The Irish Open

The Irish Open Poker Tournament – 40-Year Anniversary

Covid-19 has taken its toll on the world in 2020 and unfortunately, the Irish Open poker tournament is another casualty. Initially the live poker tournament had to be postponed, but thankfully a partnership with Party Poker to take it online flourished and not all was lost. A slightly different experience for this land based tournament but the title and cash were still up for grabs and both were won by Brazilian Pablo Silva. There was a record breaking field of 2,945 entries, the first place prize was €462,100 with the top 408 finishers being paid out as well.

History of the Irish Open

Finding its roots back in the 1980s, the Irish Poker Open – now named the Paddy Power Irish Poker Open, for advertising reasons – is one of the longest running No Limit Texas Hold ’Em tournaments in Europe, second only to the World Series of Poker.

A well-known Irish Bookmaker by the name of Terry Rogers started the Irish Poker Open in 1980. Usually held over the Easter weekend, the tournament is the largest of its kind on the international poker calendar.

The Irish Poker Open has seen huge growth since it began in 1980. In 2006 the event, having outgrown the Merrion Casino, was held in Jury’s Ballsbridge Hotel in Dublin. Subsequently, in 2007 the event was moved to the Burlington Hotel, also in Dublin, to make room for even more players. That year the Irish Poker Open Main Event had a guaranteed prize pool of €2 million – twice the size of the guaranteed prize in 2006 – but with a European record entry of 708 players, the prize pool was increased to more than €2.3 Million.

The 2009 tournament returned to its 2008 venue, the CityWest Hotel in Dublin, and accommodated a field of more than 700 competitors – a larger than expected number, despite the massive field two years prior. With numerous well-known celebrities in the highly competitive field, including Jennifer Tilly, Phil Laak, and 2008 WSOP winner Marty Smyth, Swedish star Christer Johansson eventually took the title and with it, €600,000 in prize money.

In 2010 the Irish Poker Open returned to the Burlington Hotel for the first time in three years, with the main event winner’s prize of €500,000 being taken by James Mitchell.

The numbers for the Irish Open declined year on year until 2015 when it returned to The CityWest Hotel. With a field of 321 all vying for a share of the €1,027,200 up for grabs, the glory of 1^st place went to Ioannis Triantafyllakis from Greece who took home €209,500.

In 2016 with a field of 802 players, Daniel Wilson took 1^st place for a prize of €150,000.

The following year Canadian poker pro and former professional gamer Griffin Benger won 1^st place, capturing the iconic title and the 1st prize of €200,000. The record breaking field built a total prizepool of €1,128,295 that was split amongst the top 135 finishers,

When 2018 rolled around another bumper record-breaking field of 1,348, paid the entry fee, with Ryan Mandara winning €210,000 for his 1^st place win.

Another record-breaking event followed with the 2019 Irish Poker Open which attracted 1,807 players. The coveted title being won by Weijie Zheng, with 1st place earnings of $337,500