€1,150 Main Event Day 1de | 2026 Irish Open

Player	Chips	Progress
Mandu Sansonnens	491,000 491,000	491,000

Christopher Gee	461,000 461,000	461,000
Noah Alem	423,000 423,000	423,000
John Power	389,000 389,000	389,000
Vojtech Paxian	362,000 362,000	362,000
Catalin Pop	360,000 360,000	360,000
Ray Langston	337,000 337,000	337,000
Hiep Ninh	336,000 336,000	336,000
Andre Winkler	320,000 206,000	206,000
Robert McDowell	318,000 318,000	318,000
Robert Sherwood	316,000 316,000	316,000
William Lawrence	302,000 302,000	302,000
Brett McLaughlin	281,000 281,000	281,000
Brendan McGuinness	278,000 278,000	278,000
Robert O'Neill	278,000 278,000	278,000
James Clossick	268,000 268,000	268,000
Tomas Fara	261,000 261,000	261,000

Breffni Smith	259,000 259,000	259,000
Niall McAleer	258,000 258,000	258,000
Erik van Hulst	253,000 253,000	253,000
Marius Tersanszki	253,000 253,000	253,000
Mark Ridley	250,000 250,000	250,000
Mark Spelman	250,000
Patsalides Efstathios	249,000 249,000	249,000
Anargyros Loizos	247,000 247,000	247,000

Player

Chips

Progress

Mandu Sansonnens

491,000

461,000

423,000

389,000

362,000

360,000

337,000

336,000

320,000

206,000

318,000

316,000

302,000

281,000

278,000

278,000

268,000

261,000

259,000

258,000

253,000

253,000

250,000

250,000

Patsalides Efstathios

249,000

Anargyros Loizos

247,000

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, Kristian 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	Kristian 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.