Simon Wilson Wins PokerStars Irish Poker Open for $687,000

Easter Monday provided a resurrection for Simon Wilson as the Irish poker player was roared on to victory by a partisan crowd at the 2025 Irish Poker Open. The event, which was held at the Royal Dublin Society in Ireland’s capital, saw an amazing 4,562 entries as eight countries were represented at a truly global final table in the Main Event.

Karim on Top as Final Table Begins

The Irish Poker Open has always been a huge event but in recent years, both numbers and prestige have risen in the ranks of live poker festivals. Coming into the final table, it was the Swedish player Michel Karim who held the chip lead with 51.2 million chips. Wilson was one of the chasing pack, but sat in the middle of the nine, fifth in chips on 25.4 million.

The first player to leave the final table was from Ireland, as the home country rail saw its chances of a winner cut in half. Joe O’Donaill moved all-in pre-flop with pocket nines but ran into the pocket kings of Cypriot player Georgios Skarparis and couldn’t catch up, busting in ninth place for $52,440.

Soon, eight became seven, as Romanian Robert Fluereci got his chips into the middle with pocket sevens and lost a coinflip against the ace-nine of Brandon Harris, who paired his nine on the Q-9-2 flop before a three and eight closed out the board and sent Fluereci home with $67,600. Harris’ stack fluctuated wildly in the ensuing hour either side of the dinner break before Greek player Panteleimon Pontos paid the price for being short stacked. His ace-three shove was dominated to defeat by Karim’s ace-king as despite flopping a three, a king on the river broke the Greek player’s heart sending him to the rail with $88,750.

Harris Spiked as Wilson Rises

Six remained and for some time, as players battled through several blind levels. That was until a flop of T-5-2 prompted action between the eventual winner and the player with the most live final table experience. British player Brandon Harris shoved with jack-ten, Wilson snap-called with ace-ten and the Irishman held through turn and river to take out potentially his most dangerous adversary, Harris cashing for a still brilliant $114,500.

The chip leader at the start of the final, Michel Karim, had dropped down the rankings dramatically and down to just eight big blinds, made a move from the small blind position, shoving with queen-six offsuit. Lithuania’s Ignotas Kirsis called from the big blind with pocket sevens and across the A-A-8-2-3 board, held easily to send his opponent home with $148,850, a fine return on his $3,300 entry fee but some way short of his expectations having come into the nine-handed final with the chip lead.

Pocket sevens didn’t work nearly so well for Skarparis as he busted in fourth place. All-in with the hand, he was usurped by his caller Simon Wilson with ace-six, as a flop of A-T-2 came to immediately leave the Cyprus-born player with a mountain to climb and just two cards to come. No two-outer seven came on the deuce turn or the river and Skarparis exited with $194,600, leaving Wilson a big leader.

Local Hero Shows Superman Skills

“To win besides my friends and family with my Mum and Dad watching at home is just incredible.”

With three left, both Umberto Ruggeri and Ignotas Kirsis were super-short as they battled to double back into contention against the runaway local leader. Wilson, who hails from Ashbourne, just 30 minutes from Dublin, was running away with it, though, and took out the spirited Kirsis next in third place for $257,600. The Lithuanian held pocket fives but they couldn’t hold against the king-nine of Wilson, as a nine on the flop came to deliver Kirsis from the event and send play heads-up.

With a 3:1 chip lead, Wilson had the edge going into the final duel and a short time into play, he had all the chips. After Ruggeri raised, Wilson shoved with six-five and while he wouldn’t have welcomed the call from the Italian player, the Irish crowd’s hero had two live cards against his opponent’s ace-ten. A flop of 7-6-3 put Wilson in the lead as he paired his six and after a king came on the turn, Ruggeri missed his six outs on the deuce river to claim $361,800 as runner-up.

Wilson took a step forward to shake Ruggeri’s hand and embrace his beaten opponent before turning to face his rail then diving, Superman-style into their collective embrace. With a large number of his rail collecting on their sportsbetting odds of 22500, Wilson was the winner worth $687,000 as he won by far the biggest prize of his poker career to date. Having cashed in the earlier $10,000 Super High Roller event for $45,000, his total winnings at the festival went well past the $725,000 mark.

“It feels incredible to win,” Wilson told PokerNews after the event. “This year it was a massive festival, more of an EPT-sized field and with the standard of play, it was a lot tougher than some of the other tournaments. I’ve had wins in my career, but to win besides my friends and family with my Mum and Dad watching at home, I can’t describe it. It is just incredible.”

One year earlier, Wilson had run deep only to get frustrated as he approached the finish line. This year, he believes his correction of that leak spurred him on to victory.

“I had a deep run last year finishing seventeenth, and maybe then I got impatient at a couple of crucial moments.” He said. “I needed to get incredibly lucky to be here. I will be going back to college in September; I deferred my final year this year and my mother would kill me if I didn’t go back – I have to graduate next May!”

While Wilson will be developing his business and economic smarts at Trinity University in Dublin, the young poker star admits that he’ll be ‘getting back on the online grind’ before too long as well, as he plans to travel to Las Vegas this summer to pay at the 56^th annual World Series of Poker. Who’d back against him after this latest superb score on the live poker circuit?

Photographs by Global Poker Award winning photographer Danny Maxwell for PokerNews.