Danny McDonagh Made PokerStars Live Executive Director

It’s been a year where a lot of new tournaments and tournament series have been launched across the world, including PokerStars Live bringing back popular tournament series like the European Poker Tour (EPT), Latin America Poker Tour (LAPT) and Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT).

Since then, the EPT has had two successful stops, first at Sochi and then at Monte Carlo. Since the EPT tour was brought back to life, PokerStars decided to bring back a familiar face as well, in Danny McDonagh. He has been appointed as Executive Tournament Director for all of PokerStars’ signature tour events.

Those who have been regular players in poker rooms around the world will know this face very well, but for those who don’t, let us tell you a bit more about Danny McDonagh. He began as Tournament Director for all events at the Crown Melbourne Poker Room, including events such as the Aussie Millions.

From there, he joined PokerStars in 2007 (yes, he has worked for PokerStars before), as the Asian Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) Tournament Director. Several years of service at Crown were followed by 9 years of work in Asia, before he was promoted to Asia-Pacific Director of Live Operations, President of the APPT and Commissioner of the Australia New Zealand Poker Tour (ANZPT).

After 2 decades of work in the live poker industry, McDonagh finally retired last year, only to be snapped up again by PokerStars, for this new role. His already impressive poker CV is all set to get even more impressive and he will first be seen taking care of the EPT Barcelona and EPT Prague live events, before the PokerStars Players Championship (PSPC) in The Bahamas, in January 2019.

McDonagh shared a bit about his new role at the press conference on Tuesday. He said, “There are some obvious duties involved such as overseeing Tournament Rules and Regulations, reviewing schedules and structures. I will also be a point of reference for our players to have a voice about our events, whether chatting to me in person at events or connecting to me via social media. And another important aspect will be the ongoing review of PokerStars’ live poker offerings and being part of the team effecting exciting changes and innovations to our events.”