The €1.150 Main Event of the Irish Poker Open powered by PokerStars Live in 2026 has been decided – Narcis Nedelcu from Romania is the champion.
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2.643 players tried their hand at the tournament, drawing a massive 5.003 entries and pushing the prize pool up to a whopping €4.852.910. Ten players took to the final table yesterday.
Among them was the German hope Oliver Gayko, who started the final day from the back of the midfield. Things didn’t go too badly for Gayko, as he made it into the Top 5, who spent three hours shuffling chips back and forth.
With stacks almost equal in size, the players then decided on a deal. This gave all players the value of their chips and set aside the trophy and an additional €70.000 for the eventual winner.
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And then everything was to happen relatively quickly. As soon as play resumed, the eventual winner Nedelcu took the upper hand. In one fell swoop, he sent Oliver Gayko (5th place, €285.380) and Daryl McAleenan from Ireland (4th place, €250.500) to the rail. A few minutes later, it was the turn of Vasyl Palandiuk from Ukraine (3rd place, €255.190).
The heads-up lasted exactly four hands and the victory went to Narcis Nedelcu for €336.790. In heads-up play, Italian Danilo Donnini (2nd place, €257.660) was also unable to stop the Romanian.
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There was a live blog here from the colleagues at PokerNews!
Replay Final Table:
Result:
| POS | NAME | COUNTRY | STATUS | PRIZE | DEAL |
| 1 | Narcis Nedelcu | Romania | €517,100 | €336,790 | |
| 2 | Danilo Donnini | Italy | €323,250 | €257,660 | |
| 3 | Vasyl Palandiuk | Ukraine | €230,900 | €255,190 | |
| 4 | Daryl McAleenan | Ireland | €177,620 | €250,500 | |
| 5 | Oliver Gayko | Germany | €136,650 | €285,380 | |
| 6 | Francesco Gisolfi | Italy | PokerStars Qualifier | €105,070 | |
| 7 | Isaac Barker | United Kingdom | PokerStars Qualifier | €80,800 | |
| 8 | Matthew Twomey | Ireland | €62,170 | ||
| 9 | Edward Dunphy | Ireland | iPoker Qualifier | €47,800 | |
| 10 | Jarkko Suokas | Finland | €39,840 | ||
| 11 | Cristian Ivanus | Romania | €39,840 | ||
| 12 | Marios Papazios | Greece | €33,190 | ||
| 13 | Wei Jie Zheng | Ireland | €33,190 | ||
| 14 | Michael Prendergast | Ireland | €27,710 | ||
| 15 | Luca Bernardi | Italy | €27,710 | ||
| 16 | Steve O’Dwyer | USA | PokerStars Qualifier | €24,120 | |
| 17 | Gerard Carbo | Spain | PokerStars Qualifier | €24,120 | |
| 18 | Kenneth Svendsen | Norway | €20,960 | ||
| 19 | Mael Chicot | France | €20,960 |
