It seems that a year without poker has more than whet the appetite for Queenslanders with the WPT League’s Quarterly Poker Championship (QPC) smashing records last week.
Across five days of tournament action at the Gold Coast Turf Club Event Centre, the 22 events on offer attracted a massive 7,455 entries, generating combined prize pools totaling more than $1.2 million.
But the best was saved for last, with the QPC Main Event breaking the record for the largest field in a poker event in Australia. There were 2,405 entries for the Main Event, and although 249 of those players did not turn up, despite having previously won an entry ticket, the money for all 249 no-shows was still included in the final prize pool.
That final figure of 2,405 saw the WPT League QPC eclipse the Opening Event of the 2019 Aussie Millions, which had until last week held the Australian record at 1,752 players – still a Southern Hemisphere record for a $1k event. Even without including the 249 no-shows, last week’s field comfortably eased into top spot with 2,156 participants.
Brisbane local Phil Stamler now holds a unique place in history as the winner of Australia’s largest ever event, outlasting the massive QPC field to pocket the $50,000 first prize.
“It’s overwhelming to see players turn out in such huge numbers to support us,” said Mitch Caton, Head of Event Management for WPT League.
“We previously held the third or fourth highest event in Australia so it’s nice to claim that top spot, which will be hard to beat.
“We’ve been getting bigger and bigger every year and after the challenges we faced in 2020, this shows that poker players are keener than ever to get out there and play.”
The next WPT League QPC event is set to take place in May with dates to be confirmed in the coming weeks.
WPT LEAGUE QPC MAIN EVENT:
| Position | Name | Prize |
| 1st | Phil Stamler | $50,000 |
| 2nd | Jeison Berdugo | $31,650 |
| 3rd | Jason Ingleton | $23,890 |
| 4th | Arnel Mackenzie | $18,495 |
| 5th | Corey Van Jaarsfeldt | $14,320 |
| 6th | Rohan Gray | $10,950 |
| 7th | Pat Furlong | $8,605 |
| 8th | Prashant Sharma | $6,830 |
| 9th | Steven Deen | $5,400 |
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