The Irish Poker Open

The Irish Poker Open is the longest running No Limit Texas hold 'em poker tournament in Europe and second longest in the world after the World Series of Poker.

First organised in 1980 by Terry Rogers, a well known Irish bookmaker, the tournament is Europe's largest and a fixture on the international poker calendar. It is traditionally held over Easter weekend each year.

Since Terry Rogers death in 1999 the tournament, originally held in Dublin’s Eccentric Club, has been hosted by tournament director and poker player Liam Flood and the Merrion Casino.

paddypowerpoker.com began sponsorship of the event in 2005 and oversaw the huge growth in the tournament. By 2006 the event, with 339 players, had outgrown the Merrion Casino and was held in Jury's Ballsbridge Hotel in Dublin. In 2007 the venue was changed to the Burlington Hotel, Dublin to accommodate the bigger field, while in 2008 and 2009 the Irish Open venue was Citywest Hotel, Dublin. In 2010 the tournament returned to the Burlington Hotel and numbers declined year on year up to 2015 which was inline with trends and decline in the online poker industry.

In 2016, the Irish Poker Open will return to Citywest Hotel for a week long festival from March 21 to 28, culminating in the €500k Main Event. The 2016 Irish Poker Open will be managed by JP Poker and Countside Ltd, both companies have organised tournaments in both Ireland and Europe for the last 20 years.

Terry Rogers once declared “I have been the greatest single factor in the worldwide spread of competitive poker.”

One of his most enduring legacies was founding the Irish Open. In the late 1970s Terry started to hold poker tournaments for charity under the auspices of the Eccentric Club. According to Liam Flood, a fellow bookmaker and friend of Terry's the games would get "anywhere between 100 and 300 players playing five-card draw for £100 to £200 per game. That was a lot of people for that kind of money at the time. Every year Terry would go to America on business. In May 1979 he had a few days off and went to Las Vegas. He saw this high stakes poker game going on and met Benny Binion and the rest is history.”

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Wikipedia