Melbourne’s Hari Varma has been crowned champion of the inaugural World Poker Tour Australia after topping a main event field of 658 players at The Star Gold Coast.
Celebrating the WPT’s first ever visit to Australian shores in style, Varma basked in the warmth of Australia’s Sunshine State, carrying the chip lead into the final table and maintaining a stranglehold on the title throughout before sealing victory after a short heads-up battle with George Psarros.
He takes home a cool $274,247 for his efforts.
It proved to be a week of records at WPT Australia, with the first international poker event to be held at The Star Gold Coast following its recent $850 million makeover attracting more than 3,000 entrants across 10 events.
WPT Australia also introduced the Australian poker community to its newest world-class venue, with The Star Gold Coast poker room set to offer 12 permanent poker tables and the option to add another nine tournament tables when required.
“We were incredibly proud to host Australia’s first WPT event here at The Star and it was fantastic to see so many players take part across the 11 days,” said The Star Gold Coast’s Chief Operating Officer Jess Mellor.
“The numbers have exceeded our expectations, our state-of-the-art poker facility has been buzzing and to see our new poker space at full capacity for the first WPT Australia event was something special. It was the perfect way to showcase Queensland’s new home of poker.”
WPT Australia Main Event final table placings:
| Pos | Name | Prize (AU$) |
| 1st | Hari Varma | $274,247 |
| 2nd | George Psarros | $192,273 |
| 3rd | Julius Colman | $123,933 |
| 4th | Louis Yin | $90,207 |
| 5th | Travis Endersby | $69,139 |
| 6th | Luke Stewart | $55,326 |
| 7th | Chris Barker | $45,851 |
| 8th | Josh Emerton | $36,509 |
| 9th | Joshua Bell | $27,419 |
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