The WPT Prime Gold Championship at the Star Gold Coast in Gold Coast, Australia, drew a huge field of 1,106 entries for the AUD $1,100 buy-in event. The three-day event generated a prizepool of over $1.2 million USD ($1,203,091).
Joshua McSwiney, who won his third main event title in the past two years, came out on top. This win makes for the largest of McSwiney’s career as he took home the AUD $283,336 (~US$177,680) grand prize.
The Brisbane native now has over $800,000 in career poker earnings and receives a $10,400 seat for the 2025 WPT World Championship at the Wynn Las Vegas at the end of the year in December.
Final Table
The final table was a topsy-turvy affair as multiple players were at risk and survived as they battled to the final few players.
Three-handed play was a long battle of 56 hands between three Australians, McSwiney, Patrick Yazbeck, and Jiaxu Chen. Each of those three held the chip lead at different points before Chen was eventually dispatched to set up a heads-up battle between McSwiney and Yazbeck.
After a back-and-forth battle where the lead was traded multiple times, the two players decided on a deal to make the payouts closer together, but they still left AUD $33,336 (~US$20,905) and the trophy up for grabs.
McSwiney was able to finish off Yazbeck not long after the deal was made to secure his career best score and the title. Yazbeck also won his career best cash with the runner up finish for $156,775.
McSwiney’s 2025 Outlook
Oustide of his successes in Australia, McSwiney has poker results from Las Vegas in the WSOP as well as results from WPT Cambodia and EPT Prague.
He is now one of the frontrunners for the WPT player of the year race with 900 points for this victory. This early win sets him up well for the rest of the WPT season.