A Recap of the Weekend Action from the Irish Poker Open
Big money and big hitters are in town as the 2025 Irish Poker Open enjoys its first bumper weekend.
300,000 chips are in circulation at the Irish Poker Open.
Key Facts:
- Mixed 8-Game Championship attracted a big field and produced a British winner.
- Shamil Patel takes Mystery PLO.
- €1.19 million Luxon Mystery Bounty down to final 30.
- 463 hopefuls contest Day 1A of the €2.5 million Irish Open.
No new winners were declared on the second day of 2025’s Irish Poker Open as valuable competitions such as the Luxon Mystery Boundy, Mini Irish Open, and Deaf Championship played their Day B flights.
The Friday action saw 169 players enter the €350 Mixed 8-Game Championship, making it one of the biggest mixed game fields ever played on European soil. Big staking players paid €5,000 to play a PLO High Roller Mystery Bounty event, which drew 28 entries and created a €129,696 prize pool.
England Claims Two Titles
On Saturday, three tournaments concluded with results and prizemoney as follows:
PLO High Roller Mystery Bounty
- Shamil Patel (England) €64,848
- Klemens Roiter (Austria) €40,548
- Fabian Rolli (Switzerland) €10,550
- Chris Dowling (Ireland) €7,600
- Markus Ristola (Finland) €6,150
Irish Open Deaf Championship
- Starny Hoang (Switzerland) €1,825
- Ueli Munoz (Switzerland) €1,180
- Darren Chow (Canada) €780
- Sabahudin Jusic (Croatia) €560
Mixed 8-Game Championship
- William Mawer (England) €11,980
- Felix Marutz (Germany) €7,470
- Yannick Jobin (Switzerland) €5,330
- Marius Kalfelis (Germany) €4,100
Bounties on the Line during €2.3m Buy-in Day
Like Friday, no new champions were crowned in Dublin’s breathtaking RDS events room on Sunday. The Luxon Mystery Bounty entered its Day 2 stage with 385 initial 1,222 entries playing down to 30 players.
Heading into Monday’s Day 3, Romania’s Florian Duta holds the chip lead. Rob Sherwood, who famously won $2.2 million in Las Vegas days before Christmas, sits at the bottom of the chip count list but is still in contention for a significant slice of the competition’s €1,191,450 prize pool.
Also, Day 1 of the €5,000 High Roller 8-Max Mystery Bounty also got underway on Sunday. Attracting a field of 39, it was played down to nine players who returned at 1 pm on Monday to decide a winner.
The week’s centrepiece tournament, the Irish Open, began with 463 hopefuls contesting Day 1A of this €2.5 million guaranteed multi-rebuy orgy. One hundred and fourteen players have now booked their place in next Saturday’s Day 2. Slovakia’s Martin Ilavsky is the early chip leader.
Nine competitions were played on Sunday; four were satellites into bigger events. Nevertheless, by our calculations, over €2,358,636 was handed over to the registration desk by players contesting the day’s events. The figure would challenge the daily tournament turnover of many UK online poker sites.
Two New Poker Champs on Monday
On Monday, two trophies will be awarded. The first goes to the winner of the €350 HORSE competition, which attracted 147 entries. The €5,000 Hold’em 8-Max Mystery Bounty will also have its cash prizes allocated and a new champion crowned.
The day’s High Roller is a €5,000 PLO 8-Max – which your intrepid reporter intends to contest – and specialists have their chance to shine in a €350 Deuce to 7 Triple Draw Championship.
