Updated on 22 Feb 26 by

Irish Open Day 1: Samuel Chartier, Arnaud Mattern, & Andy Black With Big Stacks

Day 1 at the Irish Poker Open is in the books. An impressive 502 players entered the event, including loads of the biggest names in poker. Find out what happened on Day 1, and check out a live stream of the action.

Samuel Chartier
Samuel Chartier after winning a
WSOP Circuit event in 2009

The PaddyPowerPoker.com Irish Poker Open is one of the most highly anticipated poker tournaments of the year. This year, 502 players paid €3,500 to participate, of which 281 survived Day 1 and will return on Saturday for Day 2.

The total prize pool for this event is €1,606,400, and the first-place prize is set at €420,000.

What happened on Day 1?

Big names with big stacks - This event always draws tons of well-known players. You can check out a more complete list of them in the chip count table below, but the biggest names in the top 10% of the field at the end of Day 1 include chip leader Samuel Chartier, Arnaud Mattern (6th), Andy Black (11th), Michael 'SirWatts' Watson (14th), Tobias 'pokernoob' Reinkemeier (19th), Victor Ramdin (20th), and Xuan Liu (28th).

Who hit the rail? - Some of the players who made the trip to Dublin but will not be returning to the casino for Day 2 include Steve O'Dwyer, miikkaanttonen, last year's champion Niall Smyth, Kevin MacPhee, Jonathan Duhamel, Roberto Romanello, David Vamplew, Dominik Nitsche, Dan Harrington, Marvin Rettenmaier, and Daniel Negreanu.

Watch the action live 
- Action from each day of play at the Irish Open is available via the stream below. Click play, and if the tournament is currently running you'll be able to watch.

Day 2 will begin today at 12:00 GMT.

 Live Updates Via the Paddy Power Poker Blog

Irish Poker Open

End of Day 1 Chip Counts

Place Name Chips
1st Samuel Chartier 136,800
2nd David Dean 125,000
3rd Kevin Vandersmissen 110,825
4th John Henneberry 104,025
5th Eugene Hanratty 100,075
6th Arnaud Mattern 97,375
7th David Gregory 97,025
8th Andrew Hulme 93,300
9th Niall Cosgrove 92,800
10th Mark Shepherd 88,125
11th Andy Black 88,075
...
14th Michael Watson 84,225
19th Tobias 'pokernoob' Reinkemeier 80,325
20th Victor Ramdin 79,750
28th Xuan Liu 70,575
58th Dave Ulliott 53,000
74th Ross Boatman 47,200
85th Carlos Mortensen 42,850
87th Donnacha O'Dea 42,450
88th James Dempsey 41,700
93rd Shaun Deeb 39,150
96th Phil Hellmuth 38,800
133rd Freddy Deeb 31,925
160th Jake Cody 27,300
167th Martin Jacobson 25,650
205th Dermot Blaine 20,500
208th Barny Boatman 20,000
218th Eoghan O'Dea 18,150
236th Neil Channing 14,675
272nd Noel Furlong 7,500
274th Maria Ho 6,900
Blinds: 300/600/50  |   Players: 281 (502)   |   Prize pool: €1,606,400

Check out some pictures from Day 1 at the Irish Open:

xuan liu
Xuan Liu
 
arnaud mattern
Arnaud Mattern
dave ulliott
Dave "Devilfish" Ulliott
live stream
Each day of this event is streaming live.
niall smyth
Last year's champion, Niall Smyth.
 
irish hat
Irishman Mick McCloskey is sporting a very Irish hat.

by Matt Kaufman