The 2024 Irish Poker Open has a winner. Finnish poker pro Tero Laurila walked away as the main event winner.
The epic six-day tournament was the most popular and the biggest cash prize poker tournament in Irish history.
More than 3,200 players took to the tables at the Royal Dublin Society in the Irish capital between March 25 and April 1.
However, the luck of the Irish was not enough to see a hometown hero come away the winner. Laurila made a strong comeback to victory on the final day, with Hiep Ninh, Oliver Boyce, and Adrian Thorne representing the home nation at the final table.
“I almost passed out, with all the stress coming from my body and mind,” Laurila told the Irish Open hosting team after his win.
“I’ve got four and a half hours of sleep two to three nights in a row. But of course, I’m going to celebrate something with the guys.”
The Winners
Interestingly, despite taking the winner’s crown, Laurila did not come away with the biggest share of the $3.1 million pot.
Runner-up Ninh cashed out $335,000 after doing a split deal with Mark Johnston earlier in the day. Johnson also walked away with $232,685.
Laurila started the final day far behind runaway chip leader Hiep Ninh.
However, a series of big calls put Laurila back in contention. Fourth-place Georgias Tsouloftas went all-in on a 3,4,5,6 straight, but lost to Ninh’s King pair.
After that, the three remaining players – Laurila, Ninh, and Johnston – had a tense discussion and agreed to cash out what they had, barring $85,000 in prizes for the final hand.
That saw Laurila take home the prize, capping off the final table performance with a lucky quad queens to eliminate Ninh.
Laurila, 39, has been playing poker since 2005. His previous biggest tournament cash was when he finished fourth in a PokerStars World Cup main event in 2006. He now has total career winnings of $493,238, according to the poker database Hendon Mob.
Popular Tournament
The tournament main event attracted more than 3,000 players. Some 500 of these entries were paid by PaddyPower and PokerStars, which covered the winners of various satellite online tournament qualifiers.
The previous record attendance was 2023, with 2,491 buy-ins. That was exceeded on Day 1 of this year’s event.
375 players made the money list, and the top five players (see below) all cashed out more than $100,000.
Place | Player | Country | Prize |
1 | Tero Laurila | Finland | €292,685* |
2 | Hiep Ninh | Ireland | €335,636* |
3 | Mark Johnston | United Kingdom | €232,685* |
4 | Georgios Tsouloftas | Cyprus | €142,760 |
5 | Oliver Boyce | Ireland | €109,820 |
David is an online casino expert who specializes in online slots and boasts over 10 years experience writing about iGaming. He has written for a wide range of notable publications, including eSports Insider and WordPlay Magazine.
David graduated Derby University with a BA Degree in English Literature and Creative Writing.