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The 2023 Irish Open €1,150 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event attracted a massive field of 2,491 entries, the largest in the history of the event. As a result of the huge turnout, which was up roughly 22 percent over 2022’s record-setting showing, this year’s Irish Open officially became the largest live poker tournament ever held in Ireland. While thousands entered, only could walk away from the Royal Dublin Society venue as the champion. In the end, that player was David Docherty. The Scottish player earned his way into this event via a €109 buy-in satellite on PokerStars and turned that ticket into a title and €365,000 ($394,200 USD).
This was Docherty’s largest live tournament score yet, topping the $188,886 he earned for winning the 2021 GUKPT Lutton £1,250 main event. With this latest victory, Docherty increased his career earnings to more than $1 million.
In addition to the hardware and the money, Docherty also took home 1,080 Card Player Player of the Year points for the win. This was his second POY-qualified final table of the year, having also placed third in a £550 mystery bounty event at the GUKPT Victoria festival in January for $11,098 and 160 points. With 1,240 total points, Docherty has climbed into 88th place in the 2023 POY race standings sponsored by Global Poker.
This event featured four starting flights spread across three days. After that, the field combined and played for three more days until the champion was decided. The final day began with 16 players still in contention. Eugeniu Barbaros sat atop the leaderboard, while Docherty was in 11th chip position to start.
The unofficial final table was set when four-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Benny Glaser’s (10th – $27,810) A-K was outrun by the A-J of Declan Rice, who had already seized the chip lead by that point. With that, Rice took a sizable lead heading into nine-handed action. Not long after that, short-stacked Irish native Jamie Wynne was eliminated in ninth place ($36,180) when his last few blinds went in with K-9 from the hijack, which was bested by the 8-4 offsuit of big blind Carl Shaw.
A classic preflop race spelled the end of Henri Ojala’s run in this event. The Finnish player was at risk with A-Q suited flipping against the pocket eights of 2005 WSOP main event fifth-place finisher Andy Black. Ojala picked up a backdoor flush draw to go with his overcards, but a blank on the river sent him packing with $46,980 for his eighth-place finish.
Carl Shaw was the next to fall, with his A-10 running into the A-J of Tom Waters, who improved to jacks full of aces to win the pot and narrow the field to six. Shaw cashed for $61,020, while Shaw surged up the chip counts and into the top spot.
The start-of-day leader, Barbaros, finished in sixth place when his pocket eights were unable to outdraw the pocket kings of Panagiotis Mavritsakis. The Moldovan player earned $79,380 for his strong showing in this event.
A battle of the blinds resulted in the next bustout. Black moved all-in for just shy of 14 big blinds after Rice limped from the small blind with A-8. Rice thought it over for a bit and then made the call. Black’s 6-2 offsuit still had a 29 percent chance of winning the pot at that point. That essentially became a coinflip when the flop improved Black to bottom pair while Rice picked up an open-ended straight draw go with his overcards. A blank on the turn made Black a favorite in the hand, but the river gave Rice a nine-high straight and the pot. Black cashed for $103,140 as the fifth-place finisher, increasing his career tournament earnings to more than $4.6 million, the most of any Irish-born player.
Waters’ last seven or so big blinds went in preflop with A-10 suited. Rice made the call with A-K and faded a flopped flush draw to secure the pot, sending Waters to the rail in fourth place ($134,460).
Docherty scored the next knockout, finding pocket tens in the small blind after Mavritsakis had shoved for around 20 big blinds with Q-9 suited from the button. Docherty’s pair held up and Mavritsakis was eliminated in third place, earning $174,420 for his efforts.
Heads-up play began with Docherty holding 52,350,000 to Rice’s 21,175,000. The early going saw Rice close the gap and then take the lead. Not too long after he had moved ahead, though, a key pot took place that gave Docherty a sizable lead once again. Docherty flopped top pair with an ace kicker and was leading Rice, who had top pair and a lower kicker. Rice improved to kings up on the turn to take the lead in the hand, while Docherty picked up a backdoor nut flush draw. The river completed that draw to give Docherty a lock on the hand. He moved all-in and received a call from Rice, who was left with roughly eight big blinds after the dust settled.
Rice eventually got all-in with J
2
for his last handful of big blinds and Docherty called from the big blind with K
10. The board ran out 862
86 and the river counterfeited Rice’s deuces to eliminate him in second place. The Irish player earned $246,996 for his runner-up showing.
Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:
| Place | Player | Earnings | POY Points |
| 1 | David Docherty | $394,200 | 1080 |
| 2 | Declan Rice | $246,996 | 900 |
| 3 | Panagiotis Mavritsakis | $174,420 | 720 |
| 4 | Tom Waters | $134,460 | 540 |
| 5 | Andy Black | $103,140 | 450 |
| 6 | Eugeniu Barbaros | $79,380 | 360 |
| 7 | Carl Shaw | $61,020 | 270 |
| 8 | Henri Ojala | $46,980 | 180 |
Photo credit: Danny Maxwell / Rational Intellectual Holdings Ltd.
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