Celebrated Irish poker player, writer and podcaster David Lappin has been unveiled as the latest member of Team PokerStars Pro.
The news was announced at EPT Paris on Wednesday and marked the culmination of the 2025 PokerStars Live League, a year-long contest which awarded points based on results across the company’s live events.
The top 10 finishers on high, medium and low leaderboards were all entered into a selection process to pick a new ambassador, who would receive a €100,000 contract to represent the brand in 2026.
With cashes at PokerStars Open events in Campione, Manchester and Malaga, the Irish Open and EPT Malta, Lappin made it to 10th spot on the low leaderboard to put himself in contention for the new role. He was selected from the final group by a panel of PokerStars judges.
Lappin's got a brand new patch.“To go from competing in the League to representing PokerStars is a huge honor,” Lappin said of his new role. “I’ve always believed ambassadors should represent players, not just a brand. I want to be available, to listen, to answer questions and to help where I can. Live events matter deeply to the community, and if I can contribute to improving that experience then I’ll consider that part of the job done.”
‘Experience and authenticity’
Lappin will already be familiar to many in the poker world, both as a player and thanks to his work on the award-winning poker podcast The Chip Race, which he hosts alongside his longtime collaborator Dara O’Kearney.
He’s also an experienced writer, regularly penning op-ed columns around his thoughts on the state of poker and the game’s more divisive issues.
Day 1 of The Chip Race podcast, back in 2015.“He combines deep roots in the live poker scene with a respected voice that players listen to,” said Cédric Billot, Associate Director of Live Events at PokerStars. “That balance of experience, authenticity, and his alignment with our values makes him a natural fit for representing PokerStars.”
It was only on Tuesday that Paddy Power Poker announced O’Kearney as the latest pro to join their ranks of brand ambassadors. As Lappin and O’Kearney have had a long partnership, and been jointly sponsored by multiple poker companies, the signing of O’Kearney as a ‘solo artist’ left some wondering where that might leave Lappin.
Including, it seemed, Lappin himself — although with the benefit of hindsight he was surely just setting up today’s announcement.
Of course, this is not the first prestigious contest Lappin has won. Back in 2024 he was the first to decipher the cryptic clues of our CodeOrg contest, winning a Gold Pass to the NAPT Las Vegas Main Event.
Moving on
As we reported just a few days ago, Lappin’s previous ambassadorial position with WPT Global ended when he and O’Kearney raised objections to the company’s signing of the controversial player Ren Lin to a similar role.
Lappin and O’Kearney had already gone on record — via The Chip Race and elsewhere — condemning Lin for his role in a ‘ghosting’ scandal, providing assistance to another player during a tournament in contravention of online poker rules.
Lin had been banned and relieved of his duties at previous sponsor GGPoker, and after WPT Global signed the Chinese high roller it was not long before Lappin and O’Kearney agreed to part ways with their relatively new partners.
The post that prompted Lappin's departure from WPT Global.Prior to working with WPT Global, the Irish pair had represented Unibet Poker in a partnership which ended in June 2025. Under Unibet’s sponsorship The Chip Race became a must-listen poker podcast and won three Global Poker Awards.
WPT Global then sponsored the podcast, but since the ambassadorial relationship dissolved it has recently moved to a crowd-funded model on Patreon.
The PokerStars Live League is running once more for 2026, this time without the prize of an ambassadorial role but still with more than €250K in prizes to be won.
Featured image courtesy of Danny Maxwell/Rational Intellectual Holdings Ltd.
