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A massive treat is in store for poker players in just ten days when the European Mixed Poker Championship (EMPC) comes to Dublin for the first time.

The six-day festival, which is taking place from November 4 to November 9 at the JP Poker Club and Maldron Hotel in Dublin, features seven different tournaments on an enticing new schedule.

The festival promises a real test for mixed game enthusiasts with a huge variety of tournaments designed to test and crown the world’s best all-around players, including the flagship €800 8-Game Main Event.

Main Event starts November 6
The prestigious 8-Game Main Event will have two Day 1 starting flights (single re-entry per flight) on November 6 with the final taking place the following day on November 7. The featured games will be: No Limit Hold’em, Stud, Fixed Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8-or-Better, Razz, Pot Limit Omaha, Fixed Limit Omaha, Stud 8 and 2-7 Triple Draws. At the last festival in 2024, British player Sam Perry became the European Mixed Poker Champion when he bested an 161-entry field to take down the Main Event for €15,821.

Side events and cash games
The festival will kick off on November 4 with the €300 Welcomer Big Bet Mix – an exciting, fast-paced tournament with an unlimited number of re-buys available. Organiser Frode Fragerli said: “It is a playful, fast-paced start to the series and we should expect all-ins left and right from start to finish. The mix involves No Limit Omaha high-low 8 or better, No Limit 5 card Draw, Pot Limit Omaha, No Limit 2-7 Single draw and No Limit Holdem. It’s a mix that players rarely get to experience, with a nice structure, and is sure to generate fast-paced action from the get-go.”

On November 5, the schedule features a €600, single re-entry High-Low Mix tournament and Day 1 of the €600 Dealer’s Choice which has unlimited re-entries. There are 19 games up for grabs in the Dealers Choice, and players will take turns deciding which game to play for the next orbit. Day 1 will play 12 levels with Day 2 starting at 11am the following day (November 6).

In addition to the Main Event final, Friday’s tournaments (November 7) are all about S.O.R.B.E.T. – a twist on the classic H.O.R.S.E. variant with Limit Hold-em replaced by two draw games, Badugi and 2-7 Triple Draw. There will be a €300 “low roller” tournament starting at 2pm, along with a two-day €2k High Roller starting at 3pm.  The High Roller has unlimited re-entries and 40-minute blind levels, with Day 2 kicking off at noon on Saturday.

On Saturday, November 8 – the penultimate day of the festival – we’ll be hosting a €300 6-Game Mystery Bounty and Day 1 of the €2k 6-Game High Roller. On the final day of the Championship, there will be a new EMPC event – a €300 Pot Limit Turbo Mix along with the final of the €2k 6-Game High Roller.

Cash games
It’s not just tourneys on the schedule – cash games will be running every day starting from €3/€5. On November 5, we’ll also be hosting an exciting high-stakes cash game (€100/€200). As you would expect, there will be a heady mix of games available including 6-game, 8-game and 10-game, plus Stud mix, BigBet Mix including Sviten, Dealers Choice (orbit), Draw Mix, Pot Limit Mix and HORSE.

JP McCann, founder of the JP Poker Card Club and Casino, said: “We’re really thrilled that the European Mixed Poker Championship is coming to Dublin. We have a ton of excellent, home-grown mixed game fans here in Ireland but we are also expecting a huge number of overseas players to compete. Nothing really beats mixed games for action and excitement so I expect the Club to be absolutely buzzing when the festival kicks off.”

About JP Poker Card Club and Casino
The JP Poker Card Club and Casino is located in Tallaght’s well-known Arena complex – just a 30-minute drive from Dublin Airport. Great accommodation at the Maldron Hotel Tallaght is right next door.

The Club, which features ten poker tables along with a bar, slot machines and a pool table, is open 18 hours a day, every day of the week, from noon to 6am. There is ample free parking on site and an ATM on the casino floor.

All you need to do to join the club (over 18s only) is bring photographic identification and proof of address on your first visit. JP Poker is a fully accessible ground-floor premises with disabled toilets and disabled parking available.

The weekend before the Championship starts, the €150 JP Poker Series XIX event will be taking place, featuring a €25,000 prize pool guarantee.

About the European Mixed Poker Championship

The European Mixed Poker Championship was first launched in 2023 and previous events have all taken place in Bratislava. Players from all over the world compete at the Championship and a big turnout is expected at the Dublin edition.

Casey Farrell, the 15-year-old daughter of JP Poker Event Coordinator Laura Carroll, has made it through to the final of the IFMA Youth Muay Thai World Championships in Abu Dhabi! It’s a huge achievement for the Kilkenny schoolgirl who fights out of Waterford Muay Thai gym.

Mum Laura – a very well-known figure at the Irish Open – said: “We are absolutely thrilled she’s through to the final. She’s put in so much hard work to get here. It’s been an absolute roller-coaster but we’re wishing her tons of luck for tomorrow’s bout.”

Casey, who competes in the 14/15 yr old, +71kg Category, will be up against a fighter from Egypt in Friday’s final. Casey is no stranger to podium success in international competition: she won Gold at the Mediterranean Youth Muay Thai Championships in Turkey, last December. In November 2024, she won an Irish Sandee Open title in Dublin. She is one of 13 fighters representing Team Ireland at the Abu Dhabi contest including several team mates from her gym – Waterford Muay Thai. They include March 2025 Estonian Cup silver medallist Evie Hearne (who has to bow out of her finals due to picking up an injury) and Estonian Cup Gold medallists Shay Moore, AJ Kiely and Leigha Kinsella, who also took bronze at the Mediterranean Championships in December 2024. Casey had to miss the Estonia contest in March after unfortunately picking up an injury.

Team Ireland Head Coach John Walsh wasn’t in Casey’s corner during her fight due to a hospital emergency with another member of the team, Shane McConnell stood in as Head Coach. John will return to Casey’s corner tomorrow to help her on her quest to secure her first World Title. Best of luck to Casey tomorrow and her fellow team mate Saoirse Balfe Hogan who will also fight for Gold! Let’s go Team Ireland!

A packed month of celebrations is planned at Dublin’s celebrated JP Poker Card Club and Casino in August as founder JP McCann marks 20 years of involvement in the poker industry.

The special celebrations will include bonuses for early bird cash game players, nightly slot tournaments, boosted tournament guarantees and free beer tokens for all players competing on Friday nights.

The celebration month will also feature a special €150 buy-in, €10,000 guaranteed NLH tournament on Saturday, August 23.

All the celebration activities will be in addition to the regular poker schedule at the Club which includes the €150 buy-in, €25k guaranteed Festival Series XVI Main Event from August 1 to August 3 and the tournament league final on August 30.

JP’s 20 years of poker
JP first got into running poker tournaments back in 2005. At the time, he was working in a bank while studying for a Masters in finance. It was during the summer holidays that JP took part in a €40 buy-in poker game at a GAA club in Dublin. He was horrified to discover that the organisers were taking thousands of euros out of the prize pool and decided it was time to launch his own events that would feature a far more equitable prize pool payout.

JP’s very first event – which he ran with his uncle Joe McKeever – took place on August 25, 2005 at the Stonehouse Pub in Navan. The “JJP Pokermania“ tournament was a €20 rebuy with a prize pool that fairly reflected the size of the field. With over 80 entries, the evening was a big success and soon JP was running pub tournaments all over Ireland – including events in Dublin, Kildare, Meath and Wicklow. The tournaments proved so popular that JP decided to quit his bank job and get involved in poker full-time.

Thanks to four years spent working on PokerStars’ European Poker Tour and UK & Ireland Poker Tour as well as WPTs, the WSOPE and festivals at Barrière Casinos, JP became a well-known figure on the international poker circuit. In 2012, he opened the Village Green Card Club in Tallaght and, four years later, he and Paul O’Reilly took over the running of the Irish Open, growing the event to become an award-winning festival with record-breaking fields in dozens of events.

The JP Poker Card Club and Casino, which opened in January 2024, is located in Tallaght’s well-known Arena complex and features ten poker tables along with slot machines and a pool table. The Club is open 18 hours a day, every day of the week, from noon to 6am.

August promotion details  

August Main Event: a €150 buy-in NLH tournament will take place on Saturday, August 23 and feature a €10,000 prize pool guarantee. The tournament starts at 3pm and all players will receive a 30k starting stack.  Late reg is open until 7pm.

Nightly cash games bonus: Every night in August, the first nine players to open the first NLH cash game of the evening with a €100 buy-in will each receive an extra €25 in chips.

Slot tournament: Every night in August there will be a quick-fire slots tournament – running from 6.30pm to 6.50pm – awarding €100 to the winner.

Monday Club double-up: every Monday in August, the tournament guarantee for the popular €120 buy-in NLH tournament will be doubled to €5,000. The tournament starts at 7pm with late reg open until 9.40pm.

Thursday bonus: the first player to win three Thursday night tournaments will get a €1,000 bonus. The promotion will run ad infinitum until there is a winner!

Friday Beer Bonanza: all Friday night customers will receive THREE free beer tokens.

Dealers’ bonus chips: all players competing in the Festival Series, the Wednesday mid-month tournament on August 13 and the €10k guaranteed special tourney on August 23 will have the option to buy an additional 3,000 in chips for €5.  The €5 will be added to the dealers’ tip pool.

The event in a nutshell:

• 9 x Day 1s
• 30,000 stack and 3,000 early bird for the first level
• 15% of the field are in the money – €400 min cash
• 10% of the field bag up for day 2
• Turbos are 10 min levels (Saturday @ 22:00 & Sunday @ 12 noon)
• Trophy for the winner (and a few quid too!)
• $3,000 WPT Package for players who enter via the WPT Global client
• $33 satellite ticket for players who enter via the WPT Global client
• Discounted bedrooms in the Maldron Hotel Tallaght (attached to casino) using code POKER
• Free parking

As well as running some fantastic promotions in the club this weekend, WPT Global are bringing some amazing new promotions from Tuesday 7th October too as follows:

• Scavenger Hunt
• Weekly Leaderboard with weekly satellite tickets
• Monthly Leaderboard with entry to the €50,000 GTD live event
• 8 Week Leaderboard with a top prize of Vegas package worth $12,400

Download the WPT Global app and sign up using bonus code JPPOKER to get involved!

We have 3 x Day 1s taking to the tables today:

Day 1D @ 15:00

Day 1E @ 19:00

Day 1F @ 22:00 (turbo)

Late reg will run for 10 levels on all flights and there are 3,000 earlybird chips available if you are registered in the first level.

Fun & games with Phil Baker and the WPT Global team are planned for later on this afternoon.

Cash action will be up and running early today!

Looking to see if a player is still in or when late reg ends or for the answer to many other questions about the event?

Check out JP Poker Club on the Pokerlens app. Simply download it from the App Store.

Full player list, payouts, table draws etc available amongst lots of other useful information!

The event in a nutshell:

• 9 x Day 1s
• 30,000 stack and 3,000 early bird for the first level
• 15% of the field are in the money – €400 min cash
• 10% of the field bag up for day 2
• Turbos are 10 min levels (Saturday @ 22:00 & Sunday @ 12 noon)
• Trophy for the winner (and a few quid too!)
• $3,000 WPT Package for players who enter via the WPT Global client
• $33 satellite ticket for players who enter via the WPT Global client
• Discounted bedrooms in the Maldron Hotel Tallaght (attached to casino) using code POKER
• Free parking

We’re delighted to welcome the guys from WPT Global to Irish soil this weekend and they’ve brought a very well known face with them, a face that’s probably best known for fronting the Irish Open, the fantastic Laura Cornelius, who along with videographer Koit Romet will be on hand all weekend to capture the fun and frolics in the poker room.

Fred Wise and his WPT Global team will also be here for the whole weekend and will be able to help with any questions you may have about setting up your WPT Global account, buying into the tournament or the various promotions planned for JP Poker club players.

Download the WPT Global App, enter the bonus code JPPOKER to avail of the best promotions.

This weekend’s promos for players who enter using the WPT Global client include:

• Buy in online & get 100% of your reg fee back
• $3,000 WPT Global Prime package last longest
• Lots of new promos coming from Oct 7th too!