Organisers are expecting a big turn-out for this year’s €300 Main Event with a prize pool set to top €250,000. The IPO is a truly international event; as well as those playing on home soil, players will be heading to the Irish capital from all over the UK, Europe and further afield. In total, there are 20 different tournaments on an exciting schedule that also includes the return of the €50,000 guarantee Luxon Pay Super High Roller.
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Following an online Day 1a, the live Main Event gets going at 2pm on Thursday, October 27. The initial start flights have 40-minute blind levels while Day 1d is a “reduced clock” turbo and final Day 1e flight is a Hyper Turbo with ten-minute blind levels, kicking off at 9.30am on Sunday, October 30. All Day 1 players start with a 30,000 stack.
The International Poker Open is one of Europe’s longest-running and most popular poker events and has been held annually since 2007. Players relish the lively “craic” that the city of Dublin always offers as well as the chance to meet up with friends and take part in a rich variety of different tournaments.
Among those looking forward to competing this year is Irish pro and Unibet Ambassador Dara O’Kearney, (pictured above) who co-hosts the award-winning Chip Race podcast with David Lappin(pictured above). He said: “The IPO has always been the highlight of the year for grassroots poker in Ireland since I played the very first one, and attracts its fair share of foreign visitors to our shores. This year has a full schedule of side events but the one I’m most looking forward to is the Chip Race Mystery Bounty. It’s the first Mystery Bounty that we’ve sponsored at the IPO and promises to be a lot of fun. Unibet will be adding prizes worth between €50 and €1000 for early bounties. We anticipate a prize pool of over €50k as mystery bounties are really catching the imagination of recreational players!”
Kat Arnsby and Paul Romain (pictured above) at Unibet Malta Mystery Bounty
At the last live IPO in 2021, Irish player Jamie Cusack defeated a 974-entry field to take down the Main Event for €46,590. Cusack, a 36-year-old personal trainer from Cork, fought his way through the giant field and a tough final table that included WPT300 winner Peter Wigglesworth and the 2015 IPO champion Pat Bermingham. By the end of the four-day tourney, 119 players were paid out from the €246,909 prize pool with a min-cash worth €560.
The flagship €550 High Roller is being held once again in memory of the popular and respected poker veteran Leslie McLean. Other highlights on the schedule include the €80 Dublin Poker Club buy-in Loads’a Chips deepstack and the €60 Dublin Poker Club Cheap n’Deep event – both offer players a generous 50,000 starting stack. Two NLH Progressive Knockout also feature, along with a Saturday Night Freezeout and PLO Double Chance.
Live stream
This year’s IPO live stream will be hosted by Unibet Ambassadors Dara O’Kearney and David Lappin. The Main Event will be covered throughout Day 1b, Day 3 and the final day. On Saturday, the final of the €50k guarantee Luxon Pay Super High Roller will be taking centre stage.
Photo Credit: Elena Kask, Unibet