Australian poker players can look forward to a few upcoming World Poker Tour events and the tour recently announced dates for those stops.
The company hosts two upcoming series at The Star Gold Coast. The first is a AUD$1,500 WPT Prime event, as part of a complete festival running June 9-20. The main event also runs June 16-20.
Australia’s first Main Tour event then heads to the same casino in September. The complete WPT festival runs Sept. 15-27 with the inaugural AUD$5,400 Main Tour stop planned for Sept. 23-27.
“With interstate and international travelers returning to our shores in search of incredible experiences and entertainment, we’re excited to announce The Star Gold Coast will welcome not one, but two, major poker events later this year,” Star Gold Coast COO Jessica Mellor said in a news release.
“In a real coup for the city, the WPT Main Tour event will make its way to the Gold Coast for the very first time in September, bringing all the prestige of the best poker players in the world. Meanwhile, WPT Prime Gold Coast in June is expected to attract interest from thousands of poker fans across Australia and the Asia Pacific after our 2021 event set a new record with over 1,000 entries.”
More details on the Australia events
WPT Prime brings a new brand to the company. Prime is the company’s newly branded mid-stakes tournament. The series replaces the WPTDeepStacks tour later this year.
The tour is promising an enhanced player experience at Prime events including:
- live streaming coverage on the WPT website as well the tour’s YouTube and Twitch channels
- the use of Action Clocks
- a Player of the Festival leaderboard
- Players earning points toward WPT Player of the Year
“With the introduction of WPT Prime at The Star Gold Coast,” WPT Vice President of global tour management Angelica Hael said, “we are thrilled to have the opportunity to further elevate our global players’ experience.”
Adding to WPT Australia growth
The two new tour events follow up on a couple other recent events in the region. The WPTDeepStacks festival at The Star Sydney boasted an all-time high for most main event entries at 2,023.
The new WPT Asia-Pacific also recently saw records for:
- total festival entries – 6,392)
- total festival prize pool – $6.6 million
- main event prize pool – $2.7 million
Along with the Australian events, the tour also announced this week that the WPT Venetian is heading back to Las Vegas beginning on July 12.
The tour also announced an additional stop heading to the Seminole Hard Rock Tampa in Florida.