The Irish Open has teamed up with two of the world’s leading poker coaching sites to give players the chance of winning a €1,150 Irish Open Main Event seat.
Members of Faraz Jaka’s acclaimed site Jaka Coaching or Dara O’Kearney’s Simplify Poker site already benefit from a host of benefits. Jaka Coaching, founded in 2021, offers weekly group lessons to members along with access a large library of game plans and video recordings.
Simplify, led by award-winning podcaster, satellite tourney expert and best-selling author Dara O’Kearney, offers regular video material, monthly webinars and a thriving community forum – helping scores of players to master tournament poker.
Both sites are ideal for players of all kinds seeking to improve their game.
How to enter
Jaka Coaching will be giving away a €1,150 Irish Open Main Event ticket via an opt-in raffle running throughout February! If you’re not a member of Jaka Coaching yet, sign up! You’ll get all the info you need to enter the draw in the next members’ email update as well as notification via the members’ Discord channel and WhatsApp groups.
To win your Main Event ticket via Dara’s Simplify Poker site, you’ll need to answer a series of satellite strategy questions via the site’s members-only community. That contest kicks off on February 16 with the winner announced on February 27. It’s open to all existing and new Simplify Academy members. An extra bonus for members is a free webinar on strategy specifically aimed at the Irish Open online satellites currently running on PokerStars, Paddy Power and the iPoker network.
The two winners will also be granted an automatic place in the Battle of the Coaches, a points-based team challenge taking place at this year’s festival. The team captains will be: Dara O’Kearney for Simplify and Michael O’Dwyer for Jaka Coaching. Michael was Jaka’s first-ever member to snag a $1m+ score.
Numerous Jaka and Simplify members are already set to compete at the Irish Open but could now win themselves a free entry into the €2.5 million guaranteed Main Event.
Dara said: “We are really delighted to be able to give away a ticket to the best 1k event in the world to one of our members. The festival has grown every year since JP and Paul took it over and this year will be the biggest in terms of numbers, number of events and craic. If you want to take part in the contest and are not yet a member of the Academy you have lots of time to do so before the contest starts on February 16.
“The giveaway sets the scene for what I’m calling the Ryder Cup of Poker at the event, with Simplify Poker members from all over Europe competing against Team America (Jaka Coaching). We have members coming from France, Spain, Italy, Turkey, the UK and most other European countries.”
Jaka team captain O’Dwyer said: “Our entire community is excited about the Irish Open and this gives them even more reason to try to join the rest of the members attending. Players who haven’t been yet have certainly heard all about it from those that have! There is no festival in the world quite like it for the fun and the “craic”.
“After last year’s record-breaker (!), this year’s festival promises to be the best yet – with 86 different tournaments and, of course, The Craic Den! The giveaway this month is the perfect build-up for the festival and sets the scene for a fiercely-fought Ryder Cup-style rivalry at the event: Europe (Simplify) v Rest of the World (Jaka).”
Irish Open co-owners Paul O’Reilly and JP McCann recently appeared on the Chip Race podcast with Dara and co-host David Lappin. Click here to have a listen on SoundCloud.
The 2026 Irish Open festival is taking place from March 26 to April 6 at the Royal Dublin Society with 86 different tournaments including the €2.5million guaranteed Main Event, €1m guaranteed Luxon Pay Mystery Bounty and €1m guaranteed Mini Irish Open.
For more information, visit the Irish Open website at www.irishpokeropen.com or email info@irishpokeropen.com
