By JARROD LEE – for PokerMedia Australia
In the lead-up to Queensland’s three-week poker extravaganza, New South Wales and South Australia have also been busy with major events and with mixed results.
In Sydney’s north-west, the Australian Poker League held its inaugural Sydney tour stop at the Castle Hill RSL, taking on the Headline Week of the Poker Palace Autumn Championships at Club Marconi. Despite both series exceeding their series estimates, the Autumn Championships obliterated its $800,000 estimate to end with a total of $1,266,205 in series prize pools.
Having compared the schedules side-by-side, PokerMedia Australia understands that the majority of full-time and professional players within the region elected to stay on at Club Marconi and further incentivised by a $20,000 Rolex watch on offer for the Player of the Series, which was won by Hasan Onay.
In other major results out of the Poker Palace, Sydney real estate magnate Dean Boskovic edged out Australian Poker Hall of Famer Gary Benson in the Super High Roller event to earn himself $75,000, while Jarrod Thatcher conquered the Main Event for a top prize of $70,000.
POKER PALACE AUTUMN CHAMPIONSHIPS MAIN EVENT ($1150 buy-in, 334 entries, 34 players paid)
| Place | Name | Amount (AUD) |
| 1st | Jarrod Thatcher | $70,000* |
| 2nd | Peter Au | $60,000* |
| 3rd | Yang Lei | $51,000 |
| 4th | Kiavash Arbabi | $22,500 |
| 5th | David Luong | $17,500 |
| 6th | Matthew McDonnell | $14,250 |
| 7th | Alan Wilson | $11,000 |
| 8th | Geetinder Singh | $8400 |
| 9th | Chris Tran | $6400 |
Despite the impact on numbers, the APLPT Sydney series managed to exceed its target of $550,000, bolstered by the $100,000 Main Event guarantee already being reached during their series of off-site Day 1 flights. James Gill defeated a field of 1564 entries to win more than $32,000 in prize money.
Just three years into his poker career, Ming Zhu laid claim to both the $2500 buy-in Centurion title and $1100 6-Max for almost $30,000 in total prize money, while Uno Uka was unstoppable in the the Jackstar Super High Roller, taking home the trophy and $27,620 in cash.
APLPT SYDNEY MAIN EVENT ($150 buy-in, 1564 entries, 144 players paid)*
| Place | Name | Amount (AUD) |
| 1st | James Gill | $32,855* |
| 2nd | Abdul Rasheed | $28,000* |
| 3rd | Aikko Miranda | $20,000* |
| 4th | Francesco Scelsi | $10,900 |
| 5th | Eric Xu | $7400 |
| 6th | Leo Wang | $5550 |
| 7th | Braydon Kirkley | $4700 |
| 8th | David O’Brien | $3950 |
| 9th | Gordon Xu | $3350 |
Meanwhile down in South Australia, the fledgling Southern Poker Tour held their “Face Off in the Fleurieu” series at the McCracken Country Club in Victor Harbor.
Praised by participants for their customer-focused approach and support of local business, players flocked in from all over South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania which resulted in SPT’s $100,000 series estimate being exceed again in only their third major series to date.
The SPT Victor Harbor Main Event saw Victorian poker veteran Peter Aristidou take a $12,000 payday, while Col Birt took out the first-ever $1200 buy-in Super High Roller for a $16,000 payday.
Lachlan Burridge-Huw from Launceston then took down the High Roller Event, earning himself a $7,700 first prize, but just fell short against Chris Skinner in the Player of the Series race, who not only took home a SPT Series package worth $2000, but also extended his lead on the SPT Player of the Year leader board.
SPT VICTOR HARBOUR MAIN EVENT ($200 buy-in, 257 entries, 25 players paid)
| Place | Name | Amount (AUD) |
| 1st | Peter Aristidou | $12,000 |
| 2nd | Scott Lindler | $7000 |
| 3rd | Peter MacDonald | $4000 |
| 4th | Matt Hourigan | $3000 |
| 5th | Joseph Zupancic | $2500 |
| 6th | Nick Borillo | $2000 |
| 7th | Luke Ryan | $1500 |
| 8th | Jon Stark | $1000 |
| 9th | Stephen Heslop | $850 |
Action continues in South Australia with the conclusion of the Stacked Social Poker Championships this coming Monday, leading into the WPTDeepStacks Main Event at The Star Gold Coast from May 27 to 31, with exclusive live reporting from the team here at PMA.
That will then be followed by the WPT League Gold Coast QPC, which returns to Aquis Park from June 2-6 before the second APLPT Queensland series at Southport Sharks from June 9-13.
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