The 2023 Irish Poker Open Will Have a New Venue and Sponsor
Author:
Roy Brindley
The organizers of the Irish Poker Open have announced PokerStars and Paddy Power will jointly sponsor the famous annual festival in 2023. The new deal will see both brands – which are part of the FTSE 100 listed Flutter Entertainment plc – promote the event, live stream the action and stage online satellites.
Once again, the tournament will feature a Main Event guarantee of €1 million. But, for the first time, the competition will be played in the Royal Dublin Society’s conference and exhibition halls in central Dublin. In a unique move, PokerStars will also run an online Irish Poker Open series ahead of the early April event.
Poker legend Doyle Brunson helped raise the profile of the Irish Open in 1984. ?GettyImages
Announcing the new sponsorship agreement Paul O’Reilly and JP McCann, CEOs of the Irish Poker Open, said: “We are very proud to announce PokerStars and Paddy Power as the official sponsors of The Irish Poker Open. We are looking forward to bringing our players another epic Irish Open Poker Festival, whilst welcoming new players from around the globe.”
“We have exciting plans in place for the growth of The Irish Poker Open, Europe’s longest-running poker festival,” the pair continued. “And we believe, with PokerStars and Paddy Power as the new sponsors, this aligns perfectly with our vision for the growth of The Irish Poker Open over the coming years. This can only be a great thing for players.”
Mr Paddy Power Excited by the Comeback
Gregarious company spokesman, Paddy Power, added: “Paddy Power has over a decade of heritage as former sponsors of The Irish Poker Open, so the opportunity to make a comeback bigger than Boris Johnson – we could tell he was bluffing – by going all-in with our colleagues in Flutter made us royally flush with excitement.”
“By the very nature of its warm hospitality, Dublin – which bears a remarkable resemblance to Vegas if you crank up the central heating – always attracts a full house. And we’re at full tilt with plans to ensure the 2023 Irish Poker Open is the greatest poker tournament Europe has ever witnessed.”
The 2022 Irish Poker Open produced a Main Event prize pool just shy of €2 million. Players from 72 countries took part in the feature tournament or one of the side events that attracted over 7,000 entrants during the week-long festival.
Legendary Stu Ungar and the Pensioner Poster Girl
Financially and numerically, the Irish Poker Open is not the biggest tournament in Europe – far from it. But, as the longest-running competition in Europe, it is one of the most prestigious. The first Irish Poker Open was played in 1980 and won by Collette Doherty.
The stakes rose in 1984 when a large group of American players traveled to Ireland to play in the tournament staged that year at Killiney Castle. The group included the reigning World Series of Poker champion Tom McEvoy as well as two-time World Champion Stu Ungar, Chip Reese and Doyle Brunson.
With an Ir￡1,000 buy-in – a substantial sum at the time – that year’s Main Event attracted widespread television coverage in Ireland and put the Irish Poker Open firmly on the map.
2001 was another good year for the Irish Poker Open. By winning the competition, pensioner Jenny Hegarty claimed the hearts of newspaper editors and entered the minds of their readers. And the 72-year-old became an unlikely poster girl for the pursuit of poker playing.
