The Star Gold Coast is making final preparations for the biggest and most prestigious poker festival it has ever hosted. From September 14-27, the World Poker Tour is in town for the 2023 WPT Australia festival.
While this is not The Star Gold Coast's first WPT rodeo, it certainly is the biggest thanks to a Main Tour Main Event commanding an AUD$8,000 ($5,185) buy-in. A WPT tournament of that magnitude is sure to call out to some of Australia's elite-level players, plus countless more from further afield.
Such luminaries are Sean Ragozzini, Yita Choong, Alex Lynskey, Jarrod Thatcher, Joshua McCully, and the high-stakes guru Michael Addamo all hail from "Down Under" and would love to become a WPT champion on home soil.
Other exciting events include the AUD$880 Shane Warne One Day Perpetual Trophy charity tournament, an AUD$1,500 Opening Event, an AUD$5,000 No-Limit Hold'em Action Clock tournament, an AUD$2,650 Mystery Bounty affair, an AUD$20,000 Super High Roller, and an AUD$10,000 WPT World Championship Warm-Up event.
WPT Australia Schedule
Date
Time
Event
Buy-in (AUD)
Thu 14 Sep
10:30 a.m.
Main Event Step 1 Satellite
$255
2:30 p.m.
Opening Event Day 1A
$1,500
6:30 p.m.
Main Event Milestone Direct Qualifier
$1,075
7:30 p.m.
Opening Event Satellite
$340
Fri 15 Sep
10:30 a.m.
Main Event Step 1 Satellite
$255
11:30 a.m.
NLH Turbo Freezeout
$565
2:30 p.m.
Opening Event Day 1B
$1,500
6:30 p.m.
Main Event Milestone Direct Qualifier
$1,075
7:30 p.m.
Mystery Bounty Satellite
$315
Sat 16 Sep
10:30 a.m.
Main Event Step 1 Satellite
$255
11:30 a.m.
Opening Event Day 2
12:30 p.m.
8 Max Action Clock Day 1
$5,000
2:30 p.m.
Mystery Bounty Day 1A
$1,650
7:30 p.m.
Mystery Bounty Satellite
$315
8:30 p.m.
Main Event Milestone Direct Qualifier
$1,075
Sun 17 Sep
10:30 a.m.
Main Event Step 1 Satellite
$255
11:30 a.m.
Opening Event Final Day
12:15 p.m.
8 Max Action Clock Day 2
12:30 p.m.
Mystery Bounty Day 1B
$1,650
8:30 p.m.
Main Event Milestone Direct Qualifer
$1,075
Mon 18 Sep
10:30 a.m.
Main Event Step 1 Satellite
$255
11:30 a.m.
Mystery Bounty Day 2
2:30 p.m.
Outback Survivor Bounty Day 1
$1,150
7:30 p.m.
Ladies Australian Championship Satellite
$130
8:30 p.m.
Main Event Milestone Direct Qualifier
$1,075
Tue 19 Sep
10:30 a.m.
Main Event Step 1 Satellite
$255
11:30 a.m.
Outback Survivor Bounty Day 2
1:30 p.m.
Ladies Australia Championship Event Day 1
$660
2:30 p.m.
PLO Action Clock Day 1
$675
8:30 p.m.
Main Event Milestone Direct Qualifier
$1,075
Wed 20 Sep
10:30 a.m.
Main Event Step 1 Satellite
$255
11:15 a.m.
Ladies Australian Championship Day 2
11:30 a.m.
PLO Action Clock Day 2
2:30 p.m.
Bonza Bounty Day 1
$880
7:30 p.m.
Main Event Milestone Direct Qualifier
$1,075
8:30 p.m.
Super High Roller Satellite
$2,575
Thu 21 Sep
10:30 a.m.
Main Event Step 1 Satellite
$255
11:30 a.m.
Bonza Bounty Day 2
12:23 p.m.
Shane Warne One Day Perpetual Trophy Charity Event
$880
11:15 p.m.
Super High Roller Day 1
$20,000
7:30 p.m.
Main Event Milestone Direct Qualifier
$1,075
Thu 22 Sep
10:30 a.m.
Main Event Step 1 Satellite
$255
11:30 a.m.
Main Event Day 1A
$8,000
12:30 p.m.
Super High Roller Day 2
5:30 p.m.
Main Event Milestone Direct Qualifier
$1,075
7:30 p.m.
Main Event Milestone Direct Qualifier
$1,075
Fri 23 Sep
11:30 a.m.
Main Event Day 1B
$8,000
8:30 p.m.
Mini Main Event Milestone Satellite
$450
Sat 24 Sep
11:30 a.m.
Main Event Day 2
2:30 p.m.
Mini Main Event Day 1
$2,000
8:30 p.m.
$10K World Championship Warm Up Satellite
$1,075
Sun 25 Sep
11:30 a.m.
Main Event Day 3
2:30 p.m.
Mini Main Event Day 2
3:30 p.m.
$10K World Championship Warm Up Day 1
$10,000
9:30 p.m.
WP World Championship Road to Vegas Satellite
$260
Mon 26 Sep
11:30 a.m.
Main Event Day 4
12:30 p.m.
$10K World Championship Warm Up Day 2
2:30 p.m.
WPT World Championship Road to Vegas Day 1
$1,100
3:30 p.m.
$5K High Roller PLO Day 1
$5,000
Tue 27 Sep
11:30 p.m.
Main Event Final Day
11:45 a.m.
WPT World Championship Road to Vegas Day 2
12:30 p.m.
$5K High Roller PLO Day 2
1:30 p.m.
$675 Finale One Day Event Freezeout
$675
The Star Gold Coast hosted the WPT Australia festival in late 2019, and it proved a popular stop on the World Poker Tour. The 2019 WPT Australia Main Event commanded an AUD$2,500 buy-in, which 658 players paid and created an AUD$1,480,500 ($996,212) prize pool.
Hari Varma was crowned the Main Event champion, and he received AUD$274,247 ($184,537) for his efforts.
The WPTDeepStacks tour called the Star Gold Coast home in May 2021, and the AUD$1,500 Main Event drew in a massive 1,113-strong crowd. British grinder William Davies came out on top and turned his initial investment into AUD$252,731 ($195,718).
Star Gold Coast completed a World Poker Tour hat trick in June 2022 when it played host to the WPT Prime Gold Coast series. Yang Lei topped an 896-entry field to capture the AUD$201,755 ($141,413) top prize of the AUD$1,500 Main Event.
The main WPT returned to the Star Gold Coast in September 2022, and upped the buy-in of the Main Event to AUD$5,400. Some 710 players turned out in force despite the buy-in being twice the size of the previous edition. All that extra prize money resulted in an AUD$647,470 ($429,077) top prize, which David Tang collected.
More recently, the AUD$2,000 WPT Prime Gold Coast Main Event, in March 2023, saw Sheng Ye bank AUD$374,953 ($253,264) after battling through a crowd of 1,223 opponents.
With live poker obviously popular in Australia, the fact the recent World Series of Poker in Las Vegas broke several attendance records, and Star Gold Coast is running dozens of satellites into the 2023 WPT Australian Main Event, everything points to this AUD$8,000 tournament being nothing short of huge. Stay tuned to PokerNews to discover if that is the case.
Matthew Pitt hails from Leeds, West Yorkshire, in the United Kingdom, and has worked in the poker industry since 2008, and worked for PokerNews since 2010. In September 2010, he became the editor of PokerNews. Matthew stepped away from live reporting duties in 2015, and now concentrates on his role of Senior Editor for the PokerNews.
