Irish Poker Tour

Fintan Gavin has been playing poker himself for over twenty years and he’s been a poker event operator for almost as long, having put on dozens of successful events over the years, prior to launching the Irish Poker Tour. His repertoire included big events like the 2010 UK & Ireland Poker Tour Galway Festival. With a committed and highly experienced team that was already in place, the tour hit the ground running in its first season, instantly becoming a focal point for the Irish poker community.

Unusually, the very first Irish Poker Tour event wasn’t even in Ireland, it was in London. That event, in May 2022 kickstarted the first season, with all the other 17 events being staged in their rightful homeland. There has been an event in the UK capital on every season of the tour and in 2024 the London event once again opened the new season. 

in 2023 the tour signalled its ambitions to become an international series, spreading its wings further by holding the Bratislava Poker Festival in the Slovakian capital. The event is scheduled again for July 2024 and is joined by another jaunt to continental Europe with a summer event on the Algarve, at Casino Troia in Portugal. It would a surprise if they don’t add further events outside the Emerald Isle in future seasons.

The first half the year has already been announced, with ten Irish Poker Tour festivals scheduled up until June 2024. A similarly busy second half of the year is expected, with additional events expected to be announced soon.

The only double winner of the year was James O'Brien, who followed up his win in the Cork main event by taking down the Galway Winter Festival.

The tour operates its own leaderboard, with points awarded to players who make the money in all Irish Poker events (not including satellites). The leaderboard prize money is collected by withholding 1% of tournament prize pools, which is expected to be in the region of €40,000 and is augmented by €10,000, provided by tour sponsor Paddy Power. 25% of the prize money is shared by the top three finishers, with the winner expected to earn in excess of €5,000. The remaining 75% of the leaderboard prize money becomes the prize pool for the leaderboard playoff tournament, which is contested by the top 16 players on the final leaderboard standings at the end of the year. The 2023 leaderboard winner was Paul Carr.

The Irish Poker Tour places great importance on event coverage, as both a way to involve the Irish Poker community more and elevate the status of the game beyond backrooms in pubs. They employ a photographer, videographer and blogger at each event. Updates tend to take place on social media sites such as X (twitter) and on the tour’s website, where photo galleries from every event can be found.

The tour has a number of ambassadors. Their job is basically to raise the profile of the tour by both participating in it, wearing the tour logo when they play in third party events and blogging, tweeting, writing and generally creating content on social media that helps increase awareness of the tour. Andy Black, Darren Harbinson, Dara O’Kearney and Tanya Masters are part of the ambassador team.