Danilo Donnini Leads 10 Survivors Into Final Day of Irish Open Main Event

With another 10 hours of play in the books, Day 3 of the €1,150 Main Event has come to a close at the Royal Dublin Society.

Sponsored by PokerStars and Paddy Power Poker, the flagship event of the 2026 Irish Open attracted a massive 5,003 entries, generating a prize pool of €4,852,910. Just 122 players returned for Day 3, and by the time the final hand was dealt, that number had been whittled down to just ten.

Those ten players have bagged their stacks and will return for the fourth and final day, each guaranteed €39,840. But with a top prize of €517,100 on offer, all eyes will be firmly fixed on the title.

Leading the way into the final day, Danilo Donnini returns with 46,400,000, good for 77 big blinds when play resumes. Already among the chip leaders, Donnini was responsible for one of the day’s final eliminations in a classic coin flip that sent Marios Papazois to the rail and propelled Donnini to the top of the leaderboard.

However, the path to the title is far from clear, with a tightly packed group of contenders close behind. Vasyl Palandiuk will return second in chips, having been a constant presence near the top of the counts throughout the day.

Rounding out the overnight podium, Isaac Barker capped his day off with two huge double-ups. He first doubled up by slow-playing a turned full house, and soon after added another when he hit quads.

End of Day Chip Counts

Rank	Player	Country	Chip Count	Big Blinds
1	Danilo Donnini	Italy	46,400,000	77
2	Vasyl Palandiuk	Italy	34,100,000	57
3	Isaac Barker	United Kingdom	28,700,000	48
4	Narcis Nedelcu	Romania	28,100,000	47
5	Daryl McAleenan	Ireland	20,900,000	35
6	Edward Dunphy	Ireland	20,700,000	35
7	Oliver Gayko	Germany	19,300,000	32
8	Jarkko Suokas	Finland	19,000,000	32
9	Matthew Twomey	Ireland	16,700,000	28
10	Francesco Gisolfi	Italy	16,000,000	27

Day 3 Action

Just 24 hours earlier, the priority was simple: survive the tournament bubble and secure a place in the money. With all returning players now guaranteed a payout, the Day 3 approach shifted firmly towards chip accumulation, and the eliminations came quickly as a result. Within the first two levels of play, 59 players had already been sent to the rail.

By the time the second break of the day rolled around, a further 30 had joined the casualties list. Players such as Leo Worthington-Leese (56th), Conor O'Driscoll (55th) and Dean Hutchison (33rd) were among those to see their 2026 Irish Open dreams fall by the wayside.

However, for every player that fell, another benefited, and when former champion Dan Wilson found himself all in, it was one of the end-of-day chip leaders, Palandiuk, who delivered the knockout.

Wilson’s elimination left just two former champions remaining, but that number was reduced to one soon after, when the pocket kings of Steve O'Dwyer failed to hold, sending him to the rail in 16th place.

With 13 players remaining, the clock was stopped, and three final hands were announced. Over the course of those hands, three more players fell short of bagging for Day 4.

The last remaining former champion, Weije Zheng, fell in 13th place, once again at the hands of Palandiuk, as his ace-king ran into pocket kings. Immediately after, Marios Papazoi (12th) and Matthew Twomey (13th) fell in quick succession, agonisingly short of surviving the day.

The final day will resume on Monday, April 6, at 1 p.m. local time and will continue until a champion is crowned.  

Play will recommence at Level 29 with blinds of 300,000/600,000 and a big blind ante of 600,000. The action is set to be streamed on YouTube with a 30-minute delay, with PokerNews coverage following the same delay.