The final day of the 2024 Irish Open, easily the most spectacular poker festival Ireland has ever known, kicked off today at noon. The Main Event has broken its own record to become the richest poker tournament ever held in Ireland and the €500,000 Mini Irish Open has attracted absolutely bonkers numbers and now holds the record as Ireland’s largest ever tournament.
As well as the Main and the Mini, today also sees the final of the €1,100 NLH Mystery Bounty and the €1,100 PLO Mystery Bounty 8-Max. One-day events playing out today will include the €250 Seniors event starting at noon and the ever-popular €350 Liam Flood Memorial 6-Max, held in memory of the great Liam Flood who organised the Irish Open for many years. That one starts at 6pm. Also on are the €550 PLO 6-Max (Event 32) at 2pm, a €1,100 NLH Turbo (Event 33) at 4pm and a €150 NLH Turbo Single Re-Entry (Event 35) at 8pm.
11 left in Main Event
There are just 11 players left in the Main Event. Finland’s Tero Laurila started the day on 13,075,000. Spanish PokerStars qualifier David Tous was just a million or so behind on 12,125,000. It’s nice to see that nearly half the remaining field are home-grown. Padraig Parkinson, who started the day currently in 10th place, bust fairly early, finishing in 13th place for €24,660. Padraig has put in a stellar performance to achieve his best ever Irish Open cash. As PokerStars Team Pro Barny Boatman told us this morning: “Padraig is the Tommy Cooper of Irish Poker. He’ll distract you with a joke, and while you’re wondering which is the bottle and which is the glass, he’ll be raking in your chips.”
With a record-breaking 3,233 entries, the prize pool for the Main Event reached €3,152,175 with 480 paid. All 14 players still in are guaranteed at least €20,560 but will by vying for the mouth-watering €415,615 first prize. More than 800+ players qualified online for the event on PokerStars and Paddy Power as well as in live satellites at the venue and casinos around the world.
Follow all the updates on the Main Event on PokerNews.
Among the 466 players who have already cashed are Kimmo Kurko, Conor Beresford, Tobias Peters, Dara O’Kearney, David Lappin, PokerStars VIP player liaison whizz Brandon Nguyen, this year’s Heads-up Champion – Spanish live stream commentator Alex Romero, Kully Sidhu, Brandon Sheils, WSOP Ladies runner-up Debs “the Destroyer” Worley-Roberts, The Club’s Adam McKola and PokerStars Ambassador Sebastian Huber.
Major congrats to Dublin’s Dermot Harney who qualified for €5 on Paddy Power and left the tourney in 50th place for €7,220. Harney, who only lives 25 minutes away from the RDS, said that – thanks to the 30 minute security delay, he actually had time to get home and watch his own bust-out on TV. Congrats also to Kyle O’Connor who freerolled into a €1 Paddy Power promotion during the Cheltenham Festival to win his seat for nothing at all. He finished 294th in the Main Event for €2,340.
€85,070 for winner of €500k guarantee Mini Irish Open
Today is also the final of the €500k guaranteed Mini Irish Open, which has attracted a phenomenal 5,320 entries over the nine start flights, with 417 through to today’s gripping final (now down to some 342). The total prize pool is €881,790. Well-known Brit Kully Sidhu, an EPT Barcelona High Roller runner-up who already had a deep run in this year’s Irish Open Main Event, is in the field and thriving. Also doing well is Ben Rimmer – his mate Ashley Canning won the lottery for €23k but they are going halvsies on that. Other well-known players at top of the counts include Alex Todd, Albert Sapiano and Andrew Hulme. Here are the stats for the epic event:
• Day 1a: 302 entries – 23 through to the final
• Day 1b: 377 entries – 30 through to the final
• Day 1c: 383 entries – 29 through to the final
• Day 1d: 487 entries – 38 through to the final
• Day 1e: 724 entries – 55 through to the final
• Day 1f: 920 entries – 74 through to the final
• Day 1g: 559 entries – 44 through to the final
• Day 1h: 827 entries – 66 through to the final
• Day 1i: 741 entries – 57 through to the final
Updates here
Samuel Ju wins €3k High Roller
After more than almost 14 hours on the final day of the €3k High Roller – but only three hands of heads-up – German businessman and High roller regular Samuel Ju secured his first ever title win last night. The tournament attracted 172 entries, generating a total prize pool of €461,175.
Ju beat Triple Crown winner Roberto Romanello to grab his €95,275 prize, with Romanello getting €80k for his runner-up finish. Romanello operates a hit-and-run policy on the Irish Open – flies in, plays the €3k, gets second place, flies out again. Last year it was Benny Glaser who sent him back to Wales in second place and a five-figure cash and he’s already on his flight home now. Long-time chip leader Dominik Nitsche finished in third place for €48,200, UK regular Keith Johnson was fourth for €37,000 while Michael Kane was fifth for €28,500. Online legend Bert “Girafganger7” Stevens was 21st for €6,200 while Team PokerStars Pro Spraggy saw him work up from a single 1k chip to scrape his way into the money for a €5,300 min cash, finishing in 21st place.
The full report is here
Eriks Kumins wins €550 JP Poker Masters
The record-breaking 2024 Irish Poker Open €550 JP Masters is in the books with Latvia’s Eriks Krumins defeating Switzerland’s Robin Roth heads-up to win the trophy along with the €51,675 top prize.
Krumins delivered a commanding performance at the final table and held the chip lead several times throughout the day: every time he got knocked down, he just got right back up again. Once play was six-handed, Krumins again took the lead (after winning a big pot with aces) and dominated the table from thereon in.
The JP Masters attracted 566 entries, creating a huge prize pool of €275,925. The top 79 players walked away with at least a €910 min-cash.
Saulius Tumosa, who was leading at the start of the final, secured his first ever cash in Ireland, finishing 23rd for €2,060. There were 566 entries in the event, with 79 getting a share of the €275,925 prize pool. Full report is here.
Team England wins PokerStars’ England v Ireland Challenge
The long-awaited finale of the battle between Team England and Team Ireland finally arrived this morning – the heads up poker match between the two team captains, English PokerStars Team Pro Benjamin “Spraggy” Spragg and his Irish rival and fellow Team pro Fintan Hand. Many words could best describe it – dramatic, decisive but perhaps the most accurate would be quick!
Team England’s captain Spraggy had watched as his team had carved out a small lead over Team Ireland during the week’s various challenges, including inflatable horse racing obstacle course, inflatable sumo, Darts Poker, Shuffleboard and Cornhole. Standard stuff. All that hard work meant Spraggy started the heads-up match with a lead of 50k to 30k. A random draw ensured the pair would play ten hands before being forced all-in every hand. As it turned out, it was all done and dusted in the first hand.
Spraggy, as usual, was a humble winner, generous to his defeated foe. He said: “Leading this team has been one of greatest honours of my life. Unfortunately for Team Ireland, their leadership let them down when it mattered the most. Fintan put up…well I can’t really call it a “battle”, it was one hand!”
It’s been a hugely fun week for all involved; surely the abiding memory will be a sodden Tonkaaaap barrelling through obstacles like a man possessed, desperately pulling up his rapidly-deflating inflatable horse trousers. Unforgettable. The PokerStars’ England v Ireland Challenge has played out with a host of PokerStars Team Pros and other luminaries doing battle. Led by PokerStars Team Pro Spraggy, Team England has included Club’s Adam McKola and Rory Jennings plus Fintan home game winner Tim Goodwin while PokerStars Team Pro Fintan Hand’s Ireland squad has included PokerStars ambassador Marle Spragg, Irish Poker Open Ambassador Chris Dowling and Spraggy Power Path winner Johnny Devaney. Goodwin hails from Canada, Devaney from Ireland so they swapped teams!
€23k lottery win for Ashley Canning
A fixture of the Irish Open, the annual Irish Open lottery took place yesterday with Ashley Canning winning the monster plastic bag containing over €23,000. A record-breaking 4,738 tickets were sold at €5 apiece. Ashley is splitting his prize 50/50 with his friend Ben Rimmer who is among the big stacks in the Mini.
