Not everyone can face surfin’ the rollers in Bundoran, or even put their foot into that wild Atlantic, but a few miles over the road there’ll be a few high rollers looking for the real deal when they visit Donegal this coming weekend.

Letterkenny is fast becoming a regular fixture on the Irish poker calendar, and the wily Donegal players will be turning out in force at home, just as they do across the wider Irish Poker Tour. Now in its third year, the fields at this September stop are getting bigger, as are the guarantees — so much so that a second Donegal festival, the Winter Festival, has been added to the fun for February 2027.

And no jumping in the Atlantic involved, thanks be.

 

The next stop on the Irish Poker Tour, the Donegal Poker Festival 2026, takes place from Friday 25 September to Sunday 27 at the Radisson Hotel in Letterkenny, with more than €90,000 guaranteed across the festival.

 

The centrepiece is the €300 Main Event, with a €75,000 guarantee. There are five Day 1 starting flights across Friday, Saturday and Sunday, including two faster ‘Hyper’ flights, before the survivors come together for the final on Sunday afternoon. Strong coffee is recommended for the Hyper Heaters.

Players looking for a cheaper route into the Main Event can enter €50 satellites, each guaranteeing three €300 Main Event seats. For thumb-twiddlers and early qualifiers, there is also plenty of side action: €150 Friday and Saturday Night NLH tournaments, a €200 Saturday Omaha, a €200 Monsterstack on Sunday with €10,000 guaranteed, and a €150 Omaha 4/5 Cards tournament to finish the weekend.

Re-entry is available across much of the schedule — twice in the Main Event flights and some side events, with unlimited re-entry in others.

LAST LONGER IN LOVELY LETTERKENNY

Letterkenny is urban Donegal meets rural Donegal, so if there’s a hole in your pocket and some hours to pass, you can have the craic in one of its many pubs in town or blow the cobwebs to Kingdom come on the edge of the northern Wild Atlantic Way.

For a bit of food, head to The Lemon Tree Restaurant for some great local produce, or for a spectacular setting and some European fare, try Yellow Pepper.

If you fancy rocking your socks off — or should I say raving — go to Sonny McSwine’s, which is music non-stop, with live bands followed by late-night DJs. That’s if you’ve got the energy, and bless your cotton socks if that’s the case.

There’s also music in Blake’s, but if it’s some quiet time, a good pint and a conversation in beautiful surroundings that you’re after, go to the Cottage. I know I would.

Or perhaps I’d take a spin out to the countryside.

The great outdoors in Donegal is a very special place, and perhaps that’s why its people are such beautiful characters themselves, grown up amid spectacular vistas and the kind of place that seems to have an infinite amount of room to breathe.

Glenveagh National Park and Horn Head are both very reachable from the town and will actually make you forget about any possible bad beat. That’s my guarantee.

 

 

Or suck your stomach in and go surfing in another great poker town, Bundoran, and stop off at the Wishing Chair to manifest some winnings back at the tourno. Whatever it takes to chase those cares away.

 

Till the next time you’re grinding.

A PINT OF PORTER — CHARLIE, YOUR ONLY MAN

For anyone who has followed the Irish Poker Tour over the past year, the name Charlie Porter will need little introduction. The Donegal man has been turning up at tables across the country with increasing regularity — and increasingly impressive results.

 

But there is another side to Porter that doesn’t appear on a results sheet.

When he isn’t travelling the country in search of cards, points and the next possible trophy, he can be found behind the wheel of a school bus, picking up children outside Letterkenny and taking them to school. Before Covid, he had his own transport company, a business he had established only about a year before the pandemic arrived and, in his own words, “wrecked that.”

He has two grown-up children, a supportive partner who sometimes accompanies him to tournaments, and a boss who plays poker himself and understands when a tournament requires an occasional Friday or Monday off. He’s a lucky man and he knows it.

And then there is his latest acquisition: a camper, recently given its first proper poker outing to Tullamore. In an era of eye-watering Irish hotel prices, Porter may have discovered the ultimate tournament accessory.

With the Irish Poker Tour heading to his home county, we caught up with Charlie to talk about Donegal, poker, trophies, a rather extraordinary $7 satellite — and why he would still rather sit around a live poker table than play from home.

Interviewer: A lot of people consider you from Bundoran, but I think that’s because you’ve played a lot of poker there.

Charlie: Probably, yeah. Well, I was up whenever the Northwest boys had their games up there, and I think the IPT had games up there as well, as far as I remember.

Interviewer: Do you like playing poker particularly there?

Charlie: Ah, yeah, of course. Well, I love the game of poker. I’ll go wherever the games are.

Porter is actually from Killygordon, around 25 minutes from Letterkenny, making the upcoming Donegal stop just up the road.

Interviewer: And this next Donegal stop, how about that?

Charlie: Yeah, looking forward to it, truly, yeah. My home county, so it would be a nice one to get.

His family understand that poker sometimes means disappearing across the country for several days.

Interviewer: Do you get good support at home from the family, in terms of the poker?

Charlie: That’s it, yeah. They know the craic. They know that you have to get away to the games. If you need the points, you need to travel. Plus, I enjoy it as well, and my partner, she comes with me sometimes as well.

Interviewer: Does she enjoy the game? Does she ever play?

Charlie: She doesn’t play at all and wouldn’t know the first thing about it. She’ll tell you that herself, but she enjoys the craic.

One thing’s for sure, there’s no shortage of craic when playing or talking with Charlie Porter.

His reputation on the circuit is not simply that of a man enjoying an excellent run of poker. He’s also considered one of the game’s more cheerful characters.

Interviewer: You seem to have a very good reputation on the circuit for just being a sound lad.

Charlie: I try to get on with everybody, have a few beers and enjoy the craic.

Interviewer: They say you’re never without a smile.

Charlie: Ah well, that’s what you try. Maybe after some bad beats, they might tell you different! Nah, nah, it’s good craic. I enjoy it, you know. And everybody’s sound as well.

That sociability may also explain why, despite considerable success online, Porter still prefers his poker in the real flesh-and-bone world. Live is where it’s at for Charlie. But that doesn’t mean the online world hasn’t dished up the goodies.

During our conversation, he casually revealed something that does not appear in the live results documenting his recent rise: in 2016, Porter says he won the Sunday Million online for around $180,000.

The route into it was even more remarkable.

Charlie: I actually got into that game — $215 entry fee into that — but I actually won a satellite for $7 to get into that.

Interviewer: Wow. So that was one of these zero-to-hero…

Charlie: Definitely a bit of a freak.

One seven-dollar satellite. One $215 seat. And, according to Porter, a $180,000 payday.

Yet his preference today is emphatically for the live game.

Interviewer: Do you play online anymore?

Charlie: I play a bit. I play for the satellites, you know, for the live games. I would rather play live.

Interviewer: Why?

Charlie: It’s just better craic, the better atmosphere, you’re meeting people and you’re meeting friends that you’ve met the last week as well. That’s just the social thing, I suppose, I enjoy more than playing online.

He sums it up rather more simply:

Charlie: It’s just enjoyable, getting out there, meeting the people again, you know. A few beers and a good laugh.

There is also something refreshingly grassroots about Porter’s approach to the game. In an era of solvers, coaching and intensive study, much of his education has happened at the table.

Charlie: The more you play the better players, the better you become yourself, I think. I suppose it’s the same as everything else. You’re just picking up tips. You’re watching people.

Interviewer: Do you study? It seems almost like getting a university degree with poker these days.

Charlie: I don’t think I’ve ever read a poker book. Some emails, but not a book.

For me, the best story was from Killarney last year. Porter finished tenth in the Main Event and, after being knocked out — but still in the money for €10,000 and happy with it — his immediate plan was a bit less ambitious than winning another tournament.

Charlie: I just got put out of the Main, and I was walking around and I met one of my friends, and I says to him, “We’re going to get a few pints,” and he says, “No, we’ll go and we’ll jump into the Monster here.” I says, “Right, that’ll do.”

He jumped into the Monsterstack.

He won it.

Sometimes the best-laid poker plans are apparently no plans at all. Some go by the book, and some are organic.

Now attention turns homewards. Donegal offers familiar faces, local players and the chance to win on home soil. But when I ask Porter how confident he feels, he wisely makes no predictions.

Charlie: You go over and if the cards fall my way, happy days. If they don’t, well, you try again the following week.

Interviewer: You’ll have craic no matter what happens, probably.

Charlie: Ah, that’s 100%. One hundred percent.

For all the talk of craic, beer and friendship, however, there is still a competitor underneath it. Porter wants another good run in Killarney and a place in the end-of-season playoff. But there is one thing he talks about with particular affection.

Not the money. Not even the craic.

The trophy.

Charlie: It’s always about the trophy. People laugh at me when I say that, but the trophy’s very important.

Interviewer: Obviously, for financial reasons, the money is as well.

Charlie: Exactly. It gets you away. It goes for the hotels and things like that if you need them. But no, it’s always nice to get the trophy.

And then comes the line that perhaps tells us more about Charlie Porter than any leaderboard could.

Charlie: Even if you stop playing, you can always look back on that. Look at the trophy and it brings back memories as well, from the tables.

Maybe that’s why Porter keeps travelling.

The money pays for the next tournament. The points offer something to chase. The trophies sit on the shelf and tell a few stories.

But the memories are of the tables, the friends he met the week before, the few beers, and the craic.

And this weekend, they’re waiting for him at home in Donegal.