Tadhg Ryan Claims Killarney Main Event After 884-Entry Field
Tadhg Ryan won the €700 Killarney Poker Festival Main Event for €100,000 on October 18, 2026, turning an 884-entry field at the Gleneagle Arena in County Kerry, Ireland, into a six-figure result.
The Irish Poker Tour’s official results place Padraig Parkinson second for €63,000. For Ryan, the title followed a different success at the same festival: he won the Killarney Poker Cup in September 2025.
A €526,160 pool and a short-stack recovery
The no-limit hold’em Main Event generated €526,160 in prize money and paid 89 places. That put the final pool €126,160 above the advertised €400,000 guarantee. The festival ran October 13–18; the Main Event’s opening flights began October 15.
Parkinson’s runner-up finish was not a straightforward march from the chip lead. The tour’s final-table announcement listed him with 1,590,000 chips, the second-smallest stack among the last nine. He advanced from that position to the final heads-up contest for the title.
His appearance also connected two eras of tournament poker. The WSOP’s official record lists Parkinson third in the 1999 Main Event for $489,125. Twenty-seven years later, he was again among the last players standing in a substantial tournament field.
From Poker Cup winner to Main Event champion
Ryan’s earlier Killarney win came in the €400 Poker Cup, which drew 196 entries in 2025 and paid him €17,540. The 2026 result was a separate Main Event title, not a defense of that earlier tournament.
The six-figure Main Event award marked a substantial step up from that Poker Cup result. Live Poker Updates confirmed the win on Sunday night and published its final-day recap on October 19.
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