Yang Lei has finally scored first his major Australian poker title, defeating Najeem Ajez heads-up in the WPT Prime Gold Coast Main Event.
The Sydney grinder, who now has accumulated almost USD $500,000 in tournament earnings, defeated a record field of 896 entries for his biggest tournament result to date, pocketing AUD $216,763 in cash and prizes.
It comes off the back of his consistent form in Tier One events at The Star, including final table appearances in both the Star Gold Coast Champs Main Event and the WPTDeepStacks Sydney Opening Event.
Lei could not wipe the smile off his face as he spoke with PokerMedia Australia in the wake of his breakthrough victory.
“I’m so excited, it’s just a dream come true!” Yang said. “To finally get there in the end, it’s so, so impressive … it’s awesome!”
Lei’s approach to today’s final table was to focus on the decision-making process and take all the lessons learned from his poker studies and live game experience.
“About a year ago, I started to learn about GTO (Game Theory Optimal) and take a more mathematical approach to poker,” he explained. “From there, I watched a lot of streaming on YouTube and watching the top pros play and studied from them.”
Lei now plans to return to Sydney and focus on preparing for the WPT World Championship at the Wynn Las Vegas for a chance to share in the USD $15 million prize pool, the largest-ever guaranteed prize pool in the history of poker.
WPT PRIME GOLD COAST MAIN EVENT ($1,500 buy-in, 896 entries, 112 players paid)*
| Place | Name | Country | Amount |
| 1st | Yang Lei | Australia | $216,763* |
| 2nd | Najeem Ajez | Australia | $134,508 |
| 3rd | Tony (Jun) Lu | Australia | $99,299 |
| 4th | Mark Staples | Australia | $74,002 |
| 5th | Justin Bernstein | Australia | $55,798 |
| 6th | Mark Zhu | Australia | $42,541 |
| 7th | Win Meng Tan | Australia | $32,800 |
| 8th | Jerry Wang | Australia | $25,578 |
| 9th | Fendy Fendy | Australia | $20,176 |
The World Poker Tour will return to The Star Gold Coast in September for its AUD $5,400 Main Tour Event as part of the WPT Australia series (dates TBC and subject to regulatory approval). For more information all upcoming WPT festivals, log onto worldpokertour.com.
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PokerMedia Australia: Official Media Partners of the WPT Prime Gold Coast series
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