Broadbeach, QLD, Australia (September 27, 2022) – David Tang, from Melbourne, Australia, outlasted 709 other players and defeated Po Ho heads-up on Tuesday to win the first-ever World Poker Tour® main tour stop on Australian soil. Tang earned $647,470 AUD ($425,712 USD), will have his name engraved on the WPT® Champions Cup and a seat into the WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas in December.
“I’m still a bit stung, but it’s awesome. I wasn’t expecting to get this far,” said Tang, after his victory. “To be honest I was actually trying to cancel my flight here because I wanted to watch the (Australian Football League) Grand Final in Melbourne, but they wouldn’t give us a refund on our flights so it just all worked out.”
The Star Gold Coast served as a perfect host for the inaugural WPT Australia event. A total of 710 players entered the $5,400 AUD buy-in event to create a $3,550,000 AUD prize pool that awarded the top-89 finishers with a payout. The entire festival included 13 events and ran Sept. 15 through Sept. 27.
“We are very happy with our first-ever WPT Australia festival. The Star Gold Coast proved to be a wonderful venue,” said WPT CEO Adam Pliska. “Thank you to all the players that participated and congratulations to David for earning his spot in the WPT Champions Club.”
As the runner up, Po Ho claimed a payout of $421,635 AUD. He was preceded by his fellow final-table finishers Naj Ajez (3rd place), Daisuke Ogita (4th place), Josh Hutchins (5th place) and De Kun Li (6th place). The final table was live streamed on the WPT YouTube channel.
Other notable players to cash in the WPT Australia main event were Robert Campbell (70th place), Sean Ragozzini (44th place), Martin Finger (28th place), and husband-wife duo Kristy Arnett Moreno (74th place) and Andrew Moreno (43rd place).
As part of the WPT festival WPT ambassadors Brad Owen and Andrew Neeme hosted a meet-up game on Sept. 21. This was Owen and Neeme’s first-ever MUG in Australia. The $2/$5 MUG exceeded expectations with the Star doubling the number of tables originally planned for the event. Amid the booming event, WPT organized two flips for registered players, which gave away two WPT Australia main event seats.
Next stop for the WPT Main Tour is WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic at Bellagio Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. The Five Diamond festival begins Oct. 7 and concludes Oct. 23. The $10,400 USD main event makes way on Oct. 19, is a five-day tournament and has a $5,000,000 USD guaranteed prize pool.
All photography from WPT Australia can be accessed via our Flickr Page.
For more information regarding this and all World Poker Tour events, visit WPT.com.
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