The 2010 Irish Open will take place in April, still, it’s not too early to begin thinking about securing your seat in what’s turning into Europe’s hottest live poker tournament. Just to give you an idea about the Irish Open’s popularity and prize-pool sizes: in 2007, Marty Smith won the event and he ended up taking home €650,000. In 2008, the winner, Neil Channing took down a record €801,400 prize and in 2009, Christer Johansson pocketed €600,000 for the win. The Irish Open is obviously no small ball, and the reason I’m telling you should start to think about securing your seat by now is that direct access satellites held by Winner Poker take place on each Sunday and they cost $250+$18 to enter. I’m probably not mistaking though if I assume that you find that a bit steep, so you’ll probably want to reach the Super Satellite through a sub satellite.

Winner Poker has plenty of those too, and the cheapest ones cost only $2+$0.20 to enter but that approach takes time.

Let’s see now what you really get if you do win an Irish Open seat at Winner Poker. The days of the buy-in only packages are behind us apparently and the prize packages offered by Winner Poker go way beyond that. Each of the prize packages will be worth €4,800 (about $7,200) and it’ll include the €3,200+€300 buy-in, €350 for accommodation, €800 to cover travel expenses and for spending money, €50 for various handling fees and €100 for a VIP party.

In case you do win a seat, you will have to take care of all your travel documents yourself. You will not be allowed to transfer the prize package to a third party.

Sign up to Winner Poker now and start playing for your Irish Open seat!