I’m absolutely buzzing to see how much momentum is building for the Killarney Poker Festival this year, both live and online.

Over on WPT Global, players had the chance to jump straight into Day 1 of the Main Event online. And here’s the really exciting part: if you qualified online and then go on to win the Main Event outright in Killarney, there’s a massive €100,000 bonus waiting for you on top of your winnings. That’s some serious extra value!

We had 35 entries for the WPT Global Day 1 flight, with 31 players taking part—and WPT Global are giving every one of them a Golden Ticket. Even “Chickenball5”, who was the 31st player out, will also be awarded one. It’s brilliant to see them rewarding the full field and making sure everyone gets that added buzz heading into the festival.

On top of that, the iPoker platforms are absolutely flying. Sunday night alone saw them award nearly 12 full packages for the festival final, and they’ve been smashing their guarantees week after week. It’s amazing to see so many people winning their way in—it just adds to the hype of what’s shaping up to be one of the biggest and best poker gatherings of the year here in Ireland.

I also had the pleasure of running the first online Killarney Women’s Championship satellite this year on Paddy Power Poker, and the interest was fantastic. We had 30 unique players, plus 34 rebuys and add-ons, building a prize pool of €613. That gave us two tickets for the Women’s Championship game, with 3rd and 4th taking home cash prizes. The atmosphere was unreal, and I’m delighted to say I’ll be running another one this Monday at 8:30pm. It’s just a €10 buy-in, and there’s a guaranteed €250 seat up for grabs.

For me, seeing the mix of local grinders, online qualifiers, women stepping up through dedicated satellites, and international players all coming together in Killarney is what makes this festival so special. The energy is always electric, and with so many online routes feeding into bigger numbers (and bigger prizes), it’s clear we’re in for something truly memorable this year.