From “Ultimate Fish” to Champion: Toan Bags First Trophy at Home
Table Of Contents
Poker attracts people for different reasons. Some play it for the money, others for the glory and prestige. Robbie Toan definitely falls in the latter category, as the relatively unknown Irish amateur was one of the 53 entries in the 2025 Irish Open €10,000 Super High Roller, opting to battle with some of the best players who traveled to the Royal Dublin Society this year for a prize pool of €503,831.
At the end of it all, an ecstatic Toan was the one hoisting the trophy after beating Adrian Cazacu heads-up and capturing his first-ever live title, doing so on home soil. Toan was awarded €163,800 for his victory, quadrupling his total live earnings. Meanwhile, Cazacu had the best return on his investment of the entire field, turning his €1,100 satellite buy-in into €108,300 with his runner-up performance. Klemens Roiter came in third for €73,100 after already having two runner-up finishes to his name at the 2025 Irish Open, while the other satellite winner Simon Wilson finished in fifth for €42,800.
€10,000 Super High Roller Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Robbie Toan | Ireland | €163,800 |
| 2 | Adrian Cazacu | Romania | €108,300 |
| 3 | Klemens Roiter | Austria | €73,100 |
| 4 | Severi Palmu | Finland | €55,400 |
| 5 | Simon Wilson | Ireland | €42,800 |
| 6 | Michel Molenaar | Netherlands | €34,000 |
| 7 | Christopher Nguyen | Germany | €26,500 |
Winner's Reaction
"It's a dream come true," Toan shared after the adrenaline had settled. "I've been playing poker for 20 years, and this is my first-ever trophy. To do it at the Irish Open, absolutely amazing." Due to other commitments, Toan only makes a poker trip about once a year. "I usually go to an EPT or to the Irish Open, and I always take a shot at a high roller. This is my first cash in one, so it is amazing to get the first win as well."
Toan could be overheard calling himself a "fish" multiple times throughout the tournament. "It's an inside joke because my online nickname is Ultimate Fish," he explained. "All the pros see me as a fish; I am a bit of a calling station, after all."
However, Toan proved that he could hang with the pros. He gave some insight into perhaps the most important hand of his tournament, when he gained an enormous chip lead by hero-calling Cazacu when there were 12 players left.
"I patted him on the back for a big call earlier, saying I couldn't make that call, so it was in his head that I could be bluffed. When I said 'bingo' and bet small on the turn, I provoked him to bluff; his big raise did not make much sense. So with the history against him and the added information from the conversation, I deducted that I had to make the call."
Final Day Action
Toan started the day as one of 25 returning players, coming back with an above-average stack. Toan came out of the gates swinging, winning a few small pots before eliminating backgammon grandmaster Zdenek Zizka. Zizka joined the likes of Stephen Song and Juha Helppi as one of the first bust-outs of the day.
Shortly after, Cazacu eliminated Day 1 chipleader Mengshi Tian to take the top spot on the leaderboard before he transferred it over to Toan with the fateful hero-call. Toan then knocked out Timo Kamphues on the final table bubble, leaving the players two spots away from the money.
After the super short-stacked Jamie Dwan was taken out by Michel Molenaar, Cazacu took care of bursting the bubble by sucking out on the at-risk Gilles Simon. Toan had maintained his chip lead through the bubble phase, but soon lost it when he doubled up Severi Palmu.
Palmu's double-up was the first of many during the 90 minutes the players played seven-handed. Eventually, Cazacu broke the curse and eliminated Christopher Nguyen, which gave Cazacu the lead back. Toan reclaimed it briefly by busting Molenaar, but the Irishman could only look on as Cazacu depleted Wilson's, Palmu's, and Roiter's stacks in less than 15 minutes, setting up the heads-up battle.
Cazacu started with a two-to-one chip advantage due to the absolute tear he had gone on, and had Toan on the ropes after a few hands. Toan was down to 15 big blinds, a quarter of Cazacu's stack, when he doubled up preflop. Not much later, Toan's chips were in the middle again, this time beating Cazacu's ace-king by making Broadway with his ace-jack. That was enough to propel Toan into the lead, and he made short work of Cazacu when his pocket tens held against the Romanian's king-six in the last hand of the tournament.
