Star Gold Coasts Prepares for the 2022 WPT Australia Festival
The Star Gold Coast is best known for its bustling casino games, but poker takes centre stage from September 15-27. Those are the dates that every poker-playing Australian and grinders from much further afield take part in the 2022 WPT Australia festival.
September 15 marks the first time the WPT Main Tour has dropped anchor in Australia. People will forget about roulette games as the 2022 WPT Australia brings 13 action-packed events to the Star Gold Coast. The online poker scene in this great country is not what it once was, but Aussies love playing poker, and will turn out in droves for the 2022 WPT Australia festivities.
The Star Gold Coast hosted a WPT series in October 2019. Hari Varma outlasted 657 opponents in the $2,500 Main Event and walked away with a cool $274,247. COVID-19 restrictions put paid to the 2020 and 2021 editions, but 2022 WPT Australia returns with a bang.
2022 WPT Australia Schedule
| Dates | Event | Buy-in (AUD) |
|---|---|---|
| 15-17 Sept | #1 Opening Event Mystery Bounty | $1,350 |
| 17-18 Sept | #2 8-Max No-Limit Hold’em | $2,500 |
| 18-19 Sept | #3 Action Clock No-Limit Hold’em | $550 |
| 19-20 Sept | #4 Pot-Limit Omaha | $550 |
| 20-21 Sept | #5 Big Bounty No-Limit Hold’em | $660 |
| 21 Sept | #6 No-Limit Hold’em Turbo | $440 |
| 21-22 Sept | #7 Pot-Limit Omaha | $1,100 |
| 22 Sept | #8 Shane Warne One Dayer | $550 |
| 22-23 Sept | #9 20th Anniversary Super High Roller | $20,000 |
| 23-27 Sept | #10 WPT Australia Main Event | $5,400 |
| 25-26 Sept | #11 Mini Main Event | $1,200 |
| 26-27 Sept | #12 High Roller | $10,000 |
| 13 Sept | #13 Finale No-Limit Hold’em | $550 |
Live poker is in great health, with many events seeing record turnouts. This bodes well for 2022 WPT Australia as it gives players the chance to win some mega moolah. September 15 sees the $1,350 buy-in Opening Event shuffle up and deal. The Opening Event is a Mystery Bounty affair, a relatively new format proving popular with players. Players have the chance to draw a mystery cash prize for each opponent they eliminate on Day 2. WPT is confirming the bounty prizes.
The 2022 WPT Australia Main Event is the tournament every Aussie has their eye on. It costs $5,400 to enter, a princely sum and should award a monster-sized prize.
The $10,000 High Roller and $20,000 Super High Roller are other events worthy of a global audience.
Player of the Festival and the Popular WPT Meet Up Game
Every player that reaches the money in a 2022 WPT Australia festival earns points for the Player of the Festival award. Winning this free-to-entry competition awards the player a US$5,000 WPT Passport, which they use to enter future WPT tournaments.
Furthermore, the WPT Meet Up Game take place from 18:00-22:00 on September 21. WPT Ambassadors Andrew Neeme and Brad Owen invite you to play $2/$5 cash games, with complementary food and drinks throughout.
Past WPT Events Held in Australia
Two WPT Australia events took place on our shores during the past couple of years. British poker pro Will Davies triumphed in the WPTDeepStacks Gold Coast event. The tournament drew in 658 entrants, who created a $1,480,500 prize pool. Aussie poker stars Joe Hachem, the late Shane Warne, Gary Benson, and Mel Judah were among the entrants. However, the day belonged to Davies, and he banked a cool $252,729.
Another WPTDeepStacks event took place at the Star Sydney in April 2022. It was a roaring success. Some 2,023 players bought in for $1,500, making the event the biggest-ever WPTDeepStacks event on record. It awarded $2,609,590 to those reaching the money places.
Heads-up pitted two Aussies against one another. Mark Fester and Nicholas Wright locked horns for the right to call themselves a WPT champion. Fester won that day, and collected $412,981, leaving Wright to bank $275,328.
