The final day of the 2026 Irish Open, sponsored by PokerStars and Paddy Power Poker, has arrived. The flagship €1,150 Main Event smashed all records by attracting a field of 5,003 entries and generating a prize pool of €4,852,910. Today, at 1 p.m. local time, only ten players will return to the halls of the Royal Dublin Society to battle it out for the title, being only one elimination away from making the final table.
Romanian grinder Narcis Nedelcu will sit down near the middle of the pack, his stack of 28,100,000, or 47 big blinds, netting him a fourth spot on the leaderboard. With over $2 million in recorded live tournament earnings as per The Hendon Mob, which includes a WSOP bracelet and a PokerStars Eureka Tour final table, Nedelcu has plenty of experience navigating the final stage of such a huge tournament. Nedelcu currently sits in eighth place on the Romanian all-time money list, but winning the €517,100 top prize will see him shoot up to fifth.
The chip lead of 46,400,000, meanwhile, is in the hands of Danilo Donnini. The Italian player has plenty of poker experience himself, with his first recorded cash stemming from 2009. This is the first cash at an Irish Open event in his 17-year-long career, however, and he is on course to make it one of his biggest scores ever.
Donnini is followed by Vasyl Palandiuk from Ukraine, who returns with 34,100,000 in chips. Palandiuk is on his third deep run in a major event in just a couple of months. Having finished tenth in the PokerStars Open at EPT Malta and 11th in the PokerStars Open Cannes Main Event, Palandiuk is in a good position to make the final table this time around.
Seating and Chip Counts
| Table | Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 2 | Danilo Donnini | Italy | 46,400,000 | 77 |
| 4 | 4 | Daryl McAleenan | United Kingdom | 20,900,000 | 35 |
| 4 | 5 | Vasyl Palandiuk | Ukraine | 34,100,000 | 57 |
| 4 | 6 | Francesco Gisolfi | Italy | 16,000,000 | 27 |
| 4 | 7 | Jarkko Suokas | Finland | 19,000,000 | 32 |
| 5 | 1 | Narcis Nedelcu | Romania | 28,100,000 | 47 |
| 5 | 2 | Matthew Twomey | Ireland | 16,700,000 | 28 |
| 5 | 3 | Edward Dunphy | Ireland | 20,700,000 | 35 |
| 5 | 4 | Oliver Gayko | Germany | 19,300,000 | 32 |
| 5 | 7 | Isaac Barker | United Kingdom | 28,700,000 | 48 |
Isaac Barker occupies the third position on the leaderboard with his stack of 28,700,000 and will double his recorded live tournament earnings with a seventh-place finish. Daryl McAleenan has cashed the Irish Open for the third year in a row and will try to turn his 20,900,000 chips into his first final table appearance. Edward Dunphy also has two Irish Open Main Event cashes, those being his only recorded results. With 20,700,000 in chips, he is looking to have a breakout performance today.
Meanwhile, Germany's Oliver Gayko, Finland's Jarkko Suokas, hometown player Matthew Twomey, and Francesco Gisolfi from Italy will all return with less than 20 million in chips. However, with the shortest stack of 16,000,000 still being worth 27 big blinds, there will be a lot of room to play, even for those at the bottom of the rankings.
The ten players will come back to blinds of 300,000/600,000 with a 600,000 big blind ante. Levels will last for 60 minutes each until the final table, where the tournament will transition to a set number of hands per level. The action will be streamed live on PokerStars' YouTube and Twitch, on a 30-minute delay. The live report will follow the same delay to prevent spoilers.
Making it to the final day has secured a payout of €39.840. With ten players remaining, each elimination will mark a pay jump. The sixth-place finisher will be the first to bank a six-figure score, but all eyes will be on the prestigious Irish Open Main Event trophy and the half a million euros that accompany it.
Remaining Payouts
| Place | Prize |
|---|---|
| 1 | €517,100 |
| 2 | €323,250 |
| 3 | €230,900 |
| 4 | €177,620 |
| 5 | €136,650 |
| 6 | €105,070 |
| 7 | €80,800 |
| 8 | €62,170 |
| 9 | €47,800 |
| 10 | €39,840 |
As always, PokerNews will be on the tournament floor in Dublin, following the final day of the 2026 Irish Open Main Event from the first hand until a winner has been crowned. Stay tuned as the live coverage will get underway shortly.