Over the past few years, Jon Kyte has risen to the top 10 on the Norwegian All-Time Money List via The Hendon Mob. With a trip to the Irish Open on the horizon, we caught up with the PokerStake player as he hopes to bring the luck of the Irish back home to Norway and his investors on the trip.

Norwegian Eyes are Smiling

“It’s a very good start, but it’s just the beginning.”

In Dublin, the phrase ‘Irish Eyes are Smiling’ has never been true than at a live poker tournament. The city, famed for being one of the early birthplaces of WSOP legends and European heavyweights, lives and breathes poker. The game sits just underneath its skin, and on any evening, a game will be going off somewhere, the ‘craic’ off the scale as far as atmosphere goes.

Jon is excited to be returning to the Irish Open, where there’s always a strong contingent of Norwegian players who travel to the Emerald Isle in search of glory. He has fond memories of the series over the years.

“The Irish Open is something special for me,” he says. “It’s where my poker journey started together with the Norwegian Championship in Dublin in 2016. I had my first official cash there. Next year I came back for my second trip abroad and took down two tournaments.”

With such a warm, welcoming feel to the city, especially during its annual poker festival, it would be easy for anyone to be ambitious. Players have lost their fears over the years at the Irish Poker Open. There have been marriage proposals after Main Event wins, thousands of pints of Guinness sunk at local bars and trophy hoisted aloft. Jon, who sits ninth on the list of Norway’s finest, is proud of his prowess when stacked up against his compatriots, and aims to climb that list of luminaries higher.

“It’s a very good start, but it’s just the beginning,” Jon declares. “I’ll hopefully be number three on that list one day behind my friends Espen Uhlen Jørstad and Kayhan Mokri!”

Winning Big in Europe

With the former WSOP Main Event winner Jørstad some way clear on $18.1 million in winnings compared to Jon’s still impressive $2.7 million, there’s a way to go but in the past 15 months alone, he’s won over a million, his top two scores coming in the 2023 EPT Prague Main Event and an EPT Barcelona High Roller in September of last year, where he final tabled both events, losing heads-up to Padraig O’Neill in Prague.

“They were very big moments for me,” he reveals. “Coming second in the EPT Main Event in Prague was great, even though I lost to an Irishman! Hopefully I’ll get a little revenge there on the Irish. For the €10,000 High Roller In Barcelona, it was a bit different. It was a very tough final table and a very good experience finishing fourth.”

Jon will be playing a raft of the festival’s many events at the Irish Open and selling to followers via PokerStake. If someone is looking to stake him on the site, they can look forward to a fun sweat.

“I post all my toughest decisions and many fun hand histories on Instagram,” says Jon. “Everyone who gets a piece of me can follow the action there and I always try to answer everyone’s questions.”

In Jon’s opinion, PokerStake has vastly improved the process of selling and buying to poker tournaments.

“It’s great for everyone who wants a piece of the pros but don’t know where to get hold of them or just wants a sweat without any risks. Those things make a platform like PokerStake very good.”

Around the World

Recent cashes for Jon include results in Manila, The Philippines, and Prague in the Czech Republic, as well as Las Vegas at the NAPT and at the CAPT Million in Austria. Jon has embraced the suitcase lifestyle of the travelling poker professional.

“I love traveling!” he exclaims. “I’ve been to 10 countries in 2025 already, not all for poker, but I love seeing new places and meeting new people while I do what I love – playing cards.”

Jon even took – a little – time away from the felt in 2023 and 2024 when he hosted a H.O.R.S.E. event in Malta as part of the Global Poker Award nominated Malta Poker Festival. He was immensely proud to do so and to see so many Norwegians make it out to the poker-centric island.

“Hosting the tournament two years in a row was an amazing experience and very different from just playing myself,” he says. “We Norwegians love mixed games, so I’m happy to put my name on one of them and play versus fellow countrymen.”

Getting Close to the Gold

Jon has a WSOP Circuit ring in his collection of poker trophies but came oh so close to a bracelet last year in the $2,500 Omaha 8 or Better/Stud 8 or Better event in Las Vegas. At the last, he fell to the former WSOP Main Event runner-up Dario Sammartino for Italy.

“It was a very fun tournament, I had three Day 3s in a row being close to three different bracelets in just over a week,” says Jon.  “I wish I’d won the bracelet of course! But I’ll be back, playing almost every event possible this summer and I know the bracelet will come sooner or later.”

To buy action in Jon, you can head to his official PokerStake staking page here or look up each player taking on the Irish Open via the tournament page on PokerStake. For a look at exactly what moves the Norwegian superstar Jon Kyte is capable of at the poker table, check out this selection from the EPT felt.

Photographs by Danny Maxwell and Elisabeth Norskog for PokerStars and Norges-Mesterkapet Poker.