Narcis Nedelcu Wins Irish Open Main Event After Five-Way Deal

The PokerStars-sponsored €1,150 Irish Open no-limit hold’em main event attracted a record turnout of 5,004 entries to the Royal Dublin Society in 2026, topping the previous best showing of 4,562 entries set in 2025.

The massive field resulted in a final prize pool of €4,852,910 ($5,585,626 USD), or nearly double the €2.5 million guarantee. That resulted in a gaudy top prize of over half a million euros, but the final five contenders ultimately struck a deal that reduced that sum in order to even out the rewards. After outlasting 4,998 entries, the remaining handful of players agreed to redistribute the remaining prize money based on ICM (Independent Chip Model) numbers while leaving $80,761 and the title to play for.

Narcis Nedelcu came out on top in the end, walking away with $387,318 and the hardware. While the winner’s haul was slightly lessened from the planned payout, Nedelcu made history as the champion of the largest running of this storied tournament. The Romanian now has more than $2.3 million in recorded scores to his name after this victory.

“It’s amazing. It’s something so, so special that I can’t describe it,” he told live reporters on the scene.

In addition to the money and the trophy, Nedelcu also secured 1,320 Card Player Player of the Year points. This was his first POY-qualified score of the year, but it alone was enough to move him inside the top 100 in the 2026 standings presented by CoinPoker.

Growing A Record Field, Only To Cut It Back Down To A Final Table

There were five starting flights to choose from in this massive no-limit hold’em affair. The turnouts ranged from 467 for day 1A all the way up to 2,037 for day 1D.

Day 2 began with 1,236 still in contention, but only the top 735 would secure a share of the massive prize pool. By the time the dust settled, just 122 remained for day 3.

Plenty of notables ran deep in this event, including European Poker Tour champion Ian Hamilton (115th), bracelet winner Ben Collins (99th), and prior champions of this event Daniel Wilson (27th), Steve O’Dwyer (16th), and Weijie Zheng (13th).

Just 10 players bagged up at the end of day 3, with Italy’s Danilo Donnini in the lead and Nedelcu in fourth chip position.

Jarkko Suokas then ran K-Q into the pocket queens of Donnini early on the final day of play to set the final table.

Nine To Five

Edward Dunphy’s final stand pitted his second pair against the top pair of Vasyl Palandiuk after the flop. Neither player improved from there and Dunphy was sent packing in ninth place ($54,970).

A classic preflop race then spelled the end of Matthew Twomey’s tournament. His A♠J♥ was in a fair fight against the 8♠8♣ of Palandiuk. Twomey leaped in front after a J♠J♣4♣ flop gave him trips, but the 8♥ turn gave Palandiuk eights full and the lead. Twomey had outs to stay alive on the end, but the 2♥ that appeared was not one of them. Twomey settled for $71,496 as the eighth-place finisher.

Nedelcu scored a crucial double up during seven-handed action, holding with pocket jacks against the pocket nines of Isaac Barker. That left the UK resident on the shortest stack. He was eventually sent packing in seventh place ($92,920), with A♦4♦ unable to overcome A♣10♣ for Nedelcu.

Italy’s Francesco Gisolfi was the last to fall ahead of the deal, with the €10 online satellite winner earning $120,831 after his A-J lost a preflop showdown with the K-Q suited of his countryman Donnini.

The Deal And Its Aftermath

Only 5 players left at the #IrishPokerOpen Main Event 🇮🇪 and the Italian Danilo Donnini 🇮🇹 holds half the chips in play with 119,800,000. 🚀

Watch the action live ➡️ https://t.co/SB357usSaR or https://t.co/hRFaQAqWdk pic.twitter.com/3kOR8SOmIO

— PokerStars LIVE (@PokerStarsLIVE) April 6, 2026

The last five players then reached a stalemate, with no eliminations occurring over the next few hours of competition. As the stacks grew closer together, deal discussions were proposed.

The agreement they reached, based on ICM, guaranteed the following payouts while leaving the hardware and another $80,761 up for grabs. Oliver Gayko, who was in front at the time, locked up the largest guaranteed payout.

It didn’t take long for the bustouts to arrive after that. A three-way all-in soon sent both Oliver Gayko (5th – $328,186) and Daryl McAleenan (4th – $288,067) packing. McAleenan, the last Irish player in the field, open-jammed for just shy of 13 big blinds with K♣10♣ from the cutoff. Gayko called all-in for roughly 10 big blinds with A♥6♣ from the small blind and Nedelcu quickly called with Q♥Q♣ from the big blind. The 7♦4♣2♦2♠4♥ kept pocket queens best, giving Nedelcu the lead going into three-handed action.

Nedelcu picked up another big pocket pair to score the next knockout. This time, it was pocket tens against A-5 for Palandiuk. A pair of tens remained the best hand after a king-high runout, and Palandiuk settled for the $293,466 that he agreed to in the deal.

Heads-up play began with 180,800,000 for Nedelcu and 69,100,000 for Donnini. The gap between the final two expanded a bit ahead of the tournament’s final hand. With blinds of 2,000,000-4,000,000 and a 4,000,000 big blind ante, Donnini open-shoved for 56,100,000 from the button with K♦6♣ and Nedelcu called with A♦2♦. The board came down 7♠7♦5♠J♠3♦, and Donnini was eliminated in second place ($296,311). This was the largest score yet for the Italian player.

Final Table Payouts

Photo credits: Danny Maxwell / Rational Intellectual Holdings Ltd.