Irish Poker Open 2026 Already Has Stories to Spare After Its Opening Weekend

Chris Dowling Opens the Cuatro Era by Winning the €3,000 Cuatro PLO High Roller

One of the more notable results of these early days came from the very first Cuatro tournament to run at this year’s Irish Poker Open, and it ended with a fairly fitting winner.

Irish Open ambassador Chris Dowling took down the €3,000 Cuatro PLO High Roller for €46,175 after a strong final-day run that turned into a fairly one-sided finish once he got moving. The event drew 46 entries and built a €122,705 prize pool.

Dowling came into the final day with the third-biggest stack, but once he found the chip lead, the rest of the tournament seemed to move at his pace. By the end, he had picked up another Irish Open Omaha title and done it in record time to still make it to his son’s Gaelic football match later that afternoon. Not a bad day’s scheduling, all things considered.

The win pushes Dowling to around $1.6 million in live earnings and adds another sizeable result to a résumé that already had him regarded as one of Ireland’s top Omaha players.

€3,000 Cuatro PLO High Roller Final Table

Barry Grime Talks, Charges, and Wins the €350 Big O Championship

If the opening days needed a bigger and louder result, then Barry Grime took care of it.

The Englishman, introduced to many around the room as “Big Baz from Bolton,” won the 2026 Irish Open Big O Championship after a final-table stretch that ran deep into the night and ended close to 3 am. The €350 event drew 118 entries, only slightly down on last year’s 122, and generated a €35,483 prize pool shared by the top 17 finishers.

By all accounts, Grime brought plenty of noise to the tables along with the aggression, and both seemed to work well enough. He built momentum late, hit resistance during three-handed play, then recovered to eliminate Simen Gulbrandsen in third before turning the heads-up battle around against Akseli Paalanen.

There were a few extra names around this one too. Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies made a deep run and finished fourth, while Alexander Rizvi, who placed third in the Mini Irish Open last year, bowed out in fifth. Randy “Gucci Man” Hagen also made the final table in one of the more memorable outfits of the opening days, which is not a sentence every event gets.

€350 Big O Championship Final Table

David Smith Outlasts the Field in the Super Seniors Championship

The Super Seniors Championship took a little longer to settle, but David Smith made sure he was the only one still standing when it finally did.

The event attracted 216 entries and produced a €45,047 prize pool, with Smith defeating Paul Murnin after a day that stretched well past reasonable bedtime expectations. He closed it out a little after 4 am, roughly 13 hours after the tournament began.

Smith had been in the mix throughout the day, but strengthened his position further after winning a huge pot against Joseph Moloney not long before the final table formed. From there, he never really lost control.

The field also featured several recognisable names early on, including Andy Black, Padraig Parkinson, and John Duthie, while last year’s winner Pip Arthur managed to outlast much of the field before his title defence ended in 50th place.

Super Seniors Championship Final Table

Chris Bean Takes the Mixed 8-Game Title After Reporting on It Last Year

One of the more full circle moment from the first few days came in the €350 Mixed 8-Game Championship, where Chris Bean went from covering the event a year ago to winning it this time around.

The tournament drew 183 entries, creating a €55,028 prize pool, with 23 players returning for the final day. After nearly six and a half hours of final-day play, Bean emerged with the title and a top payout of €10,450, matching runner-up Cory Desmond after the two shared the biggest slice of the money.

It was already a decent story before the heads-up deal. Bean, who is also part of the BADPokerPodcast and had worked on the Irish Open blogging team last year, apparently looked at the field in 2025 and decided he wanted in properly this time. Safe to say that idea worked out.

The final table also included Blaise Bourgeois in third, while Germany’s Andre Borrmann managed a fourth-place finish in only his second live tournament. Start-of-day chip leader Nicolas Bokowski led the returning field but could not convert that position into a podium finish.

Mixed 8-Game Championship Final Table

Plenty More to Come

That, of course, is only the early part of the story.

The Irish Poker Open schedule is already deep into the point where one event ends and three more are waiting nearby, with mixed game action, high rollers, and the ever-growing Mini Irish Open all continuing to fill the room. The €1 million guaranteed Mini has already built solid numbers through its opening flights, while events like the HORSE Championship, Kings and Queens, the Cuatro High Roller, and Flip & Go all added to what is becoming a packed early-week slate.

We’ll have more from Dublin and the Craic poker floor soon enough.