The latest four-card contest at the 2026 Irish Poker Open at the iconic Royal Dublin Society (RDS) saw a field of 162 entries emerge in Event #49 €1,150 PLO 8-Max. At least €164,997 will be up for grabs but the overall field size and total prize pool are not set in stone yet.
Upon completion of ten levels of 30 minutes each, the field was whittled down to 60 survivors but it is almost certain that several four-card lovers will join them at the end of the late registration when Day 2 recommences at noon local time.
In the last level of the night, Wei Jie Zheng won a monster pot with a flopped straight to knock out Leo Worthington-Leese and it was good enough to bag up a huge stack of 469,000. He sailed past Taago Tamm (339,000) and Colm Tuite (333,000) to claim the top spot while the top ten also features Richard Kellett (273,000) and Vahid Amirzahiri (203,000).
The winner of the €5,000 PLO High Roller Balazs Somodi was not running as good as earlier today and he lost four bullets, whereas runner-up Steven Tool bagged up 139,500 in his fifth attempt. Fourth-placed Ruslan Nazarenko needed only a single entry to nearly triple up his starting stack to 146,000.
Other notables to advance include Adam Geyer (174,500), Richard Ashby (140,500), Kevin Allen (129,000), John O’Shea (122,000), Adam Lahart (107,000), Ben Jackson (96,500), and Keith Johnson (88,000).
The day started with only 12 entrants spread across four tables and the three-handed action brought the first seat open in the very first hand when Ken Broad got it in with the flopped nut flush draw against two pair. It was a sign for the things to follow in the hours thereafter as the action never really slowed down.
All those wishing to enter at the last minute can do so at noon local time on April 1st, 2026 – not a joke. The blinds will be 1,500-3,000 with a big blind ante of 3,000 and that gives all those jumping in nearly 17 big blinds worth. The Irish Open blogging team will be back to provide as many of the key hands en route to crowning another Omaha champion at this year’s festival.
