More Stories and More Winners as Irish Poker Open 2026 Starts Week Two

Koch, Bartha, and More Gave Monday a Head Start

Monday was not exactly a slow start to the week.

One of the more unusual formats on the schedule produced its first champion when Switzerland’s Mike Koch won the inaugural Kings and Queens event for €5,500. The tournament drew 102 entries and kept its gender-balanced concept intact deep into the final day, with six men and six women still standing at the last 12 before Koch eventually got through heads-up play against Ireland’s Shella McSweeney.

The Luxon Mystery Bounty also came to a conclusion, although not before dragging on well beyond the point where anyone involved probably expected a quick finish.

Tudor Bartha emerged with the title and €110,700 in total winnings, made up of €96,700 in prize money plus bounties, while runner-up Carlo Wolters actually collected a bigger overall payout of €139,950 thanks to his talent for pulling the right envelopes at the right time. That event drew 1,175 players and produced a €569,875 prize pool.

Elsewhere, Germany’s Sascha Manns won the €350 HORSE Championship for €10,300 after beating Keith McCormack heads-up, while Ben Sweetman came through a 126-entry field to win the Deuce to 7 Triple Draw Championship. Finland’s Luka Sorainen also took down the €3,000 Cuatro NLH High Roller, finishing with €65,000 in total after eight knockouts boosted his payout well beyond the listed first-place money.

Balazs Somodi Adds Another Irish Open PLO Result, This Time With a Trophy

If there was any doubt that Balazs Somodi came to Dublin for the PLO schedule, Tuesday night did decent job clearing that up.

The Hungarian specialist won the €5,000 PLO High Roller after returning for the final day with three opponents still standing and making fairly quick work of the job. In fact, it took just half an hour to settle the title, with Somodi locking up his first Irish Open trophy and €46,695.

That result came not long after another deep run at this year’s festival, where he finished third in the Cuatro PLO High Roller (you can check that one out in our first IPO 2026 recap). Add in his previous Irish Open PLO cashes from last year, and it is pretty clear where he feels most at home.

The event drew 27 entries and built a €124,403 prize pool, with only four players getting paid. Somodi may have arrived because of the packed Omaha schedule, but he now has the silverware to justify the trip.

Eero Abbey Gets His First Win in Ireland in the €1,150 NLH 8-Max

Tuesday also brought a title for Finland’s Eero Abbey, who closed out the €1,150 NLH 8-Max for his first win on Irish soil.

Abbey, already known for winning the PokerStars Open Barcelona High Roller, came through a field of 285 entries in the Dublin event, with the tournament producing a €290,273 prize pool and paying the top 39 finishers. By the end, he struck a heads-up deal with Germany’s Benjamin Kuch, with Kuch collecting €47,160 for second. In this one, Conor O’Driscoll, Robbie Bull, Leo Worthington-Leese, and Paul Carr all made cashes, but Abbey was the one who finished with the trophy.

If you’d like to know how Abbey felt at the end of all of this, check out the post-match interview here:

Leonidas Georgopoulos Lands a Career-Best Score in the €350 NLH 6-Max Championship

Another one of the bigger stories from the last two days belonged to Greece’s Leonidas Georgopoulos, who won the €350 NLH 6-Max Championship for €47,700.

This was the biggest live cash of his career, pushing him beyond the $100,000 mark in recorded tournament winnings and giving him his first Irish flag on The Hendon Mob. Not a bad return for a €350 buy-in.

The tournament pulled in 865 entries and created a €206,106 prize pool, with 46 players finishing in the money. In the end, Georgopoulos outlasted Germany’s Jonas Heuser in heads-up play and got his hands on his first Irish Open trophy.

More Still to Come

If the start of this week was any indication of what’s to come, it’s going to be other chaos at the Craic in the next few days.

The next Flip Day 1 is already set for for today at 9 pm, and with bigger fields building across the series, the middle part of the week should bring even more movement in the marquee events.

We’ll have more from the floor as the Irish Poker Open continues, with our live updates tracking the action and more exclusive content landing across our socials. So if you want the next batch of winners, deep runs, and whatever else Dublin decides to throw up, that is where to keep an eye.