One of the most sought-after festivals in poker will be returning in 2022. After nearly three years, the Irish Poker Open is back. The 2022 Irish Poker Open is set to run from April 11-18 at the Citywest Hotel Dublin. Over 40 events have been scheduled including the €1,150 Irish Open Main Event, a Mystery Bounty, a €5k and a €2k High Roller, and the first The Hendon Mob Championship (THMC) of 2022.
Ireland lifted all of its Covid restrictions at the beginning of the week which allowed the team behind the Irish Open to announce the return of Europe’s oldest poker festival, the live version of which has been on hiatus since April of 2019. A partnership with partypoker kept the Irish Open flame alive, as the pandemic forced the festival to move online for the 2020 and 2021 editions.
The 2019 Irish Open drew over 1,800 runners for the Main Event, almost doubling the €1,000,000 guarantee. Weijie Zheng emerged from the field victorious and claim a €300,000 first-place prize. The festival awarded more than €2,500,000 in total.
The Irish Open has been around for over 40 years. Founded by Terry Rogers in 1979, it’s the second oldest poker series in the world behind the World Series of Poker.
First THMC of 2022 at the Irish Poker Open
The Hendon Mob Championship (THMC) will return as a side event at the 2022 Irish Poker Open. This will be the first THMC of the year. The THMC will get underway on April 12 with a buy-in of €250. The 2019 THMC winner at the Irish Open was Joseph Field who topped 238 players for a €7,840 top prize. The runner-up in that event, Endrit Geci, went on to win the partypoker MILLIONS Online event in 2021.
For the full schedule, check out the THM festival listing here as well as the Irish Open website here. Discounts at the Citywest Hotel Dublin are available. Use promo code ‘IOP2022’ at checkout.
THMC Bratislava Smashes the Guarantee as 82 players return for Day 2
As expected, Saturday was the day which saw The Hendon Mob Championship smash through the €150k guarantee, as the field swelled to 820 entries. By the end of this morning’s hyper turbo flight, a prize pool of €175,275 was amassed with all players in the money and looking to go deep and give themselves a shot at the €34,640 first prize.
The field is the largest recorded in the relatively short history of The Hendon Mob Championship, and signals a welcome return to large and vibrant live events following a year and half hiatus caused by the pandemic.
Day 2 will see the field shrink to 16 players, with those returning for day 3 giving themselves a chance of appearing on Monday’s live streamed final table.
Banco Casino’s reputation for hosting large and prestigious live events continues to grow, with yet another event smashing the guarantee, and drawing positive feedback from players for the welcome environment, round the clock action and helpful and professional staff.
Hendon Mob Championship Poised for Bumper Day 1E Field
The €150k guaranteed Hendon Mob Championship at Banco Casino Bratislava moves to day 1E this afternoon with a bumper Saturday field size expected. The tournament field went through the 400 mark yesterday with Day 1C attracting 174 entries and the Day 1D Turbo pulling in 53 players, taking the total number of entries so far to 435.
Today will see Day 1E play out at 3pm, with the second of the two turbo flights taking place at 10pm this evening. So far 43 players have qualified for Sunday’s day 2 and will be taking home a share of the €150k prize pool.
Chip leader from the opening 4 starting flights is Austrian player Christian Sykora who amassed a stack of almost 2.6 million.
Also playing out yesterday was the €500+€50 High Roller which attracted a field of 67 runners and generated a prize pool of €33,500. Winner was Dutch player Gerrit Blanckaert who took home the THMC trophy and €8,510. Full Results Here
A further trophy will be awarded tonight, as a winner will be crowned in the Hendon Mob Pot Limit Omaha event. The tournament kicks off at 7pm and has a buy-in of €90+€10
Stay tuned to our social media channels as well as HendonMob.com throughout the day as THMC Bratislava looks to close in on the €150k guarantee.
UPDATES – DAY 1C
Day 1C gets Underway at THMC Bratislava
After strong numbers over day 1A and 1B, The Hendon Mob Championship Bratislava has kicked off at Banco Casino with over 150 runners registered at the time of writing. Players from at least 15 countries are present in the field, as the prize pool continues to grow towards the €150k guarantee.
Also playing out is the €500+50 high roller which attracted a field of 50 runners with registration still open.
Day 1C is the third of eight starting days playing out over the course of the weekend. Day 2 commences on Sunday afternoon with the final day playing out on the Banco Casino live stream on Monday.
Banco Casino Bratislava regularly hosts some of the biggest events in Europe, with fields regularly topping the thousand player mark with players travelling from across Europe. In addition to players from Slovakia and the surrounding countries, players in the field have been spotted from Japan, Sweden, UK, Germany and Costa Rica.
The Hendon Mob team will be on site providing chip counts, photo updates and keeping abreast of the tournament progress. Stay tuned to our social media channels as well as HendonMob.com throughout the week for details of giveaways during the event, and how to pick up limited edition THMC merchandise.
UPDATES – DAY 1B
THMC Bratislava Moves on to Day 1B
The Hendon Mob Championship Bratislava has kicked off the second of eight starting flights at Banco Casino in Bratislava as cards went in the air for the start of Day 1B. Day 1A attracted 99 entrants with 10 players progressing to Sunday’s day 2, locking up their share of the €150k guaranteed prize pool. Day 1B will look to surpass that number before the tournament progresses into the weekend.
Also taking place this evening is the satellite to the €500+€500 High Roller, which takes place at 16:00 on Friday 15th October. At the time of writing, 70 players are seated in the High Roller Satellite, meaning at last 7 seats will be awarded.
Amongst the field for Day 1B of the Main Event is Katsuhiro Muto of Japan, who is looking for the Slovakian flag to lock up his 28th flag on the flaghunter leaderboard on Hendonmob.com. The Japanese player has been a regular face at THMC events and is in the field sporting one of the new limited edition THMC patches.
Banco Casino Bratislava regularly hosts some of the biggest events in Europe, with fields regularly topping the thousand player mark with players travelling from across Europe.
THMC Day 1s will play out this week and over the weekend prior to day 2 commencing on Sunday afternoon, with regular, turbo and hyper-turbo day 1s available. Tournament players will receive 100,000 starting chips and late registration is available through 12 levels.
UPDATES – DAY 1A
The Hendon Mob Championship Kicks off at Banco Casino Bratislava
The €150k guaranteed Hendon Mob Championship kicked off this evening in Bratislava, as the first of eight days 1s got underway at 6pm local time. The €225+€25 Main Event will headline the six day festival which features a total of five events including a €500+€50 high roller and €90+€10 Pot Limit Omaha.
THMC has been on temporary hold since the start of the pandemic, with the last event having taken place in Tallinn in February 2020, over nineteen months ago. THMC Bratislava is just the third stand-alone THMC after events in London and Rozvadov during 2019.
Banco Casino Bratislava regularly hosts some of the biggest events in Europe, with fields regularly topping the thousand player mark with players travelling from across Europe.
THMC Day 1s will play out this week and over the weekend prior to day 2 commencing on Sunday afternoon, with regular, turbo and hyper turbo day 1s available. Tournament players will receive 100,000 starting chips and late registration is available through 12 levels.
The Hendon Mob team will be on site providing chip counts, photo updates and keeping abreast of the tournament progress. Stay tuned to our social media channels as well as HendonMob.com throughout the week for details of giveaways during the event, and how to pick up limited edition THMC merchandise.
The Hendon Mob Championship (THMC) will return this autumn after a 20-month hiatus, with a week-long festival at Banco Casino in Bratislava. The Coronavirus pandemic has seen much of European poker put on hold throughout 2020 and the beginning of 2021, but as the curtain continues to raise and major events begin to return, The Hendon Mob (THM) is delighted to announce a live event partnership with Banco Casino.
THMC Bratislava will feature a €150,000 guaranteed Main Event with €225+€25 buy in, as well as a host of side events between 11th and 18th October. Headlining the side events will be the €90+10 Pot Limit Omaha and a €20,000 guaranteed High Roller event, featuring a €500+€50 buy-in. Full schedule can be found here. As well as six figure guarantees, there will be custom THM winners trophies, special bounties and the coveted and unique THMC flag added to the profile of all players who cash.
Roland Boothby, Head of Partnerships for GPI/THM expressed his anticipation. “We couldn’t be more excited to be heading to Bratislava for our first live event in almost two years. We’re delighted to take our long term partnership with Banco Casino into the sphere of live events, and we hope THMC Bratislava becomes a regular feature on the European poker circuit. Banco Casino has a strong reputation in running large and successful live events, and we’re certain this will be no different. After a tough period for live poker, the return of international poker events is picking up and we can’t wait to get going”
he Hendon Mob (THM) is pleased to announce the second edition The Hendon Mob Championship (THMC) online, to take place during the 2021 Irish Open Online. This will be the third time that THM has teamed up with the Irish Open and the second time during the Coronavirus pandemic, which has seen Europe’s oldest and most iconic poker festival forced online. Online action is set from March 26 to April 7 on partypoker.
After the success of the first run in 2020 both parties were pleased to partner up with partypoker once more. There will be an added bonus for THM fans this time however, as not only will there be a showpiece THMC event with a €50k guarantee but there will also be a Mini THMC boasting a €15k guarantee for a €25+2 buy-in. Both events will run alongside each other starting on March 31.
Roland Boothby, Head of Partnerships for GPI/THM expressed his pleasure with the deal in place. “We’re delighted to be partnered with Irish Open once again, and are grateful for their team’s confidence in the THMC concept. Last year’s event saw a deluge of big name registrations, and by adding a THMC ‘Mini’ event this year, we’ve opened up the THMC brand to a much wider player pool. While we all would have hoped that the 2021 Irish Open would return to the live felt in Dublin, we are grateful to be able to offer players the opportunity to compete in this historic festival via our partners at partypoker.”
The first Irish Open Online was greeted with great enthusiasm from the poker community. The Main Event saw a total of 2,945 entries, more than doubling the €1M guarantee. Brazil’s Pablo Brito Silva claimed the title defeating a stacked final table to bank a €462,100 score. The THMC event was also a huge success, nearly doubling the guarantee. The first and only female THMC champion would be crowned with New Zealand’s Sosia Jiangtaking home €18,382.
This year partypoker and the Irish Open team have upped the ante bringing poker fans 25 events over the course of the festival including the two THMC tournaments. The highlight will once again be a €1M guaranteed Main Event. There will also be a Mini Main Event, a Super High Roller, and the Grand Prix Ireland.
Satellites are already running on partypoker with plenty of opportunities to get in all the events at the Irish Open Online. View the Online Satellites Schedule.
With a little under two weeks to go until the Malta Poker Championships kicks off on Pokio, this week special satellites for the Hendon Mob Championship have been announced for May 16th and May 19th, guaranteeing 10 seats to the €10k GTD THMC event on 27th May.
Today marks the third week of satellites running on Pokio for the online Malta Poker Championship by Pokio, with step satellites to the main event, direct satellites to the main event as well as satellites to the Queens of Pokio ladies event and The Hendon Mob event.
Satellites will continue in the week run up until the 21st May before the Malta Championship kicks off in earnest on 22nd May, with the €30k guaranteed main event taking centre stage. The series will wrap with The Hendon Mob Championship as the final event on May 27th.
New Zealander Sosia Jiang made history last night as she became the first female winner of The Hendon Championship title, taking down the first ever online edition of The Hendon Mob Championship. 379 entrants took to the virtual felt for Irish Open Online Event #6 on partypoker, creating a prize pool of €94,750.
Jiang, who sits 2nd on the New Zealand All Time Money List defeated Denmark’s #1 player on the GPI Player of the Year Rankings for 2019, Morten Mortensen. Jiang took down €18,381, the fourth largest prize awarded in the one-and-a-half-year history of The Championship, along with the coveted THMC Trophy.
History will continue to be made on partypoker tonight as the first ever online edition of The Irish Poker Open continues. Day 1A of the €1 Million Guaranteed Main Event gets underway at 7pm, with €11, €22, €109 and €215 satellite running throughout the day on partypoker. Also running tonight will be Event #8, the €2k Irish Open High Roller, kicking off at 8pm.
The Hendon Mob Championship Dublin will play out on the virtual felt as Irish Poker Open partners with partypoker to move the previously postponed 2020 Irish Poker Open onto the partypoker client, meaning the series will now play out on its original dates.
A revised schedule will run over a seven-day period from 6th to 12th April, which will include the online Hendon Mob Championship (THMC) which will run at 19:00 CET on April 7th. The event will include the same buy in and 15,000 starting stack and will run with a 12 minute clock. Whilst the event will not play out live in Dublin, the winner will still receive the unique THMC Dublin trophy, along with other special prizes to be announced in due course.
The online Irish Open Main Event will retain the €1,150 buy in as well as its €1m Guarantee and will include three starting days from 8th – 10th April and play out to a conclusion on day three on 12th April. Despite the event playing out online, the winner will become Irish Open Champion in every possible sense, with the winner receiving his or her customised winner’s badge on their Hendon Mob profile.
JP McCann from the Irish Poker Open said: “Since our announcement last week regarding the postponement of Irish Open 2020, considerable efforts have been made to find an alternative date to run Irish Open 2020. However, as the uncertainty surrounding live poker events continues, we feel that the best decision to take at this point is to cancel the live festival for 2020.”
The Hendon Mob is delighted to announce that the first THMC event of 2020 will take place in Tallinn in collaboration with Kings of Tallinn. The two-day Hendon Mob Championship event will take place on 21st and 22nd February and feature a €200+20 buy in with a 30-minute clock, playing out amidst a 40-event series running from February 17th to 23rd including the €500k Guaranteed Kings of Tallinn Main Event.
Kings of Tallinn has established itself over the last 5 years as the biggest and most prestigious festival in the Nordic region, attracting players from all corners of Europe. The festival is known for its vibrant and fun atmosphere as well as for relentless action around the clock in both tournaments and cash games.
“Tallinn was one of our most popular stops of 2019 and we were extremely keen to return” said Hendon Mob Head of Partnerships Roland Boothby. “with MPNPT not coming back it looked as though that might not possible, so we were delighted to secure an agreement with Kings of Tallinn to run anther fantastic Hendon Mob Championship in this great city. The ethos of THMC is to offer players a tournament with the feel of a main event but at a side event price point, and THMC Tallinn will be no different. Our team will be there to ensure this”
The success of Kings of Tallinn has been fuelled by the city itself developing a reputation as one of Europe’s most highly regarded poker locations, with cheap flights arriving from throughout Europe coupled with low prices and a vibrant nightlife, its easy to see why Tallinn is a location to which players love to return.
The Hendon Mob Championship will finish 2019 in style and head for London, the city where it all began for the original Hendon Mob members over two decades ago. After 2019 THM Championships in Tallinn, Dublin, Prague and Malta, in addition to the first ever standalone series at King’s Resort Rozvadov, THMC will finish the season at Aspers Westfield Stratford City, London’s premier location for tournament poker.
Aspers Stratford is no stranger to hosting major tournament series, and this year alone has played host to likes of MPN Poker Tour and 888 Live, as well has as hosting the UK debuts of British Poker Open (BPO), Super High Roller Bowl UK, Lex Live and Moneymaker’s Road to PSPC. Aspers will also play host to first ever ‘Meet up Game’ on European soil in January 2020, as Global Poker Award winning vloggers Andrew Neeme and Brad Owen arrive for a four-day cash game weekend.
THMC London will commence on 12th December and will feature four starting flights and a £50,000 guarantee. The £220 buy in series will commence for Day 1A at 18:00 on Thursday 12th and feature starting days on Friday 13th (18:00), Saturday 14th (13:00) and a turbo flight on Saturday evening (19:00). The tournament will play to completion on Sunday 15th from 13:00.
As well as playing for the coveted THMC trophy, all players cashing the event will also receive the custom Hendon Mob flag on their profile, only available through cashing a THMC event, and currently only featured on the profile of 189 players out of 630,000.
Drop by The Hendon Mob desk during the event for details how to win limited edition THMC #FlagHunter merchandise during the event.
In a mere 6 weeks time, The Hendon Mob Championship will return to the place of its birth – The Malta Poker Festival at Portomaso Casino in St Julian’s. Both MPF and THMC are returning after a successful first outing in 2018 which saw the MPF Main Event attract almost 1,400 runners and the The Hendon Mob Championship draw in 491 runners, still the biggest field in its short history.
Since then, THM Championships have been held in Tallinn, Dublin and Prague, awarding over €135k in prizes for an affordable buy in. Malta however, both the home of THM Headquarters and the site of the inaugural event will always remain the stand out stop and a revered fixture on the THMC calendar.
Last time round in Malta, Ukraine’s Oleksii Yerema took down 1st place and €17,750 after a heads up deal with Australian rival Samuel Dessaix-Porter after an intense heads up tussle.
The Malta Poker Festival 2019
The Malta Poker Festival 2019 will run from 29th October until 4th November and feature over a dozen events at all buy in levels, including the €500+€50, €500k guaranteed Main Event, the €220+€30 Hendon Mob Championship and the €100+€20 APAT Maltese Championship. All the team at The Hendon Mob look forward to welcoming players from all around the world to this very special festival of poker.
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