Lars Svanbom Tops Record Breaking Flight as Irish Open Announces Travel Plans

When the doors opened for the 2026 Irish Open earlier today, the masses swarmed into the halls of the Royal Dublin Society.   

Sponsored by PokerStars and Paddy Power Poker, Day 1d of the €1,150 Main Event promised to be the busiest flight of all, and that promise was delivered. When registration closed, 2,037 of poker’s heroes, hotshots and hopefuls had ensured that the previous record for a Day 1 flight at the Irish Open had been smashed.

Including the turbo Day 1e flight, which is yet to conclude but has already closed registration, a total of 5,003 entries were recorded, creating a mammoth prize pool of €4,852,910; almost doubling the initial guarantee.

Owing to its many years of success, it was also announced today that the Irish Open will be packing its bags and going global, with stops scheduled in Australia, Morocco and the U.S.A.

With records being broken and huge news being dropped, the buzz in the room spread to the tables, but amid the light-hearted chatter, there was still a job to do: bag chips for Day 2.

When all was said and done, 487 players achieved that goal, securing their spots in the lineup to continue playing for what will be life-changing money for the eventual champion.

Leading the way from flight Day 1d, Lars Svanbom found a late-night miracle to catapult him to the top of the leaderboard. The Swede found himself with the worst of it in a three-way all-in, but the river bailed him out, and the resulting chips saw him well on his way to holding the end-of-day chip lead.

Not far behind, Glenn Cochrane enjoyed a successful day at the tables and, having bagged 740,000, will begin Day 2 with 123 big blinds. Hot on their heels, and rounding out the podium places, is Jiri Kocab of Czechia, with a stack of 731,000.

Day 1d Top Ten Chip Counts

Rank	Player	Country	Chip Count	Big Blinds
1	Lars Svanbom	Sweden	899,000	150
2	Glenn Cochrane	United Kingdom	740,000	123
3	Jiri Kocab	Czechia	731,000	122
4	Florian Bock	Germany	655,000	109
5	Iani Tulica	Romania	629,000	105
6	Francesco Gisolfi	Italy	621,000	104
7	Gilbert Black	United Kingdom	620,000	103
8	Ian Hamilton	United Kingdom	609,000	102
9	Sushil Krishan	Germany	533,000	89
10	Tai Quoc Hoang	United Kingdom	525,000	88

Further down the chip counts, heavy hitters such as Ian Hamilton (609,000), William Kassouf (468,000), hometown hero Kevin Killeen (441,000), Dean Lyall (346,000), reigning champion Simon Wilson (261,000) and double high roller champion Roope Tarmi (204,000) also progressed. PokerStars Team Pro members Rory Jennings (193,000), Julien Brecard (148,000) and Guillermo Sanz (58,000) will also be in the mix when chips are emptied onto the felt for Day 2.

Not all who entered prospered, though. Players such as Benjamin Spragg, John Duthie, Fintan Hand and Dara O'Kearney all fell shy of putting chips into a bag.

With late registration now closed in the turbo flight, it is just a matter of time before the full Day 2 lineup is confirmed.

Starting at noon local time tomorrow, Day 2 is scheduled to resume on Level 16, with blinds of 3,000/ 6,000 and a big blind ante of 6,000. The plan is to play 10 hour-long levels, with play for the day ending at the conclusion of Level 25. At that point, the remaining players will bag their chips and progress to Day 3.