Irish Poker Open – Big Prizes and Big Money in Envelopes!
The Irish Poker Open is now creating six-figure winners as attention slowly turns to the €2.5 million guaranteed Main Event.
The main tournament area at the RDS during the Irish Poker Open makes for impressive viewing.
Key Facts:
- €102,600 mystery prize goes to little known Spanish player.
- A big win and second final table for German Marcel Kessler.
- Kenny Hallaert is the biggest winner to date.
- Irish Open Main Event on course to beat all records.
Action has continued apace at the Irish Poker Open, where the first €1 million guaranteed event has concluded. Tournaments are now attracting ever-increasing field sizes. Read our recap of proceedings at Dublin’s Royal Society halls and see what is next on the agenda for some of Europe’s finest poker players here.
Possibly the biggest smile in the whole of Dublin resides on the face of Spain’s Jorge Rios. Until this week, his most significant win at a live poker table was €16,694. His career winnings were less than €40,000.
That sum was boosted by €1,680 after he finished 54th in the Irish Open’s curtain raising Luxon Mystery Bounty tournament. However, a visit to the chest that contained lucky dip’ mystery prize’ envelopes for the competition saw this relatively poker newcomer hit the jackpot.
The biggest mystery prize was €102,600 – matching the first place in the competition’s traditional prizemoney pay ladder – and little did Rios know, it was destined to be in his hands soon afterwards.
Cash for Deals on International Stage
Meanwhile, players from eight nations were represented at the final table of the competition, where the official winner was Germany’s Nils Pudel.
He received the smallest cash prize of a trio of players – as a deal had been made when the tournament went three-handed. Naturally, all final table finishers also received additional mystery bounty prizes.
Luxon Mystery Bounty Results
- Nils Oudel (Germany) €67,510
- Nikolaos Angelou (Greece) €71,090
- Fabian Rolli (Switzerland) €71,090
The final of Monday’s €350 HORSE competition, which attracted 147 entries, did feature three Brits, but the top three places went to Canada’s David Dongwoo Ko (€11,000 for winning), China’s Zexuan Huan (€6,950) and Greek player Georgios Diamantidis (€4,930).
Monday also saw the €5,000 Hold’em 8-Max Mystery Bounty conclude. It attracted 39 disappointing entries and gave six players a prize. It was a tournament to remember for Germany’s Marcel Kessler, who collected four bounties ranging between €6,320 and €31,184 and won the trophy.
€5,000 Hold’em 8-Max Mystery Bounty Results
- Marcel Kessler (Germany) €103,008
- Ludvig Sterner (Sweden) €38,820
- Jon Kyte (Norway) €14,000
- Sam Grafton (UK) €10,380
Dutch Aces Cracked as Italian Scores
It took 34 levels of play for the €1,150 NLH 8-Max unlimited re-entry tournament to play down from 441 entries to a winner. That winner was Italy’s Giuseppe Dedoni, who had agreed on a three-way deal but played on for an additional ‘winners’ €10,000 and the title.
Dutch player David Hu will have sleepless nights about his fourth-placed finish despite winning €30,300. He had been in an all-in situation holding Aces, but the pocket Kings belonging to James Wynne found a third King on the turn.
€1,150 NLH 8-Max Results
- Giuseppe Dedoni (Italy) €66,500
- James Wynne (Ireland) €60,000
- Taran Parmar (Canada) €55,274
- David Hu (Netherlands) €30,300
Kessler Doubles Up in PLO
Not sitting on his laurels, Marcel Kessler immediately jumped into the €5,000 PLO High Roller 8-Max and pressed up his bankroll by €37,000 for a fourth-placed finish. This tournament attracted 80 healthy entries and was won by Finland’s Kai Lehto.
Surprisingly, a deal was not made – despite ringside reporters declaring that the average was under 17 big blinds when four players remained. Overall, 13 players received a payout starting at €9,500.
€5,000 PLO High Roller 8-Max Results
- Kai Lehto (Finland) €104,400
- Klemens Roiter (Austria) €67,300
- Ruslan Nazarenko (Ukraine) €48,100
- Marcel Kessler (Germany) €37,000
Main Event Second Day 1 Gets Big Numbers
Wednesday was a hectic day at the RDS – a venue where, much to this scribe’s amazement, event organisers informed me they must pay a rental premium to have carpet on the floor! – with no less than 16 tournaments running during the day.
The undoubted highlight was Day 1B of the Irish Open, which attracted 688 entries, all paying €1,150 apiece to play albeit many will have qualified cheaply online at one of the better UK poker sites.
One hundred seventy-nine players ended the day with chips – birthday boy Sweden’s Michel Karim finished with the largest chip stack (671,500) – and will return to contest Day 2 of the feature tournament on Saturday.
Results from the tournaments that concluded on the day are as follows:
€350 The Hendon Mob Championship
- Michal Havavka (Slovakia) €37,348
- Charlotte Waters (Austria) €40,000
- Kwan Chan (Ireland) €21,150
- Stuart Taylor (Canada) €16,250
€1,150 PLO 8-Max
- Yurii Zabrodotskyi (Ukraine) €56,213
- Eoghan Rogers (Ireland) €35,300
- Seamus Cahill (Ireland) €25,200
- Gabriel Vezina (Canada) €19,400
This Pot Limit Omaha tournament attracted 270 entries, generating a €276,413 prize pool. Thirty-nine players won a prize, of which eight were Irish, eight were from the UK, and six came from Finland.
€5,000 NLH High Roller 8-Max
- Kenny Hallaert (Belgium) €140,674
- Elias Suhonen (Finland) €134,526
- Lawrence Brandt (USA) €75,600
- Ludvig Sterner (Sweden) €58,100
Forty of the 147 entries had rebought into this High Roller to create a €680,800 prize pool. The Belgian winner is famed for his World Series of Poker Main Event final table appearance in 2016, and he cashed at the 2024 World Series in a remarkable ten events.
A Trip to the Bank for Monday Winners
While the 2025 Irish Poker Open has now passed its halfway mark, the Easter weekend promises to be the busiest period of the entire Irish Open Festival. No less than eight tournaments will conclude on Monday. Amongst those is the Irish Open Main event and the one-day Liam Flood Memorial, named after the former bookmaker and Irish Open Director.
