Tero Laurila Beats Record Field In 2024 Irish Open Main Event

The 2024 Irish Open €1,150 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event drew a record field of 3,233 entries, marking another year of massive growth for the historic poker tournament. The turnout was up nearly 30 percent over the 2023 field, which had notched a 22 percent increase over 2022. The €1 million guarantee was more than tripled thanks to the impressive numbers, with €3,152,175 ($3,382,914) in prize money paid out among the top 480 finishers.

After four starting flights and three more days of action inside the historic Royal Dublin Society, the tournament concluded with Finland’s Tero Laurila hoisting the trophy. The 38-year-old former floorball coach from Kouvola earned $316,100 as the champion, by far the largest score on his tournament resume.

“I play often – as much as possible. Mostly live games and PLO cash game is my main game,” Laurila told PokerStars reporters after coming out on top.

Laurila also earned 1,200 Card Player Player of the Year points for the win. He now sits in a three-way tie for 74th place in the 2024 POY standings presented by Global Poker.

The final day of this event began with 14 contenders remaining and Laurila in the lead. By the time the field combined onto a single table, he had slid to seventh among the final nine. Hiep Ninh was tied with Stephen Groom for the lead at that point. He scored the first knockout of the final table, busting David Tous in ninth place ($41,494).

Adrian Thorne (8th – $53,957) soon followed when his A-5 suited ran into the A-K of Georgios Tsouloftas. A classic race (A-10 suited against pocket nines) then sent Vidmantas Beliauskas packing in seventh place ($70,157).

Laurila scored the next knockout, with his pocket queens holding against the pocket jacks of Groom, who was drawing dead by the turn thanks to Laurila improving to top set. Groom earned $91,238 as the sixth-place finisher.

Ninh’s top pair held against the open-ended straight draw and overcard of Oliver Boyce (5th – $118,606) to narrow the field to four. A similar clash also resulted in the next elimination, with Ninh’s top pair of aces with a king kicker besting the open-ended straight draw of Georgios Tsouloftas. Ninh made aces and kings by the river to send Tsouloftas to the rail with $154,181.

The final three players struck a deal to redistribute the remaining prize money. The agreement set aside $64,800 for the winner and $27,710 for the runner up, while locking up the following payouts for the final three:

Hiep Ninh – $334,777
Tero Laurila – $251,300
Mark Johnson – $251,300

Laurila doubled through Ninh to take the chip lead early in the three-handed action. Ninh then won a big coin flip with AJ against the 99 of Johnson to move back in front. The board came down A4283 to send Johnson home with the payout he negotiated for.

Ninh held 58,000,000 to Laurila’s 39,000,000 when heads-up play began. Laurila picked off a big bluff with queen high to turn the tables on Ninh. In the final hand, Ninh open-shoved his last ten big blinds with 87 and Laurila called with QJ. The board ran out Q92QQ to give Laurila quads for the win. Ninh took home $362,487 as the runner-up, which ended up being a larger payout than Laurila earned as the champion thanks to the deal that was struck among the final three.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:

Photo credits: Rational Intellectual Holdings Ltd. / Danny Maxwell.

*Denotes payout resulting from the three-way deal.

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