More poker, more craic: Inside the making of the Irish Open

Unique fly-on-the-wall documentary shows how the award-winning, record-breaking festival comes to life

March 20, 2026

Events

by PokerStars Staff

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3 Minute Read

You’ve seen where the magic happens, now see HOW it happens! This week, the Irish Open releases its first-ever documentary with a fly-on-the-wall look at the enormous preparation that goes into creating the festival.

Very few of the 4,300 players who attend the Irish Open will have any idea just how huge an operation it is to turn the historic Royal Dublin Society into a premium poker festival venue. Scores of people are involved – from riggers, techies, sparkies and set builders, to tournament directors, cashiers and dealers.

Footage captured during the build-up to the 2025 festival shows the immensity of the task. The logistics involved are mind-boggling. Over the course of just three days, hundreds of pallets, laden with equipment, are wheeled into the RDS: thousands of chairs, 280 tables and dozens of banners. 320 square metres of LED displays – the largest LED show ever installed at an Irish event – including a 20m long LED wall. Miles of internet and electricity cables. Millions of chips sorted and a completely secure cashier area constructed from scratch.

And, finally, The Craic Den is created – the beating heart of the Irish Open festival where players can relax, share bad beat stories and enjoy hours of live entertainment, games and competitions.

WATCH THE DOCUMENTARY

The documentary also shows that behind the scenes, and long in advance, the tournament schedule is put together and hundreds of staff are recruited to work at the event, including 320 dealers and 150 floor staff. Bloggers and camera teams are hired, hotel rooms booked.   

Long associated with the event, Paul O’Reilly and JP McCann officially took over the Irish Open in 2016 and, right from the get-go, made a crucial decision: to reduce the buy-in from €3,500 to €1,150. As McCann says in the film, their goal was to create “the best 1k event in the world”, and this ethos underlies every single element of today’s Irish Open.

Back in 2016, the Main Event attracted 802 players. At last year’s record-breaking (and award-winning) festival, the Main Event had a €2.5 million guarantee and attracted 4,562 entries. Across the whole festival, there were more than 30,000 tournament entries with €14.5m awarded in prize money. O’Reilly and McCann’s dream of reaching 5,000 Main Event entries in ten years seems well within reach for 2026.

Europe’s oldest poker festival has become its biggest – and this means more and more staff, equipment, tables and floor space are needed every year.

O’Reilly said, “This documentary really captures what the Irish Open is all about. The event keeps growing and, of course, we’re thrilled with that, but we never lose sight of our original goals, and these have never changed. All we want is for players to have a great time, and we think that offering them more of everything they love is the way to do it. More poker, more fun, more craic!

“We could never have got this far without our players or our sponsors. Through hundreds of online satellites, PokerStars and PaddyPower have opened the event up to players from all over the world, and we are very grateful to have them on board.

“With just five weeks to go before this year’s Irish Open, we’re now at the business end of getting the event ready. It’s getting hectic to be sure, but the 2026 festival is going to smash records yet again, and we’re really looking forward to it."

The 2026 Irish Open festival is taking place from March 26 to April 6 at the Royal Dublin Society with 86 different tournaments, including the €2.5million guaranteed Main Event, €1m guaranteed Luxon Pay Mystery Bounty and €1m guaranteed Mini Irish Open.

FURTHER READING

Serious poker and serious craic name of the game at Irish Open
PokerStars speaks to Irish Open co-organiser Paul O'Reilly