, as of early 2024, had won over $1 million in live poker tournaments putting him in 21st place on the Ireland all-time money list. Chris is a stalwart of the Irish poker scene and a very well-respected player both at home and overseas.
Chris is a self-confessed Irish Open “super-fan” and happily admits that it’s his favourite event of the year. In fact, he likes it so much that, even though he lives in nearby Kildare, he always stays close to the Irish Open venue so he can enjoy the craic after each day’s poker ends. He also takes pride in the long history of the Irish Open and the fact that it’s the oldest poker tournament in the world outside of Vegas.
Chris has played every Irish Open Main Event since 2009 and has cashed in the Main Event five times. His third-place finish in the 2017 Irish Open Main Event was one of the best cashes of his live poker career but he’s also had a couple of other deep runs including 13th in 2015 and 24th the year before that.
Chris said: “There is no event like The Irish Open. You just can’t replicate the atmosphere in the rooms and the bars. The craic is easily the best. Poker is a very big part of the
Irish Open of course but there are so many other things going on during the week; you can play poker non-stop or there are a lot of off-the-felt activities. The Irish Open is definitely one of the highlights of the poker calendar for players from around the world but there is also a big poker community in Ireland and, money aside, this is the one tournament that we’d all LOVE to win!
Chris’s role will be to raise awareness of the Irish Poker Open both at home in Ireland and overseas and help promote the event to players – especially those who have never attended before. As part of his role, Chris ran a special “Irish Open Last Man Standing” contest in Vegas last summer and will continue to promote the event wherever he plays.
You can following Chris on X (Twitter for the old school of us) and Instagram with his username ‘ballymorechris’.
Irish Open Ambassador
Karen Muir
Karen is a well-known player in the Irish poker community as well as in Europe where she plays regularly in tournaments and cash games at major festivals. She will be joining fellow Ambassador Chris Dowling in raising awareness of the Irish Poker Open both at home and overseas and helping to promote the event to her wide network of female players.
Karen, who lives in Dublin and has been playing poker full-time for around nine years, has a string of great results to her name including winning the NLH Bounty Freezeout at the Master of Classics in Amsterdam for a coveted MCOP Plate and cash prize, and as well as taking down the Pot Limit Omaha Double Chance tournament at Estrellas Poker Tour in Marbella for her first PokerStars spade trophy. She is also a founder member of Ireland’s team in the Match Poker Nations Cup – which Ireland, sponsored by the Irish Open, won the first time they ever played it in 2017. Overall, her live tournament winnings now total more than $50,000.
She said: “I’m absolutely delighted that the Irish Open has given me this honour to represent the event and become an Ambassador. It’s an amazing opportunity. I’ve been playing the Irish Open for nearly a decade – in fact, next year’s event will mark my tenth anniversary. Hopefully I’m going to win it – it’s been a long time since a woman won it! I travel abroad at least ten times a year and I’m a very social person so it will be easy to spread the word about the Irish Open wherever I’m playing.”
After working for the family casino business for many years, Karen first took up poker in 2008. After only a few months, she had won a satellite to the £2,000 Sky Sports European Ladies Event and found herself sitting alongside such poker luminaries as Liv Boeree and Annette Obrestad. Despite the tough competition, she finished sixth for $6,000 and was hooked on live poker from then on. Most recently she was competing at UKIPT Brighton and is currently in Spain for Estrellas Malaga.
She added: “The Irish Open is always on my calendar and I always try to play it if I can. Even though I’m primarily a cash game player, I love playing big tournaments. So, whatever I go to, I’ll usually play the Main Event, a few side events and then some cash. I can’t wait for next year’s Irish Open – it’s going to be amazing wearing the Irish Open patch at the longest-running poker tournament outside of Las Vegas. I played at the new RDS venue last year and it was great; I can’t wait to play there again as an Irish Open Ambassador. I’m thrilled.”
Friend of the Irish Open
Darren Chow
Canadian Darren Chow will be making his first trip to the Irish Open this year and is really looking forward to the experience. Now 40, Chow is a landscaper by trade but is also an accomplished poker player with more than $17,000 in live tournament cashes to his name.
He first took up poker in 2004 when a labour dispute led to the cancellation entire 2004-2005 National Hockey League season. Like many sports fans in Canada, Chow was looking for an alternative pursuit to get involved with – and found poker!
Chow is Deaf and hopes that his attendance at this year’s Irish Open will encourage other Deaf poker players around the world to get involved. He said: “I am hoping to develop new friendships, learn new skills and be a role model for the rest of the Deaf poker-playing community. Poker is a global community that involves both hearing and Deaf players and I just love being a part of that community and meeting people from all walks of life.
“I love the experience of playing poker in different countries around the world. For me poker creates a pathway to travel more. Whilst I find the format mostly similar in all countries, it’s the atmosphere and the services involved at those different locations that I appreciate experiencing while I play. I’m thrilled to be involved with the Irish Open and very eager to experience the culture and atmosphere of Ireland and its rich history.”
Chow, who hails from Toronto, is a self-taught player but has honed his skills through reading and attending live events. He added: “For over 20 years I’ve been training and developing my strategies however there is no one way to play and I know I still have more to learn.”
Chow’s various poker achievements include winning a C$385 buy-in tournament at Casino Niagara and a final table appearance in the Calgary Spring Super Stack C$340 Deepstack event. He also has several cashes on the Deaf Poker Tour and the 2023 Victorian Deaf Poker Championship.
Fellow Canadians now have a wealth of options to qualify online for Irish Poker Open 2024. PokerStars are offering satellites in Ontario while iPoker sites Bet365, Champion Poker, Coolbet, Guts, Redstar, TitanBet and William Hill are all offering satellites in Canadian states excluding Ontario.
You can follow Darren on Instagram.
Tournament Director
Shawn Lytle
Tournament Director Shawn Lytle has been working at the Irish Open for well over 15 years. He first started as a dealer back in 2007 and says his favourite moment was becoming a full-on Tournament Director for the festival.
He and his wife Jena (Dealer Supervisor at the Irish Open) first met at the World Series and still work at the event every year, as well as tournaments all over the States, across Europe and on Card Player Cruises.
Shawn took up playing poker while working his way through college and still likes to play when he can find time. He says the Irish Open is his absolute favourite event of the year and is impressed by the transformation that’s taken place since Paul O’Reilly and JP McCann started running the festival in 2016. Shawn hails from Michigan but has now settled with Jena in Gulfport, Florida.
Assistant Tournament Director
Nick O’Hara
Nick O’Hara is one of the best known and most experienced tournament directors in Europe. He’s been running poker events for over 20 years and has also been a driving force behind the development of the market-leading kHold’em poker tournament software.
Nick first started running poker events back in 2004 while working as an adventure sports instructor. With little going on during the off-season, Nick decided to liven up the winter months by hosting a fun €25 + €5 poker tournament. To his surprise, more than 80 players turned up to the first event and Nick was soon running regular poker tournaments at The Angler’s Rest pub in Dublin and then other pubs around the city. He said: “It was crazy. The first night at my brother’s pub, we had 91 players. A few days later, we had 300. So I started organising tournaments at other pubs and before I knew it, I was running three tournaments a night, five nights a week all over Dublin – with hundreds of players at every single one. A lot of really well-known Irish players actually started their poker careers in my pub tournaments.
“It was all pretty basic back in the day. We ran the clock using old-fashioned overhead projectors and every level I would scrub out the old blinds with a cloth, and then hand-write in the new blinds. There was no software, you couldn’t even buy branded poker tables or baizes. We had off-the-shelf poker chips and I’d write up the denominations on pieces of paper and stick them on the walls.”
For around ten years, Nick combined his career in adventure sports with organising poker tournaments. He also started working at big international events such as PokerStars’ European Poker Tour, the UKIPTs, Unibet Opens and – from 2013 – the Irish Open. He became the Irish Open Tournament Director in 2015 when JP and Paul O’Reilly took over the event.
Nick also runs the International Poker Open which takes place in Dublin every Autumn. The Dublin-based father-of-two is also well-known for his work with kHold’em and was a key figure in developing the innovative software. Khold’em is now use at major tournaments worldwide.
Nick says the biggest challenge in running any poker tournament is preparation and planning and, in particular, estimating how many players will need to be seated – in every tournament and every cash game – for every hour of every day. He said: “Getting that right is crucial. If we get it wrong, we either don’t have enough tables or staff OR we have loads of empty tables – and staff standing around with nothing to do. It’s a very fine balance and something we’re really focusing on for this year’s tournament.”
Outside of work, Nick is still actively involved in adventure sports and is chair of his local Poulaphouca Paddlers kayaking club.
Cash Desk Manager
Brian McNamara
Cash Desk Manager Brian McNamara is certainly one of the longest-serving members of staff at the Irish Open. He first got involved back in 2005 and has worked every single event held since then.
His involvement in poker began in the early 2000s where he was steadily working up the ranks at the Merrion Casino Club and Paul O’Reilly’s Colossus Casino Club. The 2004 European Poker Tour Dublin festival, which was held at the Merrion, was his first major tournament. He was also Cash Desk Manager for the Norwegian Poker Championships and when that started running back-to-back with the Irish Open, became Cash Desk Manager for both events.
Brian has since used his background in computer programming to transform the Irish Open cash desk – turning it from an operation dependent on duplicate books and loose sheets of paper to a streamlined, digitised system. Cash desk processes now include tracking/reporting for staffing as well as tournament prize processing – which dramatically speeds up payouts for everyone who cashes in an event.
He said: “The Irish Open is the highlight of my working year but it’s always a big challenge and the stress levels can be quite high! I used to say every year that “this year will be my last” but nowadays I’m already planning upgrades before the dust has even settled on the current one.”
Under Brian’s stewardship, the cash desk team has grown from four people to 10 and is now open 24 hours a day. He added: “It gives me a great sense of pride seeing my own impact on the event, but my team of cashiers are excellent too and make my job much easier. To give Paul and JP a lot of credit, they have never refused any requests of mine. So much so, that when I jokingly asked for a TV so the cashiers could watch the football, I was told ‘ok’. The cashiers will hate me for turning down the offer.”
Despite all his years working at poker events, Brian confesses that he still has almost no knowledge of poker. He said: “I don’t even know the winning hands. But if you need someone to run a cash desk for you then I’m your man!!!” That said, his favourite Irish Open moment is a poker one; in 2011, Niall Smyth turned a €10 horse racing bet into a satellite buy-in, won a ticket to the Main Event and then went on to win the whole thing for €550,000.
Born in County Kildare, Brian has worked at dozens of poker tournaments over the years including the Norwegian Poker Championships, the Irish Winter Festivals of Poker, EPT Dublin and WPT Ireland. He said: “There is nothing that compares to the Irish Poker Open though. Come for the poker, come back for the craic (and the poker). It is no surprise to me that the event grows every year, it’s more than just a poker tournament.”
Cash Games Manager
Rudi Zirio
Italian tournament director Rudi Zirio is a very well-known figure on the European poker circuit thanks to nearly two decades of working at major events all over the continent. He first started his career in Lugano where he worked as a casino duty manager. Poker was slowly being introduced and the Lugano venue already had a few tables however Rudi was keen to travel and decided that that he would rather work at poker festivals than a fixed venue.
Rudi has now spent some 17 years working on PokerStars’ flagship European Poker Tour, almost since the tour began. And it is through the EPT that he got to know Irish Open organiser JP McCann. When JP and Paul O’Reilly took over the running of the Irish Open, Rudi was hired as Cash Game Manager, a role he’d also been undertaking on the EPT. Nowadays Rudi is just as happy working cash games or tournaments but one thing is clear to him – the Irish Open is a very special event. He said: “I can’t pick a favourite moment – for me, it’s all of it, the ambience, the atmosphere. Trust me, we work very, very, very hard but it’s also a lot of fun. The Irish Open is not as formal as other events so you do your job well but it’s all a lot more relaxed.”
Aside from EPTs and the Irish Open, Rudi can also be seen hard at work at Winamax events in France and festivals at the Merit Casino in Cyprus.
Dealer Supervisor
Jena Lytle
Jena Lytle first started as a dealer back in 2006 when she undertook an eight-week course to work at a card room in Tampa Bay, Florida. She quickly progressed and that summer, started dealing at the World Series where she first met her husband-to-be Shawn (Tournament Director at the Irish Open). In 2008, only a few years after starting her career, she was named Dealer of the Year at the WSOP – out of more than 1,200 dealers.
Jena’s first Irish Open was in 2010 and, after the festival merged with the Norwegian Championships, she was appointed Dealer Supervisor and then Lead Dealer Supervisor in 2013. Originally from Missouri, Jena and Shawn – who have been married for more than 12 years – have now settled in Gulfport, Florida. Her favourite part of the Irish Open is the €5 random lottery which traditionally takes place around halfway through the festival and always causes huge excitement!
Like Shawn, Jena plays poker when she can find the time – particularly stud and any version of poker with more than two cards! (So not Hold’em then! She and Shawn work year-round at tournaments all over the States, across Europe and on Card Player Cruises.
She said: The biggest challenge of my job is dealing with so many different personalities and languages. We have a dealer team of over 200 from all over Europe. I just do my best and try to make everyone happy.”
Entertainment
Phil Baker
Entertainments whizz Phil Baker is a true veteran of the Irish Open having work at the festival for over 20 years. He first got involved as event host and MC right at the start of the Liam Flood era and his role – both then and now – is to make sure everyone is having fun! Phil organises all the off-the-felt activity at the Irish Open – including all the live music – and also presents the nightly shows in the Player Lounge. Some of the highlights last year were the comedy night plus beer pong, shuffleboard and corn hole competitions.
For many players, Phil’s contribution to the event is a huge factor is what makes the Irish Open so special. He said: “Everyone knows it’s the “craic” that gets people coming back year after year. The Irish Open has an unbelievable atmosphere on and off the tables. The fun and vibrant buzz at the event is second to none. We want to make sure that everyone is having a great time.”
Phil has been involved in presenting for more than 30 years, taking on roles with some of the top event companies in Ireland. One of his top jobs was presenting a show at the Cannes Film Festival with A-list celebs in attendance. He’s also a very accomplished poker player with over $170,000 in live tournament winnings to his name. He made the final table of the Irish Open in 2009 and also cashed in 2006. Since becoming a father in 2011, playing poker has been put on the back burner but he still loves being able to hang out with old friends and poker pals when they pitch up for the Irish Open every year.
This year’s entertainment schedule is still under wraps but, as always, promises players a huge amount of fun away from the tables. Check out the Laura’s interview with Phil from 2023.
Official Photographer
Mickey May
Danish photographer Mickey May is a very familiar face at tournaments all over Europe. She has specialised in taking photos at live events since 2003 and has been covering the Irish Open since 2006.
Mickey first took up photography while backpacking with her now-husband poker commentator, presenter and author Jesse May in the early 1990s. Mickey took numerous pictures while they were away and once they got home, decided to pursue her passion. Following a two-year internship at a New York photography gallery, she then studied for six months at Fatamorgana, a Visual Art College in Copenhagen, before joining the college staff as an administrator.
Mickey was already well-accustomed to railing Jesse at poker tournaments but in 2003 she undertook her first poker photography assignment working at the World Series of Poker. It was a momentous milestone for live poker as 2003 was the year that accountant Chris Moneymaker took down the Main Event – a victory that helped sparked a massive poker boom that shows no sign of abating. She said: “I absolutely loved my experience at the WSOP and realised that this is what I wanted to do full-time. It also coincided with Jesse starting to do a lot of commentating. As a poker photographer, we’d be able to travel to events together.”
Since then, Mickey has worked for tons of well-known tour operators including Paddy Power, PokerStars, Ladbrokes, 888, Dusk Till Dawn, PartyPoker and GG Poker. She has also worked at numerous televised events such as PokerStars’ UKIPTs, the Poker Millions and Premier League events – along with being official snapper at three poker weddings! In 2015 she and Jesse jointly shared a European Poker Award for Best Media Content for their feature on PokerNews about the late Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott.
Although Mickey has loved every Irish Open that she’s worked at, one particular year stands out for her. In 2008 her good friend Neil Channing won after beating a 667-entry field. She said: “That was a very special moment and after his win, he invited a huge group of us out for a Thai dinner. It was an amazing night.”
Mickey, who grew up in Copenhagen, now lives in the Danish countryside with Jesse and the couple’s ten-year-old son, Luka. She does occasionally play poker herself – and was even once persuaded to play in a televised Ladbrokes event – she says she is definitely happiest behind the camera.
Check out our collection of Mickey’s favourite Irish Open photos. You can also follow Mickey on Instagram.
Host and Presenter
Laura Cornelius
Laura Cornelius has been a professional poker presenter and reporter for well over a decade including roles with Sky Poker, PokerNews and Unibet. She has loved card games since she was a child but first took up poker when a work colleague sent her some Daniel Negreanu training videos and invited her to her first game – in a secret room at a pub in Camden. Laura loved it and started going every week.
Laura trained as an actor so the transition to presenting came naturally to her. Early on in her career, she was the presenter for a late-night casino TV show and would do live on-air shifts dealing blackjack, baccarat and spinning roulette. But poker was her passion and soon she landed her first presenting role with “The Poker Player Magazine”.
In 2011, Cornelius joined PokerNews and has now worked at tournaments all over the world including the Unibet Open, the European Poker Tour, Battle of Malta and the Global Poker League. She first started hosting the Irish Open back in 2014 and loves the event for its unique ambience and the “craic”. She said: “The atmosphere is really unbeatable. Everyone talks to everyone, and the Irish make their guests feel very welcome. It’s also an amazing opportunity to catch up with lots of friends and colleagues.”
One of her favourite Irish Open moments was interviewing 2023 champion David Doherty last year after his victory. She said: “I’d already interviewed him very early on in the tournament and he told me then that he just had this feeling he was going to win. Watching him progress – and eventually take it down – was definitely quite a unique experience. Steve Dwyer’s winner interview in 2022 was also a big one – so emotional!
“It’s really very hard to pick a single favourite moment – as we all know, the Irish Open is full of amazing moments – but one of the highlights off the felt was going to Shelbourne Park Dog Track last year. We were a pretty raucous crowd and, for some reason, we were all wearing our Paddy Power-branded knickers over our trousers. A dog called “Discopants” was in the last race so obviously we all put our money on – and it came in! That was definitely a great Irish Open moment – we won a fortune!”
